A fire broke out recently on an Italian container ship off the French Atlantic coast last week and the results were devastating.
Though, in this case, the tragedy was not what you’d expect: all 27 crew members were able to escape the burning vessel before it sank.
But what didn’t escape, of course, was its cargo. And so the death of the ship, called “Grande America” was also the death of about 2,000 cars – including some very exclusive luxury brands.
Carscoops has reported that the shipment contained “Audi A3, A5, RS4, RS5 and Q7 models, as well as some Porsche Caymans, Boxsters, Cayennes and reportedly four 911 GT2 RS models.”
Now, anyone who keeps tabs on the business of Porsche knows that the GT2 RS isn’t your standard bucket of bolts. At an MSRP of around $300,000, the 690-horsepower vehicle can go from zero to 60 in 2.7 seconds, and has a max speed of 211 miles per hour.
Since these bad boys aren’t exactly an off-the-shelf car, you can imagine how their owners might have felt when they learned their brand new whip was lying in a charred mess at the bottom of the ocean. Especially since Porsche had actually wrapped production on these models at the end of February.
But luckily for these Porsche enthusiasts, Carscoops is reporting that the automakers says it will actually go back into production in Germany to replace these GT2 RS models, and expects them to be ready for shipment in June – hopefully with better results.
Porsche has confirmed that, besides the aforementioned 911s, it lost 33 other vehicles on the ill-fated journey. Authorities believe most of the cargo burned up in the fire.
