Blame the pelican: A $1.25 million Bugatti Veyron crashes into a Texas bay

With less than 1,000 miles on the odometer, this ultra-expensive supercar turned amphibian as its owner fled the attack of a killer water bird.

Mon, Nov 16 2009 at 1:24 PM EST

The Bugatti Veyron is a $1.25 million 1,000-horsepower supercar, with no discernible socially redeemable value. Even getting it serviced costs $22,000. Since the pleasures it offers are best experienced at speeds well north of the legal limit, it is duty-bound to outrage society. It is for that reason that I get a certain grim satisfaction out of this video of a distracted Veyron owner inadvertently taking his car (one of only 15 in the U.S.) for a dip in a Texas salt marsh.

The story goes that the wealthy pilot was cruising along in Galveston when he was distracted, first by a dropped cell phone and then by an errant brown pelican. The car, which had just 500 miles on the odometer, was a total write-off.

Gordon Murray — who designed yet another absurdly expensive supercar, the McLaren F1 — described the 16-cylinder, quad-turbocharged Veyron as “the most pointless exercise on the planet” and called the company “incredibly childish” for focusing maniacally on top speed (one reached 253 mph). Murray isn’t the best one to call the kettle black, for his own car burns fuel almost as rapidly as the Veyron’s 9.7 mpg around town (and 11.7 on the highway).

I’m not sure which model Veyron discovered its inner amphibian, because despite the fact that only 200 have been made by parent company Volkswagen in Molsheim, France (site of the original Bugatti factory), there are many special editions for the extra vain. One has a Hermes leather interior. But the most ridiculous of the lot is the Linea Vincero — for buyers who think the production car is too slow. It adds an additional 94 horsepower, as well as “exclusive” design touches designed to appeal to nouveau riche nitwits. It is sold only in Abu Dhabi.

For some closure, here's an additional video of wrecking crews towing the Bugatti from its watery grave:

It’s amusing to speculate what will happen to macho supercar brands like Bugatti when the electric car revolution sends the last internal-combustion vehicle to the scrapyard. Human nature being what it is, I say yes, there will be million-dollar cars with huge electric motors and scorching acceleration. But at least, while keeping whole power plants busy recharging their battery packs, they won’t emit any carbon dioxide.

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