Lamborghini thought it had already built the last of its legendary Aventador supercars. Then disaster struck.
In February 2022, the Felicity Ace caught fire while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The cargo ship eventually sank near the Azores, off Portugal, taking nearly 4,000 vehicles with it.
Among the cars on board were vehicles from several Volkswagen Group brands, including Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini.
But 15 of the Lamborghinis were especially significant.
They were Aventador Ultimae models, a special edition created to celebrate the end of the Aventador’s production run after more than a decade on the market.
The Aventador had been in production since 2011, and the Ultimae was intended to be its final chapter. But when the Felicity Ace went down, some of the last examples of the supercar ended up sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic.
And that left Lamborghini with a very unusual problem.
Lamborghini had to bring the Aventador back
The company had already stopped making the Aventador, meaning it couldn’t simply replace the destroyed cars with vehicles that were still rolling off the production line.
Instead, Lamborghini had to essentially turn back the clock.
CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed that the company would rebuild every Aventador Ultimae that had been lost in the shipwreck. Lamborghini also worked to replace Huracán and Urus models that had been destroyed in the disaster.
Restarting production wasn’t exactly a simple task.
The Italian automaker had to reorganize its manufacturing operations, secure the necessary materials, and find room in its production schedule for cars that had already reached the end of their production run.
For the affected customers, however, it meant they would eventually receive the cars they had been waiting for.
The Aventador Ultimae was not a typical replacement vehicle, either.
It was powered by a 6.5-liter V12 engine capable of pushing the supercar to a top speed of 221 mph. It could also go from 0 to 62 mph in just 2.8 seconds.
Drivers could choose between Strada, Sport, Corsa and Ego modes, while the model carried a starting price of $453,000.
One customer had three cars on the ship
One of the customers caught up in the disaster was YouTuber Exotic Car Hacks, who reportedly had three vehicles aboard the Felicity Ace.
His cars included an Aventador Ultimae and two GT3 models.
Despite production of the Aventador already being over, Lamborghini decided to make another one for him.
“Lucky for me, Lamborghini was very kind and decided to remake me a car even though they had already shut down the plant,” he said, according to VT. “This incident forced them to basically reopen the plant.”
And that’s exactly what Lamborghini ended up doing.
The automaker followed through on its decision and produced replacement vehicles for customers whose cars had been lost when the Felicity Ace sank.
The Aventador finally came to an end
There was one final twist to the story.
In September 2022, the last Aventador eventually left Lamborghini’s production line, officially bringing the model’s run to a close.
The supercar had survived long enough to get one final production run – even after its supposed final examples had disappeared beneath the Atlantic.
The Felicity Ace disaster was not the last time a massive cargo ship carrying thousands of vehicles would be lost at sea.
Another vessel later sank off the coast of Alaska while carrying around 3,000 vehicles from China to Mexico.
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