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!

Matt Groner, the guy who restored the once-bashed Enzo is also a 24 Hours Of LeMons racer. This race, he's running a 1995 BMW E36 (obtained via salvage title, which didn't stop the Chief Perp from slapping a 100-lap BS Penalty on it), and he decided it would look much better with the beat-up original carbon-fiber bumper from the Enzo bolted to its roof.


After a few hours, however, the safety enforcers at MSR decided that Team Enzo Dysfunction's "wing" wasn't the safest accessory they'd ever seen, so off it came. Even so, this Hollywood-famous and LeMons-veteran object is still available for purchase on eBay, with all proceeds going to charity. Wall art? Part of a body kit on your Diamante? It's up to you!

First, check out the clip from the documentary here (sorry, the Hulu embed wasn't working right), then come back to read through our sequential ordering of how the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Carpocalypse actually occurred to see the link:

• Daniel Sadek owned Quick Loan Funding, a company providing mortgages to un-creditworthy buyers, exploding the sub-prime mortgage market to epic proportions.
• Sadek's company makes a lot of money through something called "Asset Securitization," whereby sub-primes are bundled up, repackaged and sold at credit ratings higher than the underlying mortgage credit worthiness as either "Mortgage Backed Securities" (MBS) or "Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs).
• Sadek sinks profits into Redline movie, even letting Griffin crash Sadek's Enzo to promote it.
• Major banks and financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in MBS and CDOs to re-purpose Sadek's mortgages face liquidity and solvency issues due to defaults of underlying mortgages within the securities.
• Banks stop loaning people money for buying cars because they're afraid they'll face a liquidity crisis.
• No loans means a "credit crunch" and thus, the Carpocalypse.

What do you mean our internal link scenario is highly dubious? It's so obvious. Just use the Commutative Property of mathematics and we swear it works — it's all Eddie Griffin's fault.

[CNBC via Hulu]

It's all fixed up now, and the man who brought the car back to life is now battling legions of flake-a-zoid deadbeat eBay bidders and brigades of enraged Ferrari internet forum zealots as he attempts to get the car together with the right buyer. I've become so fascinated by the twists and turns of this drama that I volunteered to help write the description for the car's eBay listing; hey, if my eBay descriptions can get $1.50 for Volvo lock knobs, I should be able to help move a $990,000 supercar, right? Note: Thanks to Chris Cornwell for the top photo.

It all started in October at the Yeehaw It's Texas 24 Hours Of LeMons race. A Ferrari Enzo rumbled into the paddock, and the driver got out and promptly climbed into a beat-to-hell LeMons Neon. You can bet that got my attention! It turns out that the team captain for the Purple Pin Ball Lefty and Purple Pin Ball Righty Neons (which finished 35th and 5th, respectively) is none other than Matt Groner, restorer of awesome race cars.


After the race was over, I had the opportunity to go for a ride around MSR with über-wheelman Mike Mills at the wheel; my crappy video above doesn't really convey the intensity of the experience, but I can vouch for the fact that this highly civilized street car- it's got air conditioning, a nice stereo, leather upholstery, the works- makes like a full-on race machine once its tires touch a track. You can read LeMons Supreme Court Justice Loverman's account of his Enzo ride here. Earlier that day, I'd been on a ride-along in the Rally Ready Evo, with Pike's Peak winner Dave Carapetyan at the wheel… during the LeMons race, so it was an excellent day at the track for me.

When the car arrived at Matt's shop, it needed quite a bit of work to un-Griffinize the body and frame, and that meant scaring up some parts that neither Manny, nor Moe, nor even Jack could provide. The toughest piece was the replacement front subframe, which may be obtained only with the cooperation of prickly Italians, on their schedule. In Matt's words, the quest for that part "caused my Eddie Griffin Enzo to become Project Car Hell."

