The best laid plans of mice, men, and track day addicts, right? Because just when you thought global supply chain woes couldn’t get any worse, fate says, “Hold my beer.” Or is that hold my Flaming Moe? Yes friends, a transport ship named the Felicity Ace loaded with approximately 2,500 brand new cars is on fire close to the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,000 miles west of the Portuguese mainland. All 22 members of the crew abandoned ship and are safe. The boat itself is “Not under command,” however. That means no one is at the helm. Moreover, no one is putting the fire out.
The Felicity Ace left the German port of Emden on February 10 loaded with Volkswagen Group products, scheduled to arrive in Davisville, Rhode Island on February 23. We don’t know the exact breakdown of the cargo, but alphabetically speaking it could include Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Volkswagen products. True, Bentley is owned by Volkswagen AG, but those vehicles are built in Crewe, UK, and are presumably shipped to North America separately. We don’t know the cause of the fire, but we do know that 1,100 of the (presumably) doomed cars are Porsches. We reached out to Porsche for a comment on what happens next, in case one of those might be yours.
“Our immediate thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew of the merchant ship “Felicity Ace” are safe and well.
A number of our cars are among the cargo. We are in contact with the shipping company and the details of the cars on board are now known. Customers affected by the incident are being contacted by their dealer.
While it remains too early to confirm what occurred and next steps, we are—along with our colleagues at Porsche AG—supporting our customers and our dealers as best we can to find solutions. Anyone concerned by this incident and the implications on the car they’ve ordered should maintain in contact with dealer with which their order was placed.”
We asked Porsche if any of the cars were salvageable and they replied that at this time, they just don’t know. We do know that one of the cars specifically was destined—eventually—for Los Angeles. None other than our friend and founder of The Smoking Tire, Matt Farah, was scheduled to take delivery of a Frozen Berry Metallic Porsche 718 Spyder. His plan was to hand the car off to Deman Motorsport in New York and have them punch the 4.0-liter flat-six engine out to 4.5-liters, taking the horsepower from a respectable 414 to a nutso 565 hp! Deman shortens the gears, too, among other performative tweaks. That’s no longer happening. From Farah:
“When I saw the story, once I saw that all the crew had been evacuated, I wondered where my car might be, given that it was expected to be delivered on February 25th. I texted my dealer in New Jersey, who confirmed that my car is on the boat, (which super sucks, because I ordered it in August). They have no further information at this time, but said they would keep me posted with any updates from Porsche directly. I also spoke with Porsche PR people who had no further information at this time. I assume, like the 2019 GT2 RS thing [a similar accident involving GT2 RS’s and other VW Group products in shipment occurred in 2019—Ed.], that Porsche will prioritize getting those special order cars rebuilt and shipped, but who knows. Yeah, it’s super shitty.”
Not sure what’s left to be said.
Keyword: When Your New Porsche Is on a Burning Ship in the Atlantic Ocean