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The Strange Story of the Lake-Drowned Bugatti Veyron and Its Possible Comeback

Cars and large bodies of water usually don’t match unless we’re talking about one of those slow and silly-looking amphicars. But Bugattis, for all their merits and technological advancements, don’t do well in water.
The 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las Vegas 9 photos
Photo: Chris Paschenko/The Galveston County Daily News
The 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las VegasThe 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las Vegas
A crashed Bugatti is always bound to make headlines, if only for the very simple reason that they’re very expensive—painfully so. Bugatti only made 450 Veyrons, so that alone tells you that they are both rare and very valuable: for instance, a used Veyron in decent condition will sell for an average of $1 million.

You can imagine the madness that ensued in November 2009, when a pelican made a just-bought Bugatti Veyron crash into the Gulf Bay near La Marque, Texas. The Bugatti was a salvaged item, but it was still valued at $1 million, and its value, as well as the strange circumstances in which it crashed, turned it into the second most famous drowned Bugatti ever. The first one is, of course, the 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia rescued from the bottom of a lake after 75 years.

The tale of this 2006 Veyron is just as fascinating as the Type 22’s, albeit way more convoluted. It was initially owned by Andy House, a salvaged exotics dealer from Houston, TX, who bought it in October 2009 as part of his inventory. House owned it and drove it extensively (some 2,000 miles/3,218 km on dealer plates, it would later emerge) during the nearly two months of ownership, and then the pelican crash happened. It looks silly in writing, and it probably sounded even more so to authorities, but it’s how House hoped to get the $2.2. million he had insured the Veyron for.

The 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las Vegas
Photo: YouTube / VIN Wiki
Ah, yes indeed, this is not just the story of a famous drowned Bugatti, but also one of insurance fraud. Shortly before the accident, House had insured the car with Philadelphia Insurance. To authorities who responded to the crash, he said he’d been distracted by his phone when he suddenly looked up and saw a “low-flying pelican,” so he had to swerve to avoid the collision. In his insurance claim, he laid all the blame on the poor pelican, who came out of nowhere and ran him off the road and into the lake.

Unbeknownst to House at the time he was drowning his Bugatti, some dude in a passing car was filming him, impressed by the sleek lines of the hypercar he assumed was a Lamborghini. The video was posted online and, in a matter of days, gave Philadelphia Insurance the proof it needed to sue House for fraud, asking back the $600,000 settlement money it had granted him. House counter-sued, asking for even more money.

It turns out that House had bought the car with borrowed money, so he wanted the full amount of $2.2 million to pay off his loaner and, of course, make a little something on the side. To make sure this happened, once he landed in the water, he left the engine running for a full 15 minutes, more than enough to drown every bit of life out of the W16 engine. Asked in court why he didn’t shut the engine off, House claimed he was bitten by mosquitos and was, obviously, too busy fighting for his life to do so.

In 2015, House was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison and three years on probation. He was also forced to pay back the settlement to the insurance company, which must have hit him hard in the feels and the wallet. Yet, he was still the owner of the car.

In 2018, Ed Bolian of VIN Wiki learned that the drowned 2006 Veyron was for sale on Facebook for $300,000. That’s incredibly cheap for a Bugatti, so Bolian started digging around to see just how much trouble it would be for him to buy it and bring it back on the road. As it turned out, it was a lot: House was the contact for the car, though it had been sold to a dealer after he got out of prison, then repossessed by a bank when the dealer went bust, placed under a mechanic lien by the mechanic who had worked on it but hadn’t been paid and then referred back to House to sell it.

The 2006 Bugatti Veyron was drowned on purpose, is now reportedly being rebuild in Las Vegas
Photo: YouTube / VIN Wiki
Even worse, the car was now not just water-damaged and non functional but extensively disassembled. The insurance company took it apart to see the exact damage and whether it could ever be fixed, and it remained this way for all these years. Bolian, never the man to back out of a challenge of this kind, really wanted the (in)famous Bugatti, so he spoke to friend Freddy “Tavarish” Hernandez about starting a project together. After crunching the numbers, he understood the project would be feasible if the price for the wreck were half of what House was asking for it. House wouldn’t budge, so Bolian dropped the idea.

We’re now halfway into 2021, and the Bugatti is still out there. Reports online say that it has not been forgotten despite its sad state and the years it spent neglected. How could it be when it’s one of 450 total units, and the only one with such a crazy backstory?

In November 2020, Houston Crosta, owner of Las Vegas’ Royalty Exotic Cars (and a $3 million Bugatti Veyron Mansory Vivere, among other exotics), announced that he was building his third Veyron. He was also collecting all the spare Bugatti parts he could find, talking of a secret project, one that would require a new interior as well.

“Anyone know of a Bugatti that’s been flooded? Oh, right…” Crosta said in one video, smiling knowingly. Because there is only one flooded Bugatti worth all this trouble, and he’s currently bringing it back to life—and onto the road.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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