{"id":185429,"date":"2026-08-11T16:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/185429\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:27:10","slug":"every-iconic-car-owned-by-elon-musk-from-ford-model-t-to-mclaren-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/185429\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Iconic Car Owned by Elon Musk: From Ford Model T to McLaren F1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"ElonElon Musk\u2019s collection has included a Model T, Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 911, McLaren F1 and the Lotus submarine that inspired Cybertruck. FREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As Tesla<\/a>\u2019s CEO, Elon Musk<\/a> is practically synonymous with electric vehicles, although his personal history began with gas-powered cars. In 1994, at age 23, Musk paid $1,400 for a used BMW<\/a> 320i, which he repaired himself and drove for two years<\/a>. Over the decades that followed, he also owned a 1967 Jaguar<\/a> E-Type, a Porsche<\/a> 911 Turbo and a McLaren F1 that cost close to $1 million<\/a>. Then there was \u201cWet Nellie.\u201d In 2013, Musk paid nearly $1 million for the Lotus<\/a> Esprit submarine prop seen in the 1977 James Bond<\/a> film The Spy Who Loved Me. The car later inspired Tesla\u2019s Cybertruck. <\/a><\/p>\n

While Musk has never published a complete inventory, interviews and social media posts provide a partial record of the classic and collectible vehicles the Tesla CEO has bought, kept and sold over the years.<\/p>\n

Ford Model T (likely 1920s)
\n\"VintageA 1920s Ford Model T. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of the two gas cars<\/a> Musk most recently said he owned, the Ford<\/a> Model T is perhaps the most unexpected. Musk first disclosed the vehicle in October 2017<\/a>, writing on Twitter (now X) that he received it from a friend. Several automotive roundups describe it as a 1920 model,<\/a> but none provides documentation. As of 2024, the antique Ford was still in his collection<\/a>.
Between 1908 and 1927, Ford built more than 15 million Model Ts. By the early 1920s, more than half of the registered automobiles worldwide were Fords. The automaker\u2019s moving assembly line helped lower the Model T\u2019s price from $850 to $260 \u2014 or roughly $5,000 today \u2014 putting car ownership within reach of the broader public.
A century later, Tesla adopted a similar strategy. In his 2006 \u201cmaster plan<\/a>,\u201d Musk said the company would begin with an expensive sports car and use the proceeds to develop more affordable models. The plan eventually took Tesla from its first production vehicle, the Roadster, to mass-market models like the Model 3 and Y.
In 2025, Musk credited Ford for establishing the foundation for large-scale manufacturing. Responding to an X post in which Ford CEO Jim Farley compared the automaker\u2019s new EV production with its Model T-era assembly line, Musk wrote, \u201cFord basically invented mass manufacturing<\/a> of large, complex products. Everyone else copied. Most people don\u2019t know this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Roadster (1967)
\n\"\"A 1963 Jaguar E-type Lightweight. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961, the British sports car paired a sleek, aerodynamic body with a top speed of 150 mph, yet cost only a fraction of its rivals.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s love for the vehicle began at age 17, when he obtained a book about classic convertibles. \u201cI looked through all, and the one I liked the best was the E-type Jaguar,<\/a>\u201d he recalled in a 2012 Forbes interview. \u201cI said, \u2018Well, if I can ever afford it, that is the car that I want to get.\u2019\u201d
That opportunity came during the early days of Zip2<\/a>, Musk\u2019s first major startup. He spent a small bonus from an investor on the Jaguar. But the excitement was short-lived. \u201cIt was like a bad girlfriend \u2014 it kept breaking down on me, causing me all sorts of trouble,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, it broke down on the way back from the dealer,\u201d Musk told Forbes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, he held onto it. In a 2017 post on Twitter, Musk called the vehicle \u201cmy first love<\/a>.\u201d By 2024, it remained one of the only two gasoline cars he owned, alongside the Model T.<\/p>\n

