Mr. Grissom lived across the street from my best friend when I was a kid. He spent hours building what he said was a James Bond car. It was an amazing car and he’d gotten quite far in the project. The last time I saw Mr. Grissom working on the project he was sanding the fiberglass body he had prototyped himself. Ultimately the project failed. I’m not sure if he ran out of money or interest but he stopped working on it. To this day if I bring his name up to anyone who knew him back then the first question they ask is “Isn’t he that crazy guy that tried to build a James Bond car”.
Peter Mardsen is a Danish hobbyist who built, at the time, the largest homebuilt submarine in the world – UC3 Nautilus. The Nautilus is a 58 foot long submarine capable of diving to 500 meters with a crew of four. In August 2008 the Nautilus made its maiden voyage.
In the beginning the ideas of both these projects are equally absurd. There isn’t anything less crazy about the goal of building a 58 foot submarine than there is about building a James Bond car. The only difference is one was a success and the other was a failure. Had Mr. Grissom successfully finished his car, to this day he would be viewed as one of the most interesting men I’ve ever met. The only difference between a crazy idea and a genius idea is the end result.
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