Porsches, Lamborghinis, Bentleys and other luxury cars sleeping with the fishes after shipwreck

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 65^th 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:

• Audi A5 Cabriolet – 84
• Audi A5 Coupe – 43
• Audi A5 Sportback – 147
• Audi e-tron – 121
• Aud e-tron GT – 1
• Audi Q2 – 1
• Audi Q3 – 297
• Audi Q3 Sportback – 144
• Audi TT Coupe – 7
• Audi TT Roadster – 1
• Bentley Bentayga – 77
• Bentley Continental GT – 38
• Bentley Continental GTC – 50
• Bentley Flying Spur – 25
• 2007 BMW 750iL – 1
• Fendt tractors – 12
• 2015 Ford Mustang – 1
• 1996 Honda Prelude SiR – 1
• 2014 Kia Soul – 1
• Lamborghini Aventador – 15
• Lamborghini Huracan – 20
• Lamborghini Urus – 50
• 1977 Santana Land Rover – 1
• MAN TGM truck – 1
• 2019 Mini Countryman – 1
• 2018 Nissan Versa Note – 1
• Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 – 1
• 2015 Porsche Cayenne – 1
• Porsche Cayenne, Macan, Panamera – 30
• Porsche – 558
• Seat Ateca – 3
• Volkswagen Caddy – 47
• Volkswagen Golf – 199
• Volkswagen ID.4 – 159
• 2017 Volkswagen Jetta – 1
• Volkswagen Taigo – 1
• Volkswagen T6 Transporter – 116