Here it is, only 7 months after he began his negotiations with the Italians! According to Matt, "Sad thing is we could have made it. But who wants that liability?" Meanwhile, Ferrari-loving whackjobs aficionados in online Ferrari forums were foaming at the mouth expressing concern that this… this Texan would be laying his mitts upon the sacred carbon-fiber flesh of their worship object. I'll let Matt tell the story himself here:

Almost one year ago I was negotiating to buy the Eddie Griffin wrecked Ferrari Enzo from Daniel Sadek. The Saved Enzo story was reported on Jalopnik.com earlier this year. Here's a little more insight regarding the experience. After the car was bought in November of 2007, it was shipped to Houston from Los Angeles in our enclosed race trailer. It arrived late one Friday night. I was at home having a couple of beers when my employees unloaded the most expensive automobile I have ever owned. Heck, the car was worth more than my house in its damaged condition. At the shop that evening was a friend's 20 year son and one of his buddies who took some pictures as the car was being unloaded. (attached pics) Since we had already studied the car and the damage, we knew what parts were needed. Those parts had already been ordered from our Ferrari connection. David, the brains behind this Enzo purchase, was telling the kids about the repair, etc. Within three weeks of the cars arrival, we had 80% or $70,000.00 in Ferrari Enzo parts we needed to repair the car. At the time, we were told another few weeks we'd have the rest. Of course, all of the parts were prepaid because no one wants to stock Enzo parts. After all, there were only 400 of these supercars sold in the world, and their parts are rather expensive. Plus, most Enzos sit in some garage and are never driven.

We are a behind-the-scenes shop so no one knew about our having the car except a few close associates. In December I received an e-mail asking me if I knew the kid pictured sitting in the wrecked Eddie Griffin Enzo? My response was "No, I do not know him." It turns out that the kid taking pictures that Friday night had posted on a Lamborghini message board that he was the proud new owner of the famously wrecked Enzo and telling how he was going to repair it. Mimicking what he had heard David say about the repair. It's now out that we have this car. There goes our "undercover brother" philosophy around here. The Internet can make anyone who has a key board a Ferrari expert or millionaire with a dozen supercars parked in his garage these days. Kids, get out and go interact with each other! Play some baseball or get a $500 LeMons car and go have some fun. Come on! Please! The guys who write these automotive articles have been filthy from working on all kinds of cars. Trust me, you're not going to get the experience reading about it on the Internet or in a book. Just do it.

Back to the repair of the high dollar Ferrari beast. Before I agreed to repair the car, no one told me that the Italians take 'holiday' for two months. So, January and February are gone and I still don't have all the parts needed to repair my car. I am getting grumpy from the wait. My guys will tell you I am always grumpy when things don't go as planned, and a $ one million dollar car is sitting in my garage unable to be repaired. They might be right. Anyway, March and April go by, and we keep hearing from Ferrari that the front sub frame is being made and it'll be any day now. "Any day" in Italian must be measured in dog years because it must mean "whenever we feel like it." At this point in the process, I am really becoming irate since I turned down a profit on the car when it first arrived in November. Plus, that's our normal business plan: buy it, sell it, and turn the inventory fast. Do you hear that, David? We repair a few cars, but that is not our typical method to make money. I don't like to own inventory for more then a couple months, especially cars this expensive. David, the brains (?) guy, assures me that once he has the parts it will take a short time to repair the supercar. And once it's done he's got people to buy it. Ok, Ok , I will calm down and promise not to swear at him as much.

