You Can Buy A Fire-Damaged Bugatti Chiron For A Fraction Of Its Original Price

We have an endless fascination with wrecked exotics that crop up for sale on salvage sites. And today, we’re taking a look at the ultimate example - a fire-damaged Bugatti Chiron.

See also: Here’s A 2005 Ford GT You Can Actually Afford

Listed on CoPart, the red 2019 Chiron looks to have been hit by a Molotov cocktail, causing significant damage to the front three-quarter. The worst bit can’t be seen from the outside - Houston of Royalty Exotics, who considered buying the Bugatti before it arrived on CoPart, thinks that the shock tower is damaged badly enough to be the sole reason for the car’s parts-only title.

Yep, this Chiron is destined to remain off the road forever, meaning it’s of rather limited use. Even if it could be sufficiently repaired for track work, the costs involved would be enormous. Plus, there isn’t exactly a strong market for used Bugatti parts, so stripping it isn’t the most attractive option either. Realistically, you’d be banking on enough people being willing to pay a decent amount for components as memorabilia. One of those fancy leather seats as an office, chair, perhaps.

Houston reckons the Chiron would be best used for display purposes, but it wouldn’t be cheap to get it up to scratch for that either. The front wing on its own is $100,000 to replace, he says. And that’s if Bugatti will sell you one in the first place - as Houston’s found from his restoration of the Veyron which was infamously driven into a lake years back, the French manufacturer is not keen on supplying parts to repair salvaged examples of its products.

Indeed, he theorises that Bugatti will be one of the parties bidding on the Chiron, to stop the car from being used for anything it might deem detrimental to the brand.

Whoever bags the Chiron when the upcoming auction ends will likely come away with the car for a fraction of a 2019 example’s typical usual value. It’s been suggested it might go for as low as $350,000 (£255,000), but let’s see.