WaterCar
AdventureBuildSignature
Contact UsBuy Now

Amphibious Encyclopedia · Records, people and culture

Amphibious cars in film and television

Amphibious and submarine cars have appeared in film and television since the 1960s, both as real working machines and as special-effects props [1][5][6]. The best-known example is the Lotus Esprit submarine car, nicknamed Wet Nellie, built for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me [1][2].

  • Records, people and culture
  • 1960s to present
  • Worldwide

Wet Nellie: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

In The Spy Who Loved Me, James Bond's Lotus Esprit converts on screen from a road car into a submarine [2]. For the underwater scenes, Perry Oceanographics of Riviera Beach, Florida, turned an Esprit body shell into a working "wet" submarine, meaning the cabin filled with water and the driver breathed from scuba gear [1]. Lotus supplied two production cars and seven fiberglass body shells for the film [1]. The submarine used four propellers driven by battery-powered electric motors, ballast tanks for diving and climbing, and fins the driver moved with levers [1].

Retired US Navy SEAL Don Griffin drove the submarine, and the underwater sequences were filmed in the Bahamas, while the surface chase was shot on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda [1]. RM Sotheby's reported that the car cost over $100,000 to build [1]. The crew called it Wet Nellie, a reference to Little Nellie, the autogyro in the Bond film You Only Live Twice [2].

After a promotional tour, the submarine was placed in a storage unit in Holbrook, New York, on a prepaid lease [1]. When the lease ran out, the unit was sold unseen at a public auction in 1989 to a local couple, who found the car inside; it was later restored for display [1]. At RM Auctions' London sale in September 2013 it was bought by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk [2][3]. Reported prices differ: £550,000 according to Wikipedia, £616,000 on the auction house's own listing, and $989,000 in CNBC's report [1][2][3]. Musk said he planned to fit a Tesla electric powertrain and "try to make it transform for real" [3].

Influence on real vehicles

The film car has inspired real designs. Guinness World Records says the Swiss firm Rinspeed's sQuba, an open car shown at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, was inspired by the underwater car in The Spy Who Loved Me [4]. The sQuba could float on the surface and travel underwater at depths of up to 10 m (33 ft), with occupants using breathing apparatus [4].

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a musical based on a story by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, opened in US theaters on 18 December 1968 [5]. Its title car can fly and can also turn into a boat by deploying large flotation devices [5]. Six vehicles were produced for the film, most of them props, and a hovercraft version of the car was included in a 50th anniversary exhibition at Britain's National Motor Museum [5].

The Amphicar on screen

The Amphicar 770, the German amphibious car sold in the 1960s, made several screen appearances, including the films The Sandwich Man and Rotten to the Core and the British TV series The Avengers [6]. Madonna used one in an early music video, and the car also featured in a Pepsi "Come Alive" television commercial [6][7]. Its celebrity owners included US President Lyndon B. Johnson [6][7].

Television

Supercar, a Gerry Anderson series shown on ITV in the early 1960s that ran to 39 episodes, centered on an experimental vehicle designed by Reg Hill that could travel on land, under the sea and in the air [8]. Real amphibious builds have also become television events. BBC's Top Gear had its presenters convert road cars into boats in 2006 and then try to cross the English Channel in 2007; their leaks, sinkings and rescues became some of the program's best-remembered scenes [9].

Sources

  1. 1977 Lotus Esprit S1 'Wet Nellie' (London 2013, lot 243), RM Sotheby's. rmsothebys.com/auctions/lf13/lots/r153-1977-lotus-esprit-s1-wet-nellie
  2. Wet Nellie, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_Nellie
  3. Tesla's Elon Musk wants to make sub car a reality, CNBC (2013-10-18). www.cnbc.com/2013/10/18/teslas-elon-musk-buys-007s-lotus-sub-car.html
  4. First sports car to be fully submersible, Guinness World Records. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-sports-car-to-be-fully-submersible
  5. 50 years on, we still love you, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hagerty (2018-12-18). www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/chitty-chitty-bang-bang-turns-50
  6. Amphicar 770: When double-duty did not Trippel the fun, Hagerty (2023-04-03). www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/amphicar-770-when-double-duty-did-not-trippel-the-fun
  7. The Amphicar - the only non-military amphibious vehicle ever to go into mass production, New Atlas (2005-03-08). newatlas.com/the-amphicar-the-only-non-military-amphibious-vehicle-ever-to-go-into-mass-production/3829
  8. Supercar: The Wonder of the Age (for Six Decades!), Gerry Anderson (official site blog) (2021-01-28). gerryanderson.com/blogs/blog/supercar-the-wonder-of-the-age
  9. Exclusive: read an extract from the newest Top Gear book, 'Nought to Sixty', Top Gear (topgear.com). www.topgear.com/car-news/exclusive-read-extract-newest-top-gear-book-nought-sixty

Last reviewed November 2026. Spotted something to correct or add? Tell us and include a source.

About the Amphibious Encyclopedia

WaterCar has designed and built amphibious vehicles in Southern California for more than 25 years. We keep this encyclopedia so anyone curious about vehicles that cross between land and water has one place to start, with the sources listed for every fact.

Browse all entries → · The WaterCar machines → · How a WaterCar works →