In May of 2008 we FINALLY get our front sub frame and the repair begins. We start by assembling the front completely to assure the car goes together correctly. Hand built cars are quite different than the robot built cars like everyone drives these days. Everyone of them is slightly different, and this pre-assembly process is important. (picture attached). Once we are assured that every body panel fits perfectly the car is then disassembled again. The Italian hand made body parts are far from perfect from the factory. Since a carbon fiber fender costs more then a new Toyota Corolla you would think you could just bolt it on the car, right? Nope, many hours of prep are performed to assure all of these parts are now perfect. You just can't cut corners when rebuilding cars. In our eyes, that goes for $10,000.00 cars as well as $1,000,000.00 supercars. The reason I opened my own shop was I got tired of dealing with shops that had no integrity or work ethic. My hand picked employees rebuilt this supercar Ferrari, and no one could have done a better job. Period. Yes, that is of course my opinion, but I have been doing this for a long time. The human beings that work for the Ferrari factory in Maranello don't walk on water as many in the Ferrari community assume. Humans built this car in Italy in 2003, and humans in Houston, Texas rebuilt it perfectly in 2008. Am I going to hear crap about that "walk on water" opinion for the rest of my life? Well, Internet Ferrari 'experts', when you repair an Enzo call me and you can share your opinion about how it's supposed to be done.

As the world's economy falls and my stock market investments fall, I am glad to own this supercar and a few other collectible cars. If I had the prescience of things to come earlier, I certainly would have taken the profit up front. But I am OK with owning a car this rare that will continue to appreciate. I am sure there are some car people or investors who feel the same way after losing 20% to 50% in the stock market the last few weeks. At least you can enjoy this investment. The car is still for sale and offers have come in, but when dealers throughout the country and the 'experts' (people trying to buy the car) on the message boards tell potential buyers that they can buy this car for $800k or $850k, it sometimes makes me wonder to whom they are talking. Let me tell everyone. No, you or they can't buy my Enzo for that amount. And, if you can buy any Ferrari Enzo, story or no story, for that kind of money then I suggest you write the check or call me, I will buy it. Price is negotiable on this one. Bring a decent offer and you can own some Enzo history. Plus, the new owner will be able to say that more than 10 million people have seen my car on TV or YouTube. That's the before, here she is after. Pretty cool, eh?

Having dealt with my share of- how shall I put this?- troublesome eBay buyers while selling car parts (the most valuable of which was a super-low-mile big-block Ford Toploader, worth approximately 1/1000th the value of an Enzo), I thought it would be fun to write out several paragraphs of ominous warnings to potential deadbeat bidders for the Enzo's eBay listing. When it came down to it, though, I wrote just a few sentences for the car's description, which Matt very kindly included in his listing, giving me the right to brag about my excellent Enzo-hawking abilities next time some hotshot salesman starts talking about "the good leads." You can check it out here, and if you've got $990,000 (or an offer that comes close enough) you could park your very own Enzo in your driveway! When you're done there, we've got a few photo galleries for your enjoyment:

So this is how it happened, understeer into some moronically placed (or brilliantly, for you tin foil-hatters) concrete barriers. A terrible, and undignified way for any car to die, much less an exotic beauty like the Enzo. That's how the story starts out, and we'll let Mr. Groner retell the rest in his own words:

From February of 2008:
Here's the story: When the car got wrecked last March, I got a half a dozen calls from customers/friends asking me if I was going to buy the car? This is our business: We buy damaged high line cars. Not necessarily the celebrity cars, but they seem to own many of these type cars so it comes with the territory. My response to them at the time was "I doubt it since the whole world knows about the car." We were in contact with the proper people, but I really didn't think this car would happen. Then, late 2007, we got a call asking if we were interested in the Enzo? We headed to LA to inspect the car and if it was what we thought then the negotiations would begin. The car itself was not hurt and had a retail estimate to repair of $300k. So, the owner of the car already had that money and we had to come to an agreement on the car as-is. We did our negotiating over the phone through one of good friends in LA and a deal was reached. My guys left Houston one Monday afternoon with truck and trailer and were in LA with certified funds in hand on Wednesday. Thursday at noon Houston time I got a call from my guys telling me that the owner had changed his mind and we weren't getting the car. Needless to say I was not happy, but this guy had other cars that we were still negotiating to buy so I stayed clam. My guys dead headed back to Houston empty... A wasted week for us. 10 days later we got a call and the guy now wants to sell the car. This time the car has been moved to our LA contacts location and there's no "changed my mind" by the owner. The deal was done and the car was then shipped to Houston.

