My Encounter with Ralph Lauren and his Bugatti Veyron - July 16, 2007

[Event]

I guess your life is complete, eh? The holy grail of car spotting.

 

[Tornado]

All that effort to follow a Jeep Wrangler that you lost anyways? Some people...


To be honest Doug, I wouldn't be surprised if the "three-point-turn" wasn't, in fact, "pulled the handbrake."

This picture really is too easy to caption, but it fits ExigeExcel's comment so well.

Now go see a W8

Seconded.


Anyways, +rep for Doug.
Edit: Or not.

 

[Dead_Poetic]

Wow, Doug. How happy were you that you were wearing a Polo?? I think thats the funny part. Anyways, plus rep man, plus rep.

 

[Blake]

Awesome job, Doug. That is the best spot ever, and has a great story behind it to boot.

Also, you could probably sell those photos.

 

[Blackbird.]

Congratulations on the spot and the chance to meet RL and a close-up of the Veyron but... You're nuts. If I'd seen a Veyron going in the opposite I'd practically jump out of my seat too but I sure as hell wouldn't slam my brakes on a 65mph highway! Good job.

 

[1X83Z]

Just the Enzo to go now, I assume?

I guess so. I'm at a point now where I've seen just about anything on the road a dozen times, and I now have to get that Enzo spot. One moved to the Denver metro area last month (in addition to the one we've already got here) so I'm hoping I have a better chance now. Of course, the Veyron is a better spot than the Enzo being both rarer and more valuable, but to continue completing a full set of supercars, an Enzo is a must.

However, I would also like to spot dozens of other rare cars I've never seen. Easy ones like the Aston-Martin Vanquish, Ferrari 599 GTB, and Lamborghini Jalpa are musts, and even hard ones like the Bugatti EB110 or, indeed, a Vector are 'one day' items - but for now the Enzo is public enemy number one. I've told everyone I know to be on the lookout for a "red or black car that looks like a giant insect." We'll see if they come through.

Thats simply amazing. I still have yet to see one, and I'm quite jealous. None of my friends seemed to believe the story, as it is a wild one. Funny enough, its on Digg.com as well, last I checked it had a few less than 10 Diggs so far...

Naturally whomever Digged the story labeled it as being in California. Urgh. I hope this doesn't get too Digged, or the photos will probably be posted elsewhere again.

To be honest Doug, I wouldn't be surprised if the "three-point-turn" wasn't, in fact, "pulled the handbrake."

I thought about pulling the handbrake, but we had a car come in to our rental office with flat spots in the rear tires from people doing that too much, and given how expensive my tires were I decided against doing that. I knew I didn't need to anyway, and it would've just alarmed my girlfriend.

Thanks again all for the rep and the kind words - I am still in awe of this spot four days later. During quiet moments I still immediately think of that oddly-shaped grille coming towards me and my sheer excitement when I caught up to it.

 

[Joey D]

Wow Doug, that's freakin' awesome. I've seen one Veyron but it was at a Concourse show so it doesn't really count with the whole car spotting thing but I'm guess that's about as close as I will get. I doubt anyone owns one in Michigan, the roads would kill the thing.

But hey there is nothing like driving 105+ (I wouldn't know the Blazer does 98mph) to catch a car. I must applaud you in driving skill, lack of concern for traffic laws, and the car spot 👍. I don't think I can +rep you again, but if I can you sir deserve it.

 

[F1GTR]

Ralph Lauren > Tommy Hilfiger.

Great shots, man. What camera and lens are you using again?

He used a Panasonic DMC LZ3. I simply checked the EXIF.

Black on black is definitely the way to go on the Veyron. Great story and pics Doug.

 

[land sea air]

I HATE YOU AND YOU SMELL

my car is faster and would have been doing 106 by the time I caught up so

 

[YSSMAN]

Naturally whomever Digged the story labeled it as being in California. Urgh. I hope this doesn't get too Digged, or the photos will probably be posted elsewhere again.

Too late.

Catching Up With Ralph Laruen's Bugatti Veyron

There aren't many cars that can make a grown man go all giddy inside. Exotics from automakers Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren all come to mind, but there's one car that beats all others, and that's the Bugatti Veyron.

We can imagine how one fan, Doug DeMuro on the GTP forums, must have felt when he came across the million dollar supercar whilst driving in the Colorado countryside, near an estate owned by fashion designer and known Veyron owner Ralph Lauren. Driving past the main building of the estate, roughly 15 to 20 garage spaces could clearly be seen, and further up the highway was an ominous black shape moving very fast.

The chase was on, but keeping up with the world's fastest production car is no easy task. After completing a three-point-turn on a 65mph state highway and picking his way through the rural two-laner, the poster managed to snap several pics of Ralph and the Veyron as they darted away. Later, catching up to the car in a parking lot, Ralph Lauren was gracious enough to talk to Doug about the car and call it "incredible."

Check out the forum post at the "Read" link for the full story and many more photos of Ralph's Veyron.

[Source: GT Planet forums]

And yes, I did send them the link. But, they did get it right after all...

