Most people celebrate a major achievement with a bottle of champagne. Anthony Hsieh, a self-made billionaire residing in California, who took delivery of his Bugatti Mistral hypercar and custom 50-foot fishing boat on the same day, decided to race them against each other instead. The resulting social media content makes for the kind of viral engagement for Hsieh’s company, Bad Company Fishing Adventures, that doesn’t come cheap. Certainly not when you factor in the Bugatti’s $5 million asking price, or the likely millions that a custom fishing boat can cost.
Hsieh, of course, enlisted the help of someone who truly understands Bugatti to pull it off. Mate Rimac, the CEO of Bugatti Rimac, showed up personally. Together, they hatched a