James Bond’s Lotus Sub Boosts $33 Million Sale, Jag Flops – Here is more on the classic car auctions that took place in the UK this past weekend. Like the art market, when the sellers and auction rooms get greedy, the buyers balk; however, there were a few interesting results: the Lotus Esprit Series 1 which was used in the 1977 James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” brought £616K ($967K – below the low estimate of £650K) and a Maserati 250S, being sold by Irvine Laidlaw) made £2.1M ($3.29M – below the low estimate of £2.5M). Laidlaw was selling 7 of his racing cars, which as a group were estimated to sell for £11.5M and a few did not sell … the total generated for his lots was just £3.8M.
When the sales were over, of the 134 lots offered, 90 sold (67%) and the total take was £20.9M ($32.8M) … the low end of the estimate was £32M — they fell a little short.
James Bond’s
Lotus Esprit Series 1