[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Timothy Raines]

[Thanks for the tip, Bob!]

The initial reports from the scene raised some eyebrows when the driver reportedly said the crash was the fault of a "low-flying pelican." The video seems to indicate otherwise. Or does it? JCwhitless thinks he's found it:

On behalf of fairness, the film clearly shows the bird being killed.

Please refrain from throwing the guy under the bus as the Pelican has already been thrown under the Bugatti.

Although the pelican's a compelling argument, especially with the frame-by-frame screen grab, but Christopher Schull disagrees:

The only thing clearly established is JCWhitless has a vivid imagination and is willing to present it as factual. It is laughable to say a pelican can "clearly" be seen anywhere near the front of that car at any point in the video. It just didn't happen. I truly hope JCWhitless is never called on as a witness for anything that matters.

I live right down the road from that spot and I went there this morning. The object in the first square of the picture he posted is trash on the side of the road, looks like one piece due to the point of view which is a few hundred feet before the second image. In reality it is two pieces one right behind the other from that angle.

The objects in the second square is the same two pieces of trash but viewed further down the road nearly next to them. You can see the seperation and the way they are laying that from the other view they could appear as one.

There was no bird. I video taped the scene and the two pieces of trash are obvious, no dead bird to be found and as flat and open as the road is (no shoulder drop off at all even) it is ridiculous to believe anything other than the guy gently steered the car right into the water. I will post the video of the scene on YouTube if needed.

Coming back from Galveston on I-45 this section of feeder is only around a half mile long, the only way on it is to exit after crossing Highway 3. Then you have to either get back on the freeway very quickly or you will be forced to U-turn under I-45 and head back the other way. There is absolutely nothing on the feeder and there is no reason to get on it if you are heading back from Galveston. The spot where the Veyron ran into the water is beyond the point that you have to get back on the freeway, leaving only the choice of U-turning to go the other way, so so much also for the BS story about heading back from Galveston eh?

This crash is a publicity money making scam along the lines of Balloon Boy and this guy should be promptly arrested for fraud....

Reader NitrousOxide sees either a pelican or a blackhawk helicopter in this screen-capture from the grainy video.

B3ND3R avails himself of every possibility with the following breakdown:

OK, for the record I never meant to imply that I definitively thought it was a scam, just that my BS meter is pegged and people need to open themselves up to the possibility.

Note:

A. This is 1 of 15 Veyrons in the entire US. The odds of anyone, let alone a car enthusiast, even spotting a Veyron are about 1 in 7.3 million provided that all 15 Veyrons were on the road on this day (and I'm betting most were not).

B. Veyrons are horrendously expensive to maintain. First scheduled maintenance - $22,322. Tires must be replaced every 2,500 miles at a cost of $10,347 per set. The entire set of wheels must be replaced every third tire change (7,500 miles). Extended warranty? Sure, that will be $103,062 for 2 years.

C. Restoring exotics pays well, but does it pay well enough to purchase a $1M+ car. I happen to personally know a concourse restorer of vintage Ferraris, and his income would be categorized as upper middle class. Previous poster stated the driver lives in a $147K home, but driver claims to own the Veyron.

D. The engine was left running for 15 minutes underwater.

E. Both the pulling of the car out of the water and the accident were very conveniently filmed.

So, for those who buy the whole story, you can safely commit to the fact that:

1. There is no possibility that this guy was in over his head and wanted an insurance payout.

2.There is no possibility that he didn't have the whole thing filmed so that he could prove he wasn't driving recklessly.

3. There is no possibility he didn't want the car totally destroyed (engine and all) and thus risk getting stuck with the car when it was repaired.

4. There is no possibility that this wasn't embarked on as a publicity stunt by one of the very few people in the country who specialize in restoring wrecked exotics.

OK. I don't know the guy or the situation other than what has been disclosed, so just maybe this is one set of amazing coincidences.

And if this is just one set of big coincidences, then both the driver of the Veyron and the kids filming it need to go out and buy a few thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets.

Whatever the case, there's a pot of gold in there somewhere for someone as many of you pointed out, and Rogue180 captured, there's a rainbow at the end of this story.

(Hat tip to erzhik for the pictures!)

House himself confirmed to us he owns the Enzo crashed by Griffin. Ironically, the business House owns is Performance Auto Sales, which sells repaired exotic cars. According to House he's one of the largest salvage auto dealers in the world. We asked him if the car was salvageable or not and here's what he replied in an email:

Not sure if the car is salvageable yet, have not had a chance to go survey the damage. I am one of the largest salvage excotic dealers in the world. This car should be repairable but at what cost Im not familiar with. This was a personal car and one that I was very proud of.. it is by far the nicest car that I have ever owned, looking to replace it now!