We normally sell our cars in their damaged state. But, this car is special and everything bolts together. There is no frame to straighten ... it bolts to the tub. Just buy it and you're done. So, we ordered the parts and that where we are right now. 95% of the parts are here and we ready to make this car whole again. "Save the Enzos" I am trying.... Just need a little help from our Italian friends that make the parts. Please hurry. We Americans have no patience.

Update on Aug 7, 2008
Done... Finally! Attached are some pictures of the finished product. If I had to do it over again I would sell the car in it's damaged state and not repair it. Not because it was difficult to repair, but the time waiting on the Italians to supply parts is just ridiculous. I guess they have better things to do then to help "save an Enzo". Now that's it's done and I have had the privilege to drive the auto, I will say oh my, what a car! A true race car in everything it does. One trip to the track and I might keep it. Nope, not my style. Up for sale. Not $500k cheaper then the others on the market, but a little less. After-all, it's got a story. A pretty cool story though.

Update: You can check out the car at Matt's sales site: Matthews-Auto.com

Let me first dispel a few myths. Most important, the car actor Eddie Griffin crashed into a wall, and that is now garishly on display in front of the Grauman Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, is indeed 100% Ferrari Enzo Ferrari. There is no doubt. I touched it. I smelled it. I took about 75 pictures of the poor thing's riven carbon fiber body and chassis. (See below for the fatal scars and wounds that will never heal.) You budding conspiracy theorists out there (Hi Tom Anderson!) had best call Art Bell. Number two, people who visit Hollywood Boulevard on vacation with their kids are not sane in any way. And finally, Hollywood has no shame. Less than none. Make the jump to find out how much less.

Was the doomed Enzo wrecked by accident or on purpose as both tax write-off and generator of free press for producer Daniel Sadek's car-chase movie "Redline"? What's the difference? The putzes behind "Redline" laid the Enzo in state. Seriously, they put on a frigging wake, complete with wreaths, roses, framed photographs and a totally tasteless, $3 cartoon of an Enzo ascending to Heaven and then flying around in the clouds. Behind that screen (of course) were other screens looping the long format movie trailers.

At first I was amused by the display, then I was overcome with the feeling I'd been participating in the automotive equivalent of a bunch of asshole hunters gathered around a freshly slaughtered trophy kill. Perhaps a polar bear or lion. I love a good car-chase flick as much as the next pistonhead, but at what cost? One of the rarest and most totally friggin' awesome cars in the world was destroyed. And even if it was accidental, so what? At least Stefan Eriksson and the elusive Dietrich were attempting something legitimate, something the car they eliminated was designed to do. Griffin merely stuffed it into a concrete barrier at 25 mph. Just pathetic; a waste. Save the Enzos? Save yourself $10 and ignore this movie.

There were a few positives to my little excursion, however. Parked next to the murdered hypercar were a Ferrari 599 GTB, an F430, a Ford GT, a Saleen S7, a Lamborghini Gallardo and a Mercedes SLR McLaren. Those were nice, though even in death the Enzo outshined them all. I also got to race a BMW 335i down Highland. I had him until about 45mph and then good launch technique and rally-honed grip gave way to more turbos/power. – Jonny Lieberman

Related:
Wrecked 'Redline' Enzo to Make Chinese Theatre Appearance; Question Of The Day: Was The Eddie Griffin Enzo Crash A Publicity Stunt?; More: Save the Enzos [Interna]

Apparently unafraid of displaying wrecked exotics to garner notoriety for their film, Redline's promotions types will be holding a vigil for the Enzo cracked up by Eddie Griffin in the days leading up to the premiere of the flick at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The car goes on display today. The premiere is Thursday. We kind of barely care, but if you're in the area, feel free to stop by wearing your "Save the Enzos" shirts. – Davey G. Johnson

