World

007's submarine car sold

16:12 pm on 10 September 2013

The "submarine car" used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me has sold for £550,000 pounds at auction, less than had been expected.

The white Lotus Esprit, which transformed into a submarine during a sequence in the 1977 movie starring Roger Moore as 007, had been expected to sell for between £650,000 and £950,000, according to RM Auctions in London, the ABC reports.

Bidding started at £100,000 in an auction which ran live on the internet.

Known as "Wet Nellie" on the set of the film, the fully operational submarine car was among the contents of a storage unit in Long Island, New York, which was bought by a couple in a blind public auction in 1989.

Although six Esprit body shells were used in filming, only one was converted into a submarine car, RM Auctions said.

The auction house previously sold the Aston Martin DB5 used by Sean Connery as James Bond in the Goldfinger and Thunderball movies for £2.9 million in 2010.