This was the story according to the Galveston Daily News:

The man, who refused to give his name, was looking at real estate in Galveston.
About 3 p.m. a low-flying pelican distracted him as he traveled north on Interstate 45 just south of the hurricane levee near Omega Bay.
The man jerked the wheel, dropped his cell phone, and the car's front tire left the frontage road and entered a muddy patch, which foiled his attempt to maneuver away from the lagoon.

Yeah, that's not what happened at all according to this video.

This was recorded by a Facebook user who appears to be taping it with a phone or digital camera just at the right moment. Warning, they do swear appropriately at the event. Incredible.

UPDATE: Thanks to some great follow up reporting by the Galveston Daily News and their sister paper, we now know the man is Andy House of Performance Auto Sales in Lufkin, Texas. The shop, ironically, specializes in repairing wrecked exotics. We contacted House for a comment and here's what he said:

I had dropped my phone, people dont know what happened, the arnold story was made up to by the wrecker driver. What it appeared to been was a reflection.

We'll continue to cover this interesting story as it unfolds.

UPDATE 2: Follow up story from the Galveston Daily News

UPDATE #3: We've finally put one and one together. Andy House not only crashed his Bugatti Veyron into a lake, he also owns the now-repaired Eddie Griffin-crashed Ferrari Enzo!

UPDATE#4: Here's the full post-Lake Crash Bugatti Veyron mega gallery showing the aftermath.

(H/T to Houston_AG!)

The photos of the new more-expensive-than-a-Veyron-if-it's-ever-made Bugatti four-door concept were taken by jmk911 from the Luxury4Play forum who did this bit of reporting:

The Bugatti folks spent time with many of the guests and asked for our feedback. Besides discussing the Galibier, I breached the subject of a likely "more economical" sports car in line below the Veyron. His response was such that I am guessing they have been working on this for a while. Fingers crossed!

So the baby Bugatti lives?

[Luxury4Play]

UPDATE: We have video of the Bugatti Veyron crashing into the lake. As well as a response from the driver!

UPDATE: Here's the full post-Lake Crash Bugatti Veyron mega gallery showing the aftermath.

UPDATE: From the Galveston Daily News:

The two-seater, with 16 cylinders and four turbo chargers, can reach speeds of more than 250 mph. New models sell for about $2 million.

The man, who refused to give his name, was looking at real estate in Galveston.

About 3 p.m. a low-flying pelican distracted him as he traveled north on Interstate 45 just south of the hurricane levee near Omega Bay.

The man jerked the wheel, dropped his cell phone, and the car's front tire left the frontage road and entered a muddy patch, which foiled his attempt to maneuver away from the lagoon.

The Veyron's powerful engine gurgled like an outboard motor for about 15 minutes before it died.

The first glance is barely cursory. Engine blocks, after all, are fairly common elements of a certain school of interior design. This one is standing on its end behind a plate of glass on a residential street in downtown Budapest. It’s rather tall, so definitely not a Chevy small block, most likely some sort of straight six from a truck.

Except it’s not. So I double back. And realize a few things in rapid sequence:

1. The block is almost waist-high and I’m 6'2"
2. The block has eight cylinder bores in a W pattern
3. Make that sixteen: there’s another bank of cylinder bores at a 90° angle
4. Is that really a Bugatti logo stamped in the metal?

So I rock back and forth on the sidewalk, trying in vain to bridge the vast chasm between what I see and what I know. Empirically speaking, the object cannot be anything other than a Bugatti Veyron engine: no other car has ever been manufactured with a W16 and engine blocks generally don’t carry the stamped initials of Ettore Bugatti in their metal.

On the other hand, we’re talking about a ludicrously expensive car with perhaps 200 examples in existence. What are the chances of running into the dismembered engine of one in a shop window in Budapest?

I might as well enter the store to find out. The space behind the plate of glass is the headquarters of Geppetto, a Hungarian design studio founded by the Elek brothers in 1996. A man descends the well-designed staircase.

“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, cutting a glance at the engine block.
“It indeed is,” comes the answer.

Wordless shuffling commences. We then strike up a conversation. The guy turns out to be Peter Kucsera, one of the designers employed by Geppetto and creator of the Seeyou Project, a rather beautiful horizontal gravestone made of concrete.

But how does one end up with a Veyron engine?

“We were approached by Bugatti to make something out of their engines which didn’t pass QA,” Peter explains. “So they shipped us a W16 and we came up with some interior design ideas and sent them our proposals. The ball is in their court at the moment.”

We are standing in the middle of Geppetto’s generous studio space, flanking an inconspicuous metal crate which looks like a downsized shipping container. With a mischievous flick, Peter removes an Ikea carpet from the crate’s top. Under a glass cover, the crate is filled with the rest of the engine’s parts. Headers, camshafts, cylinder heads, a single piston, a lone turbo and the giant crankshaft which handles the 1001 HP the engine makes. The surreality of it all never quite fades away.

