Ralph Laurens Bugatti

That's fcukin hardcore - now I'm jealous.

 

real nice stuff but I highly doubt hes got 400 million in cars that just a rediculious statement

In other words you are saying that hes got approx 75 cars and on avg they are worth a bit over $5 million each

 

basically matt was trying to say that he owns a bugatti, mclaren LM, and 73 evos.

 

actually, he has just over 100 cars as of this weekend when i spoke to him. some of them are worth as much as $20 million, and others are worth as little as $500,000. For instance, he has a Ferrari Race car, which i believe is called the 1961 TR 61 Spyder Fantuzzi. Only two of these cars were made, and the other was crashed in 1962, totaling it. Ralph's car was driven by Phil Hill at LeMans. That's a 20 million dollar car. Or the 1930 Mercedes Benz SSK "Count Trossi" which is a 1 of 1, perfectly restored car that he drives regularly. Since it's a 1 of 1, there's no real market value for the car, but it's insured for $17 Million. He has 12 cars in total who's production runs were fewer than five, and almost 40 cars whose production runs were fewer than eighty.

I understand that to you and me $400 million seems completely absurd, but when a real "car guy" has $5 Billion at his disposal, and the cars almost all appreciate in value, it's really just a drop in the bucket.

I suggest you pick up the book "Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection". It's a really good coffee table book that discusses about 20 of his cars, 14 of which were on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Art last year. (Collectively insured for $66 Million)

By the way, he doesn't even consider the McLarens or Veyron one of his "nice cars." It only becomes a nice car once it's over $10 Million.

 

My favorite line.

I guess when you have that much disposable income your perspective is slightly skewed. Well that and those 1 of 1 cars are truly remarkable.

 

Can't believe this got posted here too - I swear I'm not a stalker, folks - I just love seeing rare cars on the road - and as you all know this is the rarest of rare. Trust me, I couldn't care less if it was Ralph Lauren or some unknown guy - that it was a Veyron meant I needed to go for the photo! As the people in the Rocky Mountain section will tell you, I photograph everything exotic - it just wouldn't be me if I missed out on the best of the best.

Thanks for those who posted kind words.

 

Doug,
Thanks for taking the time to re-create the scene. It seems some may have been a bit jaded when they refer to the Veyron being nothing special. Not specific to this thread, these are the people who I have found to be easily enamored by the simplistic metric of price or subjective visual appeal and dont have a full understanding of the engineering achievement that it is. I am not sure what your specific appreciation is but it seems like a genuine one to say the least. I know how it is to see "your unicorn" and the fact that you had a camera AND talked to the owner is just that much better. Thanks for sharing

 

My personal take on the Veyron being nothing special is due to its design premise, and has nothing to do with being ignorant of the engineering achievement the car represents.

On technical merits alone, yes, it's an interesting car. However, it's also an extremely heavy, completely impractical (using the McLaren F1 scale) gimmic car that almost entirely isolates the driver from the experience of driving. It's an expensive video game car built by VW to effectively say "this is how cool we are".

It's not a car that was designed by enthusiasts to be exciting to drive, it's a car that was built to reach a given speed number for bragging rights, and absolutely nothing else.

So, for me, it's nothing special, compared to seeing a "drivers car" like the F1 or F40 on the road.

And regardless of the car in question, pulling U-turns on highways and driving like a lunatic like so many Honda kids trailing exotics does not paint an especially interesting picture. Appreciating rare cars is one thing, going to extreme lengths to chase them down is very much another.

 

Thanks for the compliments - going to marginally difficult lengths to photograph the vehicle was done for not only myself but for others to appreciate and in large part they have - thank you for appreciating it.

Regarding the Veyron itself, I didn't chase it because of its famous owner, and I didn't chase it because I thought it was a good driving experience, or an agile performer, or because my opinion dictates that it's lightweight. I chased it because it was rare, unusual, and expensive and it'll probably be a long time before I see another one. You'll note the thread I created on the other forum passes no judgement on the merits of the Veyron, and neither do I. I have been photographing rare and exotic cars for well over two years now and almost nothing (and I mean that - over the last two years I have seen 33 different Ferrari 360s) excites me anymore. However, the Veyron has been always on my 'I'd love to photograph it' list, and not chasing it down would have been unforgivable.

On the contrary, I think it does paint an extremely interesting picture! Perhaps you were going for 'flattering picture', 'good picture', 'smart picture', 'sympathetic picture' - or some other actually relevant word.

 

dave.. thanks for a great story told with the raw childlike enthusiasm we all have exhibited at some stage of life.. it sounds like the car couldn't be in the hands of a finer gentleman. good stuff

 

sorry DOUG... i used to read better...