Mat Armstrong/YouTubeThe Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is a super-rare car, so whenever one is destroyed, it's a significant loss for the car community — especially since it's priced well over $3 million. The Bugatti in question belongs to Alex Gonzalez, a Miami content creator who crashed it himself. The damage was pretty serious, too, with the nose crumpled and every airbag fired. Underneath, even the gearbox housing had shattered. His insurer wrote the car off and paid out. However, Gonzalez actually bought the car back at an auction with a salvage title for around $1.9 million.Now the car could technically be repaired by Bugatti, and they even quoted a figure — $1.7 million – roughly half the car's original price. That was conditional, though — the car would have to be transported to the factory in Molsheim, France. Gonzalez apparently decided all this wasn't worth the trouble. Bugatti then locked the car's VIN, the serial number dealers use to order parts, so no dealership would sell anything for it.With no way to repair the car, the only option left was to go to Mat Armstrong. Armstrong is a British YouTuber whose entire channel runs on getting written-off exotics like this Chiron back onto the road. He was the perfect guy, considering he had already rebuilt a Bugatti Veyron once before. He actually managed to get the car properly up and running, detailing the whole process in a video.AdvertisementAdvertisementRead more: 12 Classic Cars That Turned Out To Be ProblematicWhy Bugatti wouldn't touch the repairMat Armstrong/YouTubeThe reason Bugatti refused repairs was that the damage was too extensive, as the CEO himself — Mate Rimac – laid out in a video on his Instagram. The company also reportedly suspected structural damage to the monocoque. That's essentially the chassis on cars like these, onto which the engine, suspension, and bodywork all bolt. While damage to the chassis or monocoque can sometimes be fixed if it's not too severe, in this case it meant properly opening up the car — intricate work that Bugatti limits to its own factory.So Armstrong got to work, which he's covered in a new video. He first flew out to inspect the wreck in October 2025, and since then he's been on it, with the repair process taking months so far. That process included everything from rebuilding both door mirrors pin by pin to recharging the air conditioning at home.Since no official panels could be used due to the locked VIN, Armstrong had to turn to a kit from Venuum, a firm that builds aftermarket bodywork for exotic cars. He specifically used a $700,000 wide-body kit from the brand. While the panels do look a bit plasticky due to their chunky appearance, they're at least carbon fiber, which is the same material Bugatti itself uses.The parts Armstrong had to improviseMat Armstrong/YouTubeArmstrong also had to rely on secondhand pieces for several fixes. For instance, the mesh grilles sitting behind the front bumper came off Amazon. There's the hood latch, too, which was lifted from a Volkswagen Touran — both cars use a near-identical part, and that shouldn't come as a surprise considering elite supercars running unassumingly basic parts isn't exactly a new phenomenon. Rather ingeniously, fresh aluminum air conditioning lines were heated and soldered by hand, too. Finally, a Florida body shop stripped the old wrap and sprayed the whole car pearlescent Lamborghini purple.AdvertisementAdvertisementNot everything could be properly repaired, though — the car still needs a windshield and its roof glass. Cracked glass like this is pretty tough to repair or replace, since it carries a Bugatti stamp that nobody else can legally reproduce.Now, those parts eventually froze and loosened. But that only happened after Gonzalez went public asking for the car to be unblacklisted. At one point, he even threatened to 3D print the parts himself. These antics prompted Rimac to message him directly in response and later to post that Instagram video. Bugatti then unlocked the VIN and came back with a lower repair figure than the original $1.7 million. Gonzalez and Armstrong carried on their own way regardless.Next, Armstrong wants to take the finished car to its 217 mph limit, which is something that can only be reached if the Chiron's computers report that there's no fault in the car. We'll likely see more videos from the creator as he completes the project.Want the latest in tech and auto trends? Subscribe to our free newsletter for the latest headlines, expert guides, and how-to tips, one email at a time. You can also add us as a preferred search source on Google.Read the original article on SlashGear.
