1962 Lotus Super Seven on 2040-cars

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Elon Musk buys James Bond's Lotus submarine, wants to install Tesla powerplant

Remember when we reported the long-lost-but-found-again Lotus Esprit submarine used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me had sold at auction in London for $966,560 (well, $863,000 plus a 12-percent buyer's premium)? At the time, the buyer's identity remained a mystery, but Jalopnik has reported and confirmed that the man with money to burn is none other than billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX. What's even more shocking (maybe not for Musk) is that he wants to install a Tesla electric powertrain in it and make it transform into a road-going car.
The story of the submersible Lotus' journey from movie star to prized possession of the eccentric Musk is remarkable. After filming ended in the '70s, the car was shipped to Long Island, NY and placed in a storage container that was paid in advance by the studio for 10 years. After the money ran out, the contents of the container were sold off Storage Wars-style in 1989 and won by an area couple. It was shown in public on occasion throughout the years, but its value remained a mystery until the gavel fell in London last month. While far from the most valuable Bond car to be auctioned off (that honor goes to the Aston Martin DB5 used in Goldfinger and Thunderball, which sold for $4.6 million at auction in 2010), the Lotus submarine is definitely the most unique.
Also worth noting is that the Lotus sub is more than just a prop. Without the aid of CGI, the film's producers needed an actual submarine that looked like a Lotus Esprit, and so they hired a company called Perry Oceanographic in Florida to build it and hired former US Navy Seal Don Griffin to pilot the sub during the film.

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.

Born-again Lotus Esprit will be a hybrid in more ways than one

Volvo parent company Geely is helping Lotus end its drought of new products. The storied British company is allegedly developing a mid-engined hybrid coupe it will position as a spiritual successor to the Esprit. The yet-unnamed model will slot above the existing Evora as a more usable and more refined alternative, according to sources who spoke to Autocar. It will ride on a modified Evora platform, but the two cars won't look anything alike; the upcoming hybrid will liberally borrow styling cues from the electric Evija hypercar.  The planned gasoline-electric powertrain will make the coupe a hybrid in more ways than one. The space directly behind the two-seater cabin will be occupied by a V6 sourced from the Toyota parts bin, and the electrified portion of the system will consist mainly of components provided by Volvo. An output over the 500-horsepower mark is likely, but more specific technical specifications remain guarded. What's nearly certain is that the Lotus engineering team will go to significant lengths to offset the weight added by the lithium-ion battery pack. Insiders described the coupe as a stop-gap between the current-generation Lotus models, including the Elise still sold in many global markets, and an array of upcoming sports cars that will ride on a new platform. Another one of the company's future models is an SUV — its first — built on Volvo bones and aimed at the Porsche Macan.  Lotus will introduce its mid-engined coupe during the first half of 2021, still according to Autocar, and sales will begin shortly after. It's too early to tell whether the model will be sold in the United States, but the company has previously indicated it wants to broaden its foothold in our market in order to grow, so we'd bet on seeing it here. This isn't the first time Lotus has tried to reboot the Esprit. In 2010, under the leadership of Dany Bahar, the company took the Paris auto show by storm when it unveiled five close-to-production concept cars including one that previewed a modern-day Esprit. The project was far too ambitious and none of the models shown in the French capital made it to production. In 2012, Lotus vehemently refuted rumors claiming it had canceled the Esprit, which was penciled-in for a 2013 launch, but hindsight is 20/20. Time will tell if two's the charm.