A 1976 Lotus Esprit that was used as a James Bond movie prop, abandoned in a storage space and now belongs to Elon Musk helped inspire the futuristic, angular design for Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck.
A New York couple discovered the Lotus in an unclaimed storage space they bought for about $100 in 1989, CNBC reported.
Upon learning that the car was from the 1977 Roger Moore film The Spy Who Loved Me, the couple restored and displayed it over two decades before auctioning it through RM Sotheby's in 2013.
The wedge-shaped coupe, which was used in underwater scenes and outfitted with fins in place of its wheels, sold for a reported $997,000 to Musk.
"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater," the Tesla CEO told Jalopnik at the time.
"I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
Whether Musk actually modified the car is unknown.
Hours before unveiling the pickup, which the company says it will start building in 2021, Musk posted on Twitter: "Cybertruck design influenced partly by The Spy Who Loved Me." He included a clip of the pier scene.
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