Wrecked Ferrari a Premiere Piece [SFGate]

Related:
Another Enzo Bites The Dust, This Time With Eddie Griffin At The Wheel [Internal]

Eddie Griffin's moderate-speed publicity stunt wipeout of real estate-monger turned B-movie producer Daniel Sadek's gazillion dollar Ferrari means two things. Carbon fiber, while totally light and high tech, sort of blows because a "just needs a bit o'Bondo" smashup like Understeering Brother managed to hoon means the car is totaled. Scrap. Headed for the proverbial junkyard in the sky. But the "accident" also means that another perfectly ballistic 65-degree, 6.0-liter V12 good for 650 horsepower is collecting dust in one of Southern California's many sun-drenched warehouses. To give you a modicum of perspective, AMG needs two intercooled turbochargers hooked up to the same size engine to generate 612 ponies (never mind the TORQUE!) in the just-about-here CL65. So, what do we do with such a mad motivator? Mr. G. Johnson has convinced me that the Enzo engine would be perfectly at home in the back of a WRX wagon. I'm doubly sure of this as I got smoked by an STI just yesterday. But, do you have a better idea? – Jonny Lieberman

Related:
Question Of The Day: Was The Eddie Griffin Enzo Crash A Publicity Stunt? [Internal]

Spinelli and I were sitting at Starbucks yesterday watching the crash over and over, considering the propensity for understeer those damned wonderful Ferrari Enzos have. Simultaneously we were attempting to answer our own nagging doubts over why someone would erect a concrete divider that close to the track and why it seemed like the "Understeering Brother" was so composed after the accident. It appears we're not the only ones who had some doubts. The star-lovers over at TMZ are asking a question today that we're going to put to you. Was the Undercover Brother doing some Oscar-worthy acting in order to build some publicity for the Daniel Sadek-produced "Redline?" We've re-included the gallery from yesterday below and the compilation video above for further reference. Oh, and by the way...remember...Save The Enzos, save the world. [Hat tip to J.D.!] – Ray Wert

Was Griffin's Crash a Hoax? [TMZ.com]

Related:
Hoon Of The Day: It's The Ferrari Enzo-Killer, Eddie Griffin...Duh; New Video Of Eddie Griffin's Ferrari Enzo Fender-Bender; Another Enzo Bites The Dust, This Time With Eddie Griffin At The Wheel [internal]

Although we'd love to just continue showing the Ferrari Enzo crash footage over and over and over again, we thought it best to just show you the three minute preview of "Redline" instead. Because once you know it was the wet dreams of real estate mogul Daniel Sadek that provided the Torque-like desire and money for Griffin taking an Enzo into a wall...well, yeah...there we go again with the crying. Jeez. If you want to see the blow-by-blow again, we've included it below. And also, remember, do your part — because only you can Save the Enzos. – Ray Wert

Related:
New Video Of Eddie Griffin's Ferrari Enzo Fender-Bender; Another Enzo Bites The Dust, This Time With Eddie Griffin At The Wheel

Just because we like to beat ourselves over the head with this stuff, here's some more video of Eddie's little accident yesterday with a Ferrari Enzo, compiled from a number of different sources. If you start bawling like you do when you think of Eddie's performance in Undercover Brother, don't say we didn't warn you. – Ray Wert

Related:
Another Enzo Bites The Dust, This Time With Eddie Griffin At The Wheel [internal]

Web Extra: Actor Eddie Griffin Crashes Enzo Ferrari [CBS2]

Related:
CNN Web Site Serves Up Semi-Naughty Word To Describe Enzo-Busting Ex-Gizmondo Exec; Ferrari Flambe En France, Part Deux! Russian TV Host Tina Kandelaki ID'd As Suleiman Kerimov's Passenger [internal]