Lotus Esprit S1 \u201cWet Nellie\u201d (1977)
\n\"TheThe white 1976 Lotus Esprit car from the 1977 film \u201cThe Spy Who Loved Me.\u201d Oli Scarff\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Unlike the other vehicles in Musk\u2019s collection, this one cannot be driven on the road. In 2013, Musk bought the modified Lotus Esprit at an auction through an anonymous bid for \u00a3616,000, or about $920,000 at the time.
Decades earlier, the vehicle had been converted into a working submarine for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, in which Roger Moore<\/a>\u2019s 007 drives the car off a pier before it appears to transform underwater<\/a>.
At the time, the transformation captivated audiences, including a young Musk. \u201cIt 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,\u201d Musk wrote in a 2013 statement reported by The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cI was disappointed to learn that it can\u2019t actually transform.\u201d
Built as a \u201cwet\u201d submarine\u2014meaning its cabin filled with water\u2014the Lotus was piloted during filming in the Bahamas by a retired U.S. Navy SEAL in full scuba gear. Battery-powered electric propellers moved it through the water,<\/a> while Alka-Seltzer tablets created its trail of bubbles, according to RM Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n

After the film, \u201cWet Nellie\u201d wound up in a storage unit in Holbrook, N.Y. When the lease expired, a Long Island couple bought its contents in a 1989 blind auction for a reported $100 and discovered the damaged but largely intact submarine beneath blankets. It was later authenticated and restored before Musk acquired it at auction in 2013.<\/p>\n

Musk later wrote on X that he planned to add a Tesla powertrain and make the vehicle transform \u201cfor real.<\/a>\u201d Years later, when Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he said its design was partly influenced by The Spy Who Loved Me.<\/p>\n

BMW 320i (1978)<\/p>\n

Before the Bond submarine and even Tesla, Musk\u2019s automotive history began more modestly with a used 1978 BMW.<\/a> Musk bought the car in 1994 for $1,400, when he was 23.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 320i belonged to the E21 generation, the first version of BMW\u2019s 3 Series. Introduced in Europe in 1975 and brought to North America for the 1977 model year, the compact sedan had rear-wheel drive and BMW\u2019s familiar kidney-shaped grille.
Musk said he kept his BMW for about two years, including during the early days of Zip2. Its time with him ended\u2014or at least took a turn\u2014after Musk lent the car to a company intern, who called him to report that one of the wheels \u201cfell off the car,\u201d he told Forbes.<\/p>\n

Musk has not said publicly if the BMW was repaired, sold or scrapped, but his later posts on Twitter\/X suggest that the 320i has long since left his collection.<\/p>\n

McLaren F1, Chassis 067 (1997)\u00a0
\n\"TheA silver McLaren F1. Martyn Lucy\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