“The block would make a perfect family crypt for people who prefer cremation,” Peter says, revealing a continued fascination with unusual burial, “although with a big family, the 16 holes would fill up fast.”

I suggest using only one cylinder bore per generation, reserving it for the most deserving member of that generation, thereby stretching the block’s life into the centuries. The block could then remain put, its great heft planting it into the very earth, while the city surrounding it would evolve, the Geppetto office fading away to become a butcher shop, only for that to turn into yet another place of business.

It would certainly make for a killer time lapse video.

“We’ve yet to find the best use for it. For the moment, we’ve decided to install it in the shop window to serve as a conversation piece,” Peter says, adding that it does attract a strange assortment of passersby.

I wave goodbye and return to the November gloom. Should you visit Budapest these days, you’ll find the block at this address. It really is quite a sight.

Photo Credit: THOMAS LOHNES/AFP/Getty Images

For those who don't know, Bugatti also used the name on the 1939 Bugatti Type 57C Galibier Saloon. It's a name that comes from a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. Perfect. A concept car named after a mountain pass. What's next — the Hyundai Khyber?

So what do we know about this new car? For starters, unlike the Veyron, the Galibier carries a front-mounted W16 engine, weighs around 4200 lbs. and is capable of achieving a top speed of around 217 MPH and won't need a second key like its 2-door brother in order to reach that incredible speed.

On the exterior, we're told it's body is entirelycarbon fiber and has a total length of about 208 inches long — almost 32.3 inches longer than the Veyron.

So how much will the Galibier cost? No clue. Our best bet? We think it'll be really high. Actually, it'll probably be higher than what we think. Start with the Bugatti Veyron's $1.4 million price tag — then go a bit higher.

So when should we expect the debut of the car? That remains a mystery as Bugatti won't be in Frankfurt. We guess only time will tell. [via 4WheelsNews]

After placing his deposit of $427,935 on the $1.55 million vehicle, he paid in full last December. A few days later he was sent an email by the selling agent in Troy, Michigan he would not be receiving his 2009 Bugatti Veyron in Italian red, ever, they weren't making any more. To add insult to injury, Bugatti offered a 2008 model in place of his ordered 2009. At this point Zekelman decided he'd had enough and demanded his money back, and has gone on demanding for eight months with no satisfaction. He's had to file a lawsuit naming Bugatti, who's kept his cash in their coffers for the entire time, and is seeking a complete refund and all court and lawyer fees. This isn't the kind of thing you ever expect to hear about the buying process of the most exclusive supercar in the world. [Courthourse News (PDF) via TopSpeed]

The accident happened during an event for wealthy organized criminals bad drivers supercar enthusiasts in Moscow on what appears to be a closed road. Wait, are we suggesting that political favors can are exchanged for rubbles dollars in Russia? No, not us Mr. Putin. Sir.

Launched in 1991 to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Ettore Bugatti's birth, the EB110 is a mid-engined supercar powered by a quad-turbo, triple-differential 3.5-liter V12 with 542 HP and AWD. Back then, in the age of lightweight cars (the EB110 weighed 3,560 Lbs), that was enough for a 0-62 time of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 213 MPH. Somehow, we don't think this one will ever see those kinds of speeds ever again. [via Fishki.net]

Thanks for the tip, Alex!

That's right, our story on Philip Odegard's little faux speeding escapade made it on to last night's what we read on the blogs news segment of the world's greatest motoring show, Top Gear. And they did about the same amount of fact-checking we did on it. Actually, we think we may have done a bit more. We at least tweeted about it to Philip Odegard — however, it was to no avail as he didn't answer.

But, here's what the OCRegister has to say about the story after doing a bit of digging around:

"The question was raised earlier this week by Jalopnik.com, a site for car lovers, after this image of a speeding ticket was reportedly posted on the Web by someone named Philip Robert Odegard.

The partially obscured image purports to show that Odegard, 22, a self-described technology evangelist and entrepreneur, was caught driving a $1.4 million Bugatti at "210+" mph in the early hours of July 1.

But a call to the California Highway Patrol reveals the image is a fake.

In fact, Odegard was ticketed on April 1 for traveling 100 mph at the same location on the toll road, according to CHP officer Chris Goodwin.

Odegard was driving a 2004 Infiniti, not a 2008 Bugatti, Goodwin said."

What? A 2004 Infiniti? Really? You know, we should have known better. Those silly, self-described social media experts — you never can trust them, can you? But, when even Top Gear gets played, we don't feel like we're in the worst company.

Kudos to the OC Register for, you know, doing the journalist thing and calling up the CHPs to ask. That's our Top Gear "top tip" of the day today! (Hat tip to Sean!) [OC Register]