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 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 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 Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Then you can’t afford this this limited edition Mansory Veyron Vincerò, which sports new front fenders, carbon fiber rockers, dark bronze wheels, and a weird woven mesh interior. Thankfully, they’re only making three of them. More pics and details at Jalopnik

There isn’t a lot of information about this UK Bugatti crash, all that’s really known is that the owner lost control in a sweeping turn and then proceeded to ruin some farmer’s day. From the looks of the pics, it doesn’t appear that the car is too badly damaged, and it also looks like it would perform pretty miserably  a piece of farm equipment. Three more photos of the carnage after the jump. GTSpirit via Jalopnik

Continue reading "Bugatti Veyron Plows Field" »

Working at CarDomain is—by a country mile—the coolest job that I’ve ever had. But sometimes, I feel like playing hokey, and today was one of those days. Being inside when it’s this gorgeous out just isn’t right. Maybe I should start smoking again, at least then I’d have an excuse to stand in the sun. Anyway, here’s the news.

• Well, it won’t be as fast as it’s closed-cockpit predecessor, but the Veyron Targa will still be the fastest open-roof production car ever. Just how loud do think it will be inside the cabin at 217MPH?  I know I’d like to find out. World Car Fans
• In case you haven’t been paying attention to gas prices lately—and are just dying to own a make that might be shortly shuttered—Hummer has announced prices for the 2009 H3T sport-utility truck. Winding Road
• Here’s a big surprise: there’s no way in hell we’re going to be able to get Tata Nanos here in the States. Maybe it’s time for some "urban car" safety standards? AutoObserver
• Acura has released the first official image of the new TL, and it while it’s not drop-dead gorgeous, it looks pretty good. The best news? It’ll come with the most powerful engine Acura has ever made. CarScoop

You might remember my buddy John from the radar/laser diffuser install he did on a Veyron a while back. Well this week he got to work on one of the Eleanors used in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds. He installed a GPS tracking system with remote starter lock-out, alarm, glass break sensors and "some other security functions I will not mention." John, who is used to working on some nice stuff, was pretty impressed with the car:

When looking at cars, one always finds some kind of flaw with any vehicle, somewhere, somehow, but in all honesty, I could not find even one smudge on this car, and the quality and craftsmanship was just about the best I’ve ever seen. I guess it should be since the price was just shy of a half million bucks.

Was I nervous working on this car? No, not at all. We have worked on tons of very expensive rides, and it’s just another day at the office. But it really is a treat to work not only on one of the coolest muscle cars ever built, but one that Nicolas Cage actually drove in the movie.

Be sure to check out his ’67 Cuda ride page for all the pics and a full write up!