If the Jaguar E-Type was Musk\u2019s first love, the McLaren<\/a> F1 was his first extravagance. After Compaq Computer<\/a> acquired Zip2 for $307 million in 1999, Musk received roughly $22 million and spent around $1 million<\/a> on the magnesium-silver 1997 F1, one of seven F1 cars imported to the U.S. through the Ameritech program. In a 2018 Twitter post, Musk recalled choosing between a\u00a0supercar and a house in Palo Alto. \u201cWas no contest,<\/a>\u201d he wrote. \u201cI bought F1 & a small condo that was much cheaper than the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Designed under Gordon Murray<\/a>, the F1 was the first production road car built around a carbon-fiber monocoque. Its 627-horsepower BMW V-12 sat behind a three-seat cabin, with the driver positioned in the center and two passengers slightly behind. McLaren produced 106 examples across all versions<\/a>, including 64 road cars. Musk said he used his regularly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2000, Musk was driving the F1 on Silicon Valley\u2019s Sand Hill Road with PayPal<\/a> co-founder Peter Thiel<\/a>.\u00a0 The duo was headed to a meeting with Sequoia Capital<\/a>\u2019s Michael Moritz<\/a> when Thiel asked, \u201cSo what can this do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch this,\u201d<\/a> Musk recalled replying in a 2012 interview with PandoDaily. \u201cI floored it and did a lane change on Sand Hill. The McLaren has no traction control or anything. It only weighs a ton, so it has massive power.\u201d
The car spun into a roughly 45-degree embankment, launching it into the air \u201clike a discus,\u201d Musk said. Neither man was injured, though the uninsured F1 sustained extensive damage. Musk and Thiel hitchhiked to their meeting; Musk later had the car restored and said he eventually sold it at a profit.
The sale was among several efforts to raise cash as Tesla and SpaceX<\/a> faced financial pressure starting in 2008. \u201cThe McLaren is a great car,<\/a>\u201d he later told Wheels Magazine in 2013. \u201cIt\u2019s a work of art, a really beautiful piece of engineering, but I didn\u2019t want people always writing that I have a high-performance gasoline sports car, so I decided to sell it.\u201d
Since then, McLaren F1 values have risen considerably. In December 2025, a different road-going F1 sold through RM Sotheby\u2019s for a record $25.3 million<\/a>. Another will come to market during this year\u2019s Monterey Car Week. This weekend, the auction house will offer a separate 1996 F1 GTR with a stated value above $35 million<\/a>.
Known as the \u201cPop Art F1,\u201d that race-derived prototype spent more than 25 years with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason<\/a>. While not directly comparable with Musk\u2019s F1, the figures show how sharply the market has moved since Musk\u2019s own 1999 purchase.<\/p>\n

Porsche 911 Turbo (model year unknown)<\/p>\n

After eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk began exploring the potential of electric sports cars. Around that time, engineer JB Straubel<\/a>, who later served as Tesla\u2019s longtime CTO and is now recognized as a co-founder,<\/a> told Musk about the tzero, a battery-powered vehicle developed by California-based AC Propulsion. Musk then arranged a test drive<\/a>, according to a 2008 Fortune account.
Musk tried to buy the tzero, but AC Propulsion declined to sell it. The company also rejected his $250,000 offer to convert his Porsche 911 Turbo to electric. Porsche eventually introduced an EV of its own, the Taycan, in 2019; the model remains in production.
The conversation nevertheless led Musk toward Tesla. Tom Gage<\/a>, then CEO of AC Propulsion, introduced him to Martin Eberhard<\/a>, who had established Tesla with engineer Marc Tarpenning<\/a> in 2003. After a two-hour meeting in February 2004, Musk agreed to invest $6.3 million and become Tesla\u2019s chairman.\u00a0
A 2012 ForbesLife profile indicated that Musk still owned a Porsche 911 at the time<\/a>. By October 2017, however, Musk said the E-Type and Ford Model T were the only gasoline cars he still owned.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Every<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s collection has included a Model T, Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 911, McLaren F1 and the Lotus submarine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[122],"tags":[45608,474,83607,21998,1336,202,4930,19007,83601,83608,42600,83603,83609,83606,83605,83610,67825,203,83602,5395,228,38954,83600,49546,207,584,1340,83599,83604,1815,67830,65213],"class_list":["post-185429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-elon-musk","tag-bmw","tag-business","tag-compaq-computer","tag-cybertruck","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-elon-musk","tag-features","tag-ford","tag-gordon-murray","tag-jaguar","tag-james-bond","tag-jb-straubel","tag-lotus","tag-marc-tarpenning","tag-martin-eberhard","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-moritz","tag-musk","tag-nick-mason","tag-paypal","tag-peter-thiel","tag-porsche","tag-roger-moore","tag-sequoia-capital","tag-spacex","tag-technology","tag-tesla","tag-the-inheritance","tag-tom-gage","tag-wealth","tag-weekly-features","tag-zip2"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117077820067305343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}