As James Bond, Sean Connery had the good fortune of being in movies that featured cool cars. For instance, “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” put him behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DB5. Connery got his hands on a good ol’ American Mustang in “Diamonds are Forever.”
The car you see here is from another Connery movie, 2003’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” and was driven by the character Captain Nemo (played by Naseeruddin Shah). While his Nautilus car isn’t exactly cool, it is over the top in the spirit of a Bond villain’s lair. At 22 feet long and nine feet wide, it’s almost as big as one, too.
That enormous body and the interior are covered with tributes to Hindu gods, such as Ganesha, and symbols. Underneath all of that fiberglass is a Land Rover Fire Tender chassis. A Rover V8 gets the six 28-inch wheels spinning.
As you can imagine, this massive oddity is not street legal, but it does run. It’s claimed to be one of only two cars made for the filming of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and the only complete running version. Supposedly, it can get up to 80 mph and “corner superbly!”
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
