Elon Musk’s Car Collection: A Crashed McLaren, a Bond Submarine and a Roadster in Deep Space

For a guy who has sold more electric cars than almost anyone alive, Elon Musk's personal garage has a surprisingly analog past. A beat-up BMW. A British roadster he called his "first love." A Ford Model T. And a McLaren F1 he wrecked, without insurance, while trying to show Peter Thiel what it could do.

The trouble is that half the "Elon Musk car collection" articles online are copies of each other, and some of the cars on those lists have never been tied to Musk by anything firmer than repetition. So we split it in two: the cars backed by Musk's own words, auction records or news footage, and the ones that are still just rumors.

An E21-generation BMW 3 Series, the same generation as Musk's first car. Photo: Jeroen Coebergh / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Musk's first car was an E21 BMW 320i he bought used for about $1,400 and fixed up himself, according to CNBC. The ownership ended in true shoestring-startup fashion: a wheel came off while an intern from Musk's first company, Zip2, was driving it, and the car was scrapped.

McLaren F1 chassis No. 063. Musk's car was No. 067. Photo: Chelsea Jay / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

After selling Zip2 to Compaq in 1999, Musk spent roughly $1 million of his windfall on McLaren F1 chassis No. 067, and a CNN crew was there to film the delivery. In 2000, heading up Palo Alto's Sand Hill Road with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in the passenger seat, Musk floored it mid-lane-change. The Drive reports the car hit an embankment, went airborne and came down hard. Musk later described it being tossed "like a discus." Nobody was hurt, but the car wasn't insured.

Musk had it repaired and sold it in 2007, reportedly at a profit. The story got a strange sequel this year, when YouTubers Tavarish and Rich Rebuilds got their hands on parts reportedly removed during the original repair, including a carbon fiber rear bumper, per Supercar Blondie.

A Series 1 Jaguar E-Type. Photo: DeFacto / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

This one comes straight from Musk. In an October 2017 post on X, he wrote that he owned two gasoline cars, one of them a "Series 1 '67 E-type Roadster. My first love." The romance had some rough patches. In a Forbes video interview, Musk reportedly compared the car to a bad girlfriend because it kept breaking down on him.

A Ford Model T touring car. Photo: ModelTMitch / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The other gas car in that 2017 post was a Model T that, in Musk's words, "a friend gave me." Most roundups call it a 1920 model. Musk hasn't publicly given the year, so treat that detail as unconfirmed. Still, the man who helped push the car industry toward electric keeps the car that put America on gasoline.

The Lotus Esprit submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me. Photo: Jörg Behrens / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The real submarine from 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me spent years sitting in a Long Island storage unit, which a couple bought blind in 1989 for less than $100. In September 2013, it sold at RM Auctions in London for £616,000, just under $1 million at the time. The buyer turned out to be Musk.

His plan, per Wikipedia, was to fit it with a Tesla electric drivetrain and make it actually transform between car and sub, as it does in the film. The film car was a shell with no engine, which may be why it didn't count toward his "two gasoline cars." Whether the conversion ever happened has never been confirmed.

Starman at the wheel of Musk's Roadster, February 2018. Photo: SpaceX / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Plenty of billionaires have a car nobody can reach. Musk's is out past Mars's orbit. His own midnight-cherry 2010 Tesla Roadster, which he'd used as a commuter, rode the first Falcon Heavy into space on February 6, 2018. A spacesuited mannequin named Starman sits in the driver's seat, a "DON'T PANIC!" sign is on the dash, and there's a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox. It's now in a looping orbit around the sun, so it has put on more miles than any other car on this list.

These show up in nearly every "Musk garage" roundup. We couldn't find a Musk quote, photo, auction record or registration tying any of them to him. One more reason for doubt: his own 2017 post said he owned only two gas cars.

A stock E60 BMW M5. Photo: MrWalkr / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The story: Musk owned a 2006 M5 that tuning house Hamann had pushed to around 603 horsepower. It gets repeated in every listicle, down to the horsepower figure, but nobody points to an original source. If he did own it, it was gone by 2017.

A 997-generation Porsche 911 Turbo. Photo: Handelsgeselschaft / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Some roundups say Musk has called himself a 911 fan. Whether he ever had one titled in his name is still unconfirmed.

A first-generation (4L) Audi Q7. Photo: OWS Photography / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

This is supposedly the family hauler from before the Model X arrived, and it's one of the least exciting claims on the list. The sourcing is the same as the others: lots of repetition and nothing firm.

A 2024 Tesla Cybertruck. Photo: Kevauto / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Musk obviously has access to any Tesla he wants. Roundups list a Model S Plaid, a Model X for the kids and a Cybertruck as his regular rides. Whether those are personally owned or company cars is not public.

On May 1, 2020, Musk posted that he was "selling almost all physical possessions" and would "own no house." He then sold off his California homes. Nobody has confirmed whether the E-Type, the Model T or Wet Nellie went with them. The one car we know he can't sell is the Roadster, and that's only because it's millions of miles away.