Elon Musk paid nearly $1 million for abandoned car couple found in $100 storage unit

Elon Musk decided to splurge on a car that had quite the history behind it.

Elon Musk has a fair bit of money in his bank account, to say the least.

The tech mogul has built a reputation of being eccentric and pretty outspoken for one of the world’s richest people.

So it goes without saying his spending habits might be a little bit different to you and I.

But one purchase the Tesla CEO made back in 2013 is one of the strangest. Musk reportedly spent a staggering $997,000 to buy a car that a couple had found in a storage unit.

But what was so special about this specific car? Well, let’s back up first.

(Jacob SUTTON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Back in 1989 a young couple, who to this day remain anonymous, paid $100 for an unclaimed storage unit. As the auction was a bland one, neither themselves or the seller actually knew what was inside the unit.

The couple, from Long Island, New York, were left with the biggest surprise of their lives.

Under some dusty, old blankets was the 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car used in the 1977 Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me.

The sports car transforms into a submarine and fires missiles while underwater in the film. So, you can clearly see why it'd be such a hot commodity.

The Lotus was left in the storage unit for more than a decade after the Roger Moore Bond movie was released.

When the couple first found the car, 'they really didn’t know what it was', according to Doug Redenius, the man who authenticated the car.

Speaking to NBC in 2013, Redenius said that the couple had never watched a Bond film before and 'had no idea how valuable their discovery was'.

(Chesnot/Getty Images)

The husband planned on making some improvements to the car's dented roof and also some general car improvements.

But after they loaded the car onto the truck, truckers contacted them to let them know they were in possession of a Bond car.

After displaying it at occasional exhibits over a period of two decades, the couple decided to put it up for auction in 2013.

At the RM Sotheby, the car was sold to a secret buyer and of course everyone was delighted.

This is when Elon Musk stepped in, with it later being revealed that the same man who wants to put humans on Mars by 2029 had made the car purchase.

Topics: Cars, Elon Musk, News, Tesla, James Bond, New York

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.