The super-wealthy mix with the blue collar when a Veyron is spotted at a local Atlanta dive.
Normally, when we do a Spotted in the Wild piece, this space is used to give a little bit of history about the car itself, but in this case, the car needs little introduction. But, on the off chance that one of the passers-by that remarked, “I think it’s a Lamborghini, Ferrari something...” are reading this, here are a few vitals: 987bhp, 0-60 in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 250mph. Many who have written about the Veyron before have called it the Concorde of the road, which I’ve always felt is a very appropriate description.
So, yes we have a Veyron here, but what makes this most unusual is the setting. I’m currently back home in Atlanta for the holidays, and the Veyron was parked in front of a shopping center where my friends and I used to skateboard and steal baseball cards from the Eckerds drug store.
The particular establishment it was parked in front of is a dive sports bar called Stooges. Stooges has been around for as long as I remember and is known as a haunt for failed semiprofessional golfers and local middle-aged divorcees. What the owner of a $1.7 million supercar was doing there I have no idea, which made its presence all the more alien. Note the utilitarian SUVs and pickups parked around it.
To my eyes, this particular example sported some nice cosmetic changes. Instead of the normal two-tone Veyron paint job, this one was finished entirely in a dark metallic gray. The stock wheels have been replaced with deep dish black items with red accents. Many of the chrome highlights such as the door handles and the grill surround have been painted to match the body color. Judged against other Veyrons, you could almost call it subtle.
Update: It's fake! As the commenter FakeBugatti brought to our attention, the car featured here is indeed a fake Bugatti. The car has been featured on several forums and people more eagle eyed than me have pointed out some irregularities: the Veyron Super Sport front bumper, the ill proportioned door hinge, the fact that the wheels don't fill out the wells quite right, the round exhaust within the faux exhaust port. One forum user claims that this particular car was built on a Mercury Cougar platform, which would make it slower than even my Mini in a straight line and would explain why it was parked in front of Stooges!
Whatever it's based on, I have to cringe when I think about what else could have been bought or built with the time, money and effort that went into this. Though you have to admit, it's a fairly convincing replica. Thanks to @MaranelloGTO, Martin Spain, Matthew Lange and of course FakeBugatti for the help in bringing this to my attention and solving the mystery. My car spotting privieges have hereby been revoked for 90 days.
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