Watch: The Harrowing Tale of Crashing a Veyron at 250 MPH

Test drivers have a pretty great job. Especially those who work for supercar manufacturers. But that great job comes with some very real risks.

Bugatti test driver Loris Bicocchi in this video tells the story of crashing an early Veyron at 250 mph at the Nardo test track.

Apart from anything else, the video proves just how incredible the Bugatti Veyron, and any hypercar that can hit speed in excess of 200 mph, really is.

Everything has to be considered and any mistake could end in death when you’re driving at those speeds. To wit, Bicocchi doesn’t believe that the car or the tires were to blame for his crash.

Instead (spoilers) he blames a little door the company put in the fender to reach the power steering pump faster. The door was fastened firmly, but at 250 mph the forces are enormous.

As an example, when the Veyron’s windows shattered from his impact, he suffered trauma to his ear, not from the actual impact, but from the pressure change.

But fortunately, the story has a happy ending. Blinded by the hood against the windshield, covered in oil, and unable to brake, Bicocchi managed to run up against the guardrail and slow himself down enough to jump out of the car.

“I don’t know if it was the experience, the cold blood, luck, or maybe the fact that I wanted to go to the fish restaurant, but I made it,” says Bicocchi, who suffered only minor injuries as a result of the crash.

And despite narrowly escaping death, he has a pretty good sense of humor about the event. All he took away from the accident was a good story, he says.

For Bugatti, meanwhile, they, apparently, were pretty happy with the accident, because it proved that their chassis could withstand an accident at speed—and even Bicocchi agrees.

Maybe the most galling part is that Bicocchi got a bill from Nardo for 1,800 meters worth of damage to their guardrails. Fortunately, though, Bugatti agreed to pay for it.

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