Elon Musk Seeks to Improve on James Bond Submarine

Movie prop bought for near $1 million, will be made real by Elon Musk.

The only way to improve upon 007 technology is to make it electric.

And the only way to do that is to leave it up to brilliant billionaire Elon Musk.

The CEO of electric car company Tesla Motors has purchased a "submarine car" from a 1970s James Bond movie, with the idea of making the movie prop real, according to USA Today.

With Tesla electric motor, of course.

The car appears in The Spy Who Loved Me -- and it was Roger Moore's turn in that film that awed Musk "as a little kid in South Africa," he wrote to the newspaper.

"I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform," he said. "What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."

This is the same guy who wants to go to space and wants to build the Hyperloop -- all after making money on electric cars.

Musk plunked down $989,000 for the mock-up of a Lotus Esprit, that at the moment has fins where the wheels should be.

In the film, the car was driven by stunt men in scuba gear, USA Today noted. It's unclear exactly how Musk plans to make the submarine-car navigable -- but he's trying.

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