The Lotus Esprit S1’s sharp wedge shape made it a memorable Bond car, but the underwater star of The Spy Who Loved Me was not a road car with a submarine conversion. It was a purpose-built submersible made from an Esprit body shell. On the road, the Esprit offered performance Hagerty says could nearly match a Ferrari 308 while costing less and using about half the fuel. The “$30K bargain” is more qualified: that price has appeared in a historical sale, but current guide values for a good 1976 S1 are higher.
What was Wet Nellie?
“Wet Nellie” was the nickname for the Lotus-shaped submersible used for underwater scenes in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The road-going Esprit and the underwater vehicle were separate machines: the conventional car handled driving shots, while the submersible was built specifically for underwater filming.
RM Sotheby’s describes the 1977 “Wet Nellie” as one of six Esprit body shells used during production. The wedge silhouette came from designer Giorgetto Giugiaro’s folded-paper styling, while special-effects supervisor Derek Meddings and underwater cinematographer Lamar Boren worked on the underwater sequences, filmed in the Bahamas. RM Sotheby’s auction account details the prop’s provenance and production context.
In practical terms, Wet Nellie was a “wet submersible”: it was engineered to operate underwater, with water around and within its pressure-hull arrangement. It was not a sealed road car that could simply drive into the sea. Q-Branch’s transformation of Bond’s road car is the film fiction; the real filming solution was a dedicated underwater vehicle shaped like an Esprit.
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Did the Lotus Esprit really beat a Ferrari?
There is a defensible comparison, but not a blanket victory claim. Hagerty says the Esprit’s performance could nearly match that of an eight-cylinder Ferrari 308 or Lamborghini Urraco, while using roughly half the fuel and costing less to buy. That makes the Esprit a notable performance-and-value rival, not proof it was faster or better in every measure.
The comparison is useful as period context, not as a result from a documented head-to-head test. The available account does not establish matching model years, acceleration figures, top speeds, or handling results. So “beat a Ferrari” works as a provocative shorthand for the Esprit’s value proposition; it should not be read as a universal claim about a specific race or performance metric. Hagerty’s 1976 Esprit S1 model description and valuation is the basis for the comparison.
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Can you buy a Lotus Esprit for $30,000?
Sometimes a historical sale has landed near that figure, but $30,000 is not a reliable current price for a good, roadworthy S1. Values depend on year, condition, provenance, service history, and repair needs, and the published figures below use different methodologies and dates.
| Reference | Figure | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Hagerty, July 2026, US market | $34,100 | #3 Good value for a 1976 Lotus Esprit S1. |
| Hagerty, July 2026, US market | $51,400 | #1 Concours value for a 1976 Lotus Esprit S1. |
| CLASSIC.COM market page, displayed October 7, 2026 | $57,301 | Series 1 market benchmark; a model-wide benchmark, not a quote for a particular car. |
| Hagerty past-sale record | About $30,885 | One recorded 1977 S1 transaction; an individual historical sale, not a market-wide valuation. |
| CLASSIC.COM recorded sale | $9,000 | Lowest recorded Series 1 sale on that page: a 1978 Esprit sold July 15, 2023. It is not evidence of a typical usable-car price. |
The 1976 car in Hagerty’s guide is listed as a two-door coupe with a 1,973 cc four-cylinder engine. Hagerty characterizes Esprit maintenance and parts costs as lower than Ferrari levels, but that does not guarantee inexpensive ownership or predict the repair bill for an individual car. A low sale may reflect a project or an unusual transaction; inspect the specific car rather than treating the headline number as a dependable shopping budget. See CLASSIC.COM’s Series 1 market page and Hagerty’s record of a 1977 S1 past sale for the respective benchmark and transaction record.
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What happened to the Bond submarine car?
Wet Nellie went to auction in London in 2013. ITV News reported that the film submersible sold for £550,000 on September 9, 2013. That is the result for the movie prop, not a price comparison for an ordinary road-going Esprit. ITV’s contemporaneous sale report gives the result in pounds.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is a Lotus Esprit model the same as Wet Nellie?
No. A documented 1:18 scale Lotus Esprit submersible model appeared in a Vectis Auctions catalog in 2023. It is a collectible miniature, not the actual film prop. The catalog provides evidence that such a model exists, but not current retail availability or a current price. Vectis Auctions’ catalog records the model entry.
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