This year, racers were reminded that the salt flats outside Wendover were named “Bonneville” after Lake Bonneville, the prehistoric lake that covered a large majority of Western Utah. When Lake Bonneville drained out about 14,000 years ago and the Great Salt Lake started drying up, the salt collections formed west of the present location of the lake. Land speed racing and the Bonneville salt flats have been hand in hand since the early 1900s. Speed racing and lakes have been around longer, but boats are necessary. Combining road cars and lakes always means you’re gonna have a bad time, and one idiot took that lesson to the extreme.

In 2009, Andy House made international news when he deliberately drove his Bugatti Veyron into a saltwater lagoon near Galveston, Texas. The entire event was filmed by a some guys driving along the highway who were fascinated with the million-dollar beauty. As you can plainly see in the video, the Veyron does not float. Oddly enough, however, is that the W16 is fairly water resistant, with witnesses verifying that the motor ran for about fifteen minutes under water before finally hydrolocking. Initially, House made a claim that he dropped his cell phone, bent down to retrieve it, then as he looked back up, was startled by a pelican and swerved off into the water (try not to laugh, I dare you.) He then made a claim on his $2.2 million dollar insurance policy on the car. Then the footage came out, his insurance company cried foul, and everything went to court, where, despite a few hours of research, it seems to still be, though House was able to buy a replacement Veyron, which at last check is parked next to two Lamborghinis and a Porsche. You make your own call with that fact. Just be careful of large shorebirds swooping nearby, they may startle you.