The much publicised sinking of the Felicity Ace cargo ship last month has come under renewed focus following the identity of just under 4 000 vehicles now residing on the seafloor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Bound for the United States carrying mostly Volkswagen Group vehicles, including a number of Lamborghini Aventador Ultimaes, a fire, whose origin remains unknown, broke out in the cargo hold six days after it departed from Germany bound for Davisville in the American state of Rhode Island.
While all of the ship’s 22 crew members were rescued, the ensuing fire, aided by a number of vehicles being equipped with lithium-ion batteries, left little hope for any being salvaged as the boat continued to float off of the Portuguese coast near the Azores.
According to the New York Times, the heavily damaged 60-ton Ace eventually sank on 1 March, taking with it not only the mentioned Aventadors, the last non-electrically assisted V12 Lamborghinis the Raging Bull will ever make, but also an alleged 1 000 Porsches and some 200 Bentleys.
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The estimated damage, according to a report by Bloomberg soon after the ship sank, was rumoured to be $438-million with $401-million being attributed to the later confirmed 3 965 vehicles on-board.
In an interview with Automotive News Europe days after the incident, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed that all of the Ultimaes, which made-up 15 of the 85 Lamborghinis, will be replaced, with a reported solution being discussed by Volkswagen itself on how to replace the vehicles laying 3 000 metres below the surface of the ocean.
Despite the exact number of vehicles being known, Top Gear Netherlands has now officially broken the examples down by model based on the somehow obtained document that confirmed not only Volkswagen Group vehicles, but also other makes.
Apart from the confirmed 590 Porsches, 165 Bentleys and 572 Audis, the ship also transported a rare 1996 Honda Prelude SiR said to have been the 65th model of the fifth and last generation, an even rarer 1977 Land Rover made under licence by Spanish marque Santana, 12 Fendt tractors and a single MAN truck.
Likely to be have bound for other markets on the ship’s journey to the States, were three Seat Atecas, 47 Volkswagen Caddys, a single Nissan Versa Note and a Mini Countryman said to be have packaged in a wooden crate.
The complete list are as follows:
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