By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

Sports Car Market sent our a report this week detailing an unfortunate issue with the high bidder of the 2008 Bugatti Veyron at the Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Auction. After the gavel fell on live television, this winning bidder backed out of the $770,000 purchase (including premium), which was the top seller at the event.

Back in 2007, a minor firestorm resulted from an issue between B-J and a seller of a ‘Cuda at its flagship Arizona auction. After finger pointing, many media reports, tons of comments on blogs and chat boards, a lawsuit, a settlement, and too much time and headaches, the issue was solved. But lessons were learned on all sides about how similar disputes might be played out in the future.

Evidently, Barrett-Jackson was on the ball for the latest round of auction snafu. While an entirely different type of issue, B-J did exactly what they should have done: immediately announce the problem, get ahead of the story, and find a quick solution: offer the car for sale again. Even as the deadbeat bidder was leaving the event, Craig Jackson announced he would buy the car to maintain the sale. Later a B-J customer inquired about buying the car from Mr. Jackson, although it is not clear if the deal for the car has been finalized.

Kudos to Barrett-Jackson for doing what many large businesses often fail to do: learn and evolve to deal with the next crisis. They played this one perfectly.

Continue reading "Barrett-Jackson’s Bugatti Veyron Snafu Spotlights Lessons Learned" »

By Karan Singh

StreetFire.net

Would you pay $700,000 for a car? How about if it was a Bugatti Veyron? This lucky Barret-Jackson bidder was able to pull off the deal of the century at the auction in Vegas this weekend. Take a look!

BJ: ’08 Bugatti Veyron

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I’m surprised it took this long for something like this to surface. I’m not a big fan of the Veyron to begin with, but this… well, I don’t have really anything nice to say about it. Think it’s based on a 370Z?

Bugatti Veyron Replica!

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

How do you tow the godfather of the fastest production car to ever grace the surface of the earth? Very, very carefully thanks to a long nose and extremely low front lip. Will the Bugatti make it up the flatbed unscathed? Read more at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Thanks to my friends in Russia for sharing this video with me. Incredible!

Bugatti Veyron vs. Nissan GT-R!

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

B. …B is a good letter. It stands for BITCHIN.’ Or maybe BOLONEY. Fried Boloney. Or how about BADASS. That’s a good one.

The word “be” suggests the present moment. As in “I be bitchin.” Which you KNOW you are. Not grammatically the best of usages, but hey, we’re car people and we say things like that.

So, here’s the best of the “B’s.” Not all of them, as the list would go on around the moon, but just a teaser. So, after you’ve checked them out… “Be positive and make something of your day.”

The B’s. Oh, and join in on my upcoming CAR SHOW in Huntington Beach.

Continue reading "Fireball’s Alphabet of Awesomeness… The B’s" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Back in early January, a news story came across the wires that an ultra rare Bugatti Type 22 roadster had been pulled off the bottom of an Italian lake. It had been submerged 70 some years ago when customs officials could not obtain the proper documentation on the car and had to destroy it. They chose to push it into a watery grave, and there it sat for seven decades. It was removed and sold at auction, netting $370,000!

The truly cool part is that the money from the sale is not going into the pocket of some treasure hunter, instead it is going to a charitable foundation founded in the memory of a young Italian racing driver who was attacked and died from his injuries. The car was located by a local diving club and they teamed up with the charity to haul the car out of the water.

The story we read on Yahoo! Cars said that the car needs to be 80% restored. We think they lowballed that number by about 20%. Either way, we’re sure that the buyer, who essentially paid for the honor to pay a bunch of money to bring the car back to life will do the machine proud and the next story we will see will show a gleaming Bugatti Type 22 roadster. Thanks to BangShift.com forum member Malc for the tip! Via Yahoo

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

According to the Galveston Daily News, the driver was distracted by a low-flying pelican, dropped his cell phone, and drove into the lake. What a jackass. Apparently, the quad-turbo W16 ran for 15 minutes before it died, which seems like long enough to make sure every vital engine component got trashed, and begs the question as to why the owner didn’t kill it on his way out of the cabin. Hey, at least it wasn’t an Enzo—they still make Veyrons. Watch the clip below to see this 1.6 million dollar machine getting towed out of the drink. via VWVortex.

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

If you’ve got major bucks, then you’ve got one of these rides. But since most of us shmoes don’t, then the next best thing is to watch a TV show about… DOODS with BIG BANK that can driving serious machines like these. What are they? One hint. …They go on Air, Land and Sea. Very fast. Series Premieres in  January, but check out the sneek peeks this month.

Listings here.

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Set in the beautiful country lanes of Princes Risborough, the Kop Hill Hillclimb is one of the oldest hill climbs in England. During the early 1900s it was one of the largest motorsport events in the UK. The hill itself is a pretty straight road, but it’s over 1000 metres long to the summit and rises to 100 metres high. Big crowds would line the edges of the road to watch drivers and motorcyclists try to achieve the fastest times and speeds up the hill. Unfortunately, as the speeds got faster, so did the risks, and on the 28th of March 1925 an accident involving a spectator led to the end of the original Kop Hill event and led to the RAC banning all motorsports on public roads.

On the 26th and 27th of September, organisers decided to do a Kop Hill Commemorative Run to bring the sounds and sights and even smells (mmm, Castrol R) back to Kop Hill again. Over 250 cars and bikes were there, ranging in age from the 1900s right up to 1980s and even some very special modern cars (which no doubt require the owners to compare car insurance carefully). Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!