The Lake-Drowned 2006 Bugatti Veyron Has Been Found, Is Officially Coming Back

Known online as the “drowned Bugatti,” the Veyron was originally owned by Andy House, a salvaged exotics dealer from Houston. He’d bought it for $1 million with borrowed money, and he insured it for $2.2 million and then drove it into the lake, making sure he left the engine running for a full 15 minutes so it would get plenty of saltwater. House hoped he could pay back the loaner and turn a profit himself, with the added bonus of getting to drive a Bugatti for a few months.

To his bad luck, the moment he drove into the lake was captured by a couple of dudes in a passing car. Their video provided irrefutable evidence of insurance fraud, and would eventually send House to prison on a one-year-and-one-day sentence. He was also ordered to pay back the $600,000 he’d been given by the insurance company before fraud was established. Once out of the can and in debt, but still in possession of the car, he decided to sell it. By then, the car had been taken apart and went through a couple of owners before it came back to him. The Veyron was now extensively disassembled and came with a list of incurred expenses that no one wanted to pay.

In late 2018, Ed Bolian of VIN Wiki came across the listing for it, asking $300,000 for what would be the cheapest Bugatti in the world.

We covered the insane story extensively in a coverstory at the beginning of the month, down to the present day, when it was believed Houston Crosta, owner of Las Vegas’ Royalty Exotic Cars and a known Bugatti collector, had bought it. Though a lifelong dream of his, Bolian had passed on the occasion, after determining that the investment would not be a profitable one; if anything, he’d drive himself into debt in an attempt to repair the Veyron and make it road-legal again. Here was a car that was “cheap” to buy but which would need plenty of financial backing and expertise to get back into running condition, not to mention to be made road-legal again.

In his most recent video (see below), Bolian confirms the report that Houston has bought the drowned Bugatti and it’s now at his shop in Las Vegas. The car ended up with someone else after Bolian backed out of the deal, and that person sold it to Houston after contacting him for spare parts.

Bugattis are not just expensive to buy; they’re also very expensive to maintain and service. There’s only one guy you can go to in the U.S. for spare Bugatti parts if you want independent maintenance, and that’s Houston. The buyer had seen that the Veyron would be a money-pit, and he’d already had enough of it: Bolian notes that he was billed $100,000 after the purchase even though the car hadn’t moved, because the mechanic charged him for a new layer of paint, more diagnosis, and even more disassembly.

Now, Houston has repainted the Veyron purple and he’s been working on it for close to a year. He bought it for $400,000 and he’s already put a new interior in it. The total for parts is up to $250,000 as of the moment of press, but he’ll have to spend even more. For instance, he’ll have to replace the Burmester sound system, and that alone is $100,000.

Bolian says Houston is ok with him going public with the rebuild story, including the few shots of the car up on the lift and details like how it will be a full custom project once completed. Houston himself is yet to post anything more revealing to his social media, aside from that older video in which he teases his third Veyron and asks, “Anyone know of a Bugatti that’s been flooded? Oh, right…” But Bolian’s word is good enough, especially since it stands as confirmation that the Veyron is coming back to life. It won’t be the car that was driven into the lake, but it will definitely be awesome – judging by Houston’s previous projects. And it will tell the most insane story a Bugatti has ever told.