 

[Muzaffar]

good job! 👍 Now Doug is going to be famous (is he)....well,no good deed will be left unrewarded....whatever,i still can't believe this report even when i read it almost everyday (not exactly.that would be plain rubbish) I wonder what Doug would take photos of now.....a Caparo T1 maybe?Even one of the rarest super cars ever built in Japan?The Tommy Kaira ZZII?(yeah,i wish i could see that car in real life )

 

[1X83Z]

And yes, I did send them the link. But, they did get it right after all...

No worries - this morning I checked my phone at 11:20 to three texts and a voicemail saying things such as 'OH MY GOD YOU'RE ON AUTOBLOG.'

Can't really believe it at this point - it was already hard to grasp and now it's even crazier with my Veyron spot on the front page of Autoblog.

 

[MistaX]

"But I'll tell you who's even MORE gracious-- the long-distance girlfriend. Came all the way from ATL to spend some quality time with our chap Doug. Quality time consists of: being woken up suddenly, tossed around in the car, BF is performing several illegal and dangerous maneuvers, and for what? Someone else's car."

Oh god, that's classic.

 

[land sea air]

my gf would have kicked my ass, but I still would have done the exact same thing... Well Doug I guess shell be driving from now on

 

[Joey D]

Well Doug is an internet celebrity.

 

[YSSMAN]

Is that better or worse than being the "Crazy guy who likes French cars from Mexico" in Car and Driver?

 

[picklesam]

looks like its circulating

http://www.motorauthority.com/

 

[Blackbird.]

Damn news does spread fast on the internet.

 

[1X83Z]

Oh god, that's classic.

A friend of mine wrote that comment, and a few other friends popped up on there too. I tried to reply but couldn't; maybe they screen their replies. (?) Caught some pseudo-spy shots of some new Mercedes models high-altitude testing on Mt Evans, America's highest Auto Road - maybe I'll make Autoblog twice this week!

Motorauthority needs to use my name - I'm e-mailing them later telling them to remove my images!

 

[Quiet_Storm]

You talked to Ralph Lauren in his Veyron and you didn't ask him to adopt you?? That would've been the first thing out of my mouth.

 

[Eric.]

Autoblog makes it sound like Ralph was speeding away at 253.3MPH when really you were the only one doing anything out of the ordinary.

Edit: This seriously dwarfs my spot of the day. I found a '07 GT500 convertible, in orange, leaving Wal-Mart. I made my cousin tail him while I took some video and snapped off a few pictures after we got past him.

 

[Rue]

Amazing spot Doug. We might as well all go home now. I think it's great that Ralph was so approachable in the situation and opened with the joke about the shirt. Great stuff! Couldn't have happened to a more deserving car-spotter!

 

[1X83Z]

I HATE YOU AND YOU SMELL

my car is faster and would have been doing 106 by the time I caught up so

Is your car faster? Really?

Amazing spot Doug. We might as well all go home now. I think it's great that Ralph was so approachable in the situation and opened with the joke about the shirt. Great stuff! Couldn't have happened to a more deserving car-spotter!

Thanks so much! 👍

 

[Pupik]

I haven't seen this sort of guest visitation since GT4 debuted: 31 guests in a thread.

Break out the Ritz Crackers and Easy Cheese!

Note: You've exceeded PhotoBucket's bandwidth, Doug. If I had mod powers, I'd get one or two of your pics on my site to help out. PM me if you need some assistance, and I'll send you the URLs after I FTP them.

 

[1X83Z]

45 guests viewing the thread right now. No surprise I've exceeded PhotoBucket's bandwidth, but frankly I'm not in a huge hurry to make these things available to the general public - we'll just have to wait for the whole thing to die down.

 

[Muzaffar]

Can they just leave us GT Planet members alone?Having been famous does bring some controversy.....(not to you guys anyway) can they just copy the report and paste them on their website?I know Doug would let the....right?

 

[Pupik]

Can they just leave us GT Planet members alone?

On the contrary, Jordan would probably like them to join! It's free, after all.

Note to our non-member visitors: Jordan's our admin. We're also out of Ritz Crackers. Try the vending machine down the hall.

 

[Eric.]

On the contrary, Jordan would probably like them to join! It's free, after all.

Note to our non-member visitors: Jordan's our admin. We're also out of Ritz Crackers. Try the vending machine down the hall.

And make sure you avoid those doors marked "Forzacentral Forum" and FM.net Forum".




Nah, just kidding.

 

[McLaren]

Doug, who was the man with him? His son?

 

[1X83Z]

Doug, who was the man with him? His son?

Still have absolutely no idea. I had never seen the man before. White, in his late 40s, with a full beard, and slightly on the heavy side - but not fat. He was also a nice guy - when he originally rolled down his window (as I approached from the passenger side) I asked 'How is it?' and he answered sarcastically 'Eh...' and waved his hand to indicate 'it's okay.' A few of us standing around laughed. If you have any photos of his sons I could definitely make an ID - otherwise who knows.