PetrolHead Nightmare: Four Thousand Exotics Gone In One Shipwreck
Picture a 650-foot cargo freighter loaded end to end with high-roller metal. The Felicity Ace set sail in February 2022 from Germany. Its route aimed for Rhode Island. The manifest read like a billionaire’s shopping list: showroom-fresh Bentleys, sparkling new Porsches, a fleet of Audi SUVs, plus those rare Lamborghinis people post on wall calendars.
Halfway across the Atlantic, disaster struck. On February 16, a fire started deep below deck. Crew scrambled and launched a mayday. Twenty-two sailors got to lifeboats, leaving the ship bobbing with the entire car load trapped inside. Lithium-ion batteries from several electric and hybrid cars made the fire harder to handle. Crews fought for days to control the blaze but the ship only drifted, got battered by wind, then took on water.
By March, the Felicity Ace surrendered and went down more than two miles deep. That resting place is lower than most submarines have ever ventured. Early fears of a towering oil slick proved wrong. A close watch shows no major leaks so far, but 4,000 rare cars now sleep with the fishes—every single one a write-off.
Volkswagen Group’s total insurance hit landed north of $150 million. At least 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys turned into new shipwreck legends overnight. Lamborghini counted several Aventadors lost, some with custom specs that can’t be replaced, not even for big money. High-rollers and dealers waited months only to get calls saying “your new car is now part of the ocean floor.” Some buyers were offered remakes, others got refunds. The story still stings.
Collectors immediately started talking value. Simple math: fewer cars on the road, so the survivors gain even more collector juice. The legend of the Felicity Ace will get told alongside classic car lost and found stories for decades—because when the Atlantic decides to collect cars, it sure doesn’t cherry pick.
Logistics teams and insurers started rethinking how to stack, ship, and protect valuable cargo after the fire. Some see this as a freak event, others as a warning shot for high-value shipping in a battery-powered world. Either way, nobody looks at a transatlantic car hauler without thinking of the felled Felicity.
Felicity Ace’s cargo gave one last show—straight to the bottom. The dreamers, drivers, and collectors who lost out now have a shipwreck story to tell forever.
