I think I just heard the Turbo Confabrilator snap when they were towing it out.

Damn, the video got pulled and I didn't get to watch!

You didn't miss much.... Just a veyron being drug backwards out of water....

Follow up article:

Rare species meet; only one survives
Car owner takes sports car's plunge into lake in stride
By PEGGY O'HARE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 12, 2009, 11:09PM

It was a great day for the brown pelican Wednesday, being taken off the endangered species list, but the driver of a rare 2006 Bugatti Veyron EB — one of only 15 in the U.S. — may be wishing he had never set eyes on one of the ungainly creatures.

That's because a low-flying pelican startled him as he was driving on the Interstate 45 feeder in La Marque, causing him to veer off the road and land the million-dollar car in 3 feet of water that reached up to the door handles.

The Lufkin man, whose name La Marque police refused to release, is a collector of exotic cars and had purchased the Bugatti just last month from a Jonesboro, Ark., dealer, who offered it for sale for $1.25 million.

Now, the wayward driver has become something of a celebrity, with his phone ringing off the hook. He told the Texas City wrecker driver who towed his car that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called him Wednesday, along with several other celebrities.

“He said he was getting so many calls that he finally stopped answering his phone,” said wrecker driver Gilbert Harrison of MCH Truck and Auto, which is storing the mudcaked sports car.

The Bugatti Veyron, made by a Volkswagen subsidiary, is the fastest and most expensive production car in the world, capable of reaching 253 mph, said Elite Autos owner Shelby Smith, who sold the car. The vehicle has 1,001 horsepower and is almost entirely electronic.

Smith, who said his Arkansas dealership does most of its business over the Internet, said he could not disclose the man's name or the final sales price. But Smith said the man is a “repeat customer.”

The Bugatti had only 500 miles on its odometer when the Lufkin man purchased it.

Smith said he spoke to the driver about two hours after the accident and believes the vehicle will be a total loss.

The driver seemed to take his very expensive mistake in stride, Harrison said.

“He was calm,” Harrison said. “If it had been me, I'd have been cussing, but he was calm. I imagine inside he was probably pretty upset.”

The car crashed at 3 p.m. Wednesday as the driver was northbound in the 700 block of the freeway's feeder road and his cell phone slipped out of the car's center console, Smith said. The man was not on his phone at the time, but reached to retrieve it from the floorboard.

When the driver sat up, he was startled by the bird, flying low alongside the Bugatti, Smith said. His right front tire strayed onto the shoulder of the road, said La Marque police Lt. Greg Gilchrist.

“He couldn't regain control,” Gilchrist said, noting that no guardrails separate the road from the water at that point in the road.

The car landed 20 to 25 feet from the feeder road, according to Gilchrist, who said he found no indication that driver had been speeding.

Crabs were seen crawling around the tow truck after the sports car had been loaded on board, said MCH Truck and Auto owner Jim Morris.

“It hurts your ego more than anything,” Smith said of his customer's reaction to the wreck. “He wasn't doing anything stupid.”

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Apparently it was Andy House driving. I wonder if he was the guy giving charity rides in the Enzo at the last Keels and Wheels here in Houston?

Here is that exact same car, before being washed. Please note the spoiler is up, which means it's really traveling towards that Mustang at 140mph. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1258146902.jpg

***I cannot see flash video from work, so I don't know what this shows!!*** That means, don't shoot the messenger...



But...possible outside footage of the wreck.
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Didn't see the video, but I would think leaving the engine on might save it from having water get in through the exhaust valves and ruining the entire engine, provided water didn't come in through the intake.

What are the odds?

No, really. What are the odds? BTW I don't see any birds. As expected.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VZbdfv97d00&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VZbdfv97d00&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Pulling it out:

YouTube - BUGATTI VEYRON IN LAKE !!!!! GALVESTON - TEXAS (11/11/2009) (EXCLUSIVE)

What would we do without Youtube :D

DoubleDouche

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C_qLmC91X_4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C_qLmC91X_4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Double Awesome!

They also said the bugatti was french made.
Not unless VW moved to frog-ville.

Huh. I guess you don't recognize that the Alsace region went back under French control after the war, huh?

The Veyron is built in France. It is therefore French made.

In the video the wing is down when it goes into the water.

Insurance scam, just passed down from On High.

Man Accused of Deliberately Ruining Bugatti to Collect Insurance | Corpus Christi, TX | KRISTV.com |

ETX man pleads guilty to wire mail fraud in famous 'drowned Bugatti' case | KETK | East Texas News, Weather and Sports | Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville

Woo hoo. 1 for the pelicans :D

My desk was 20 feet in front of where that fellow was standing. True story. Thos'a were da daze ---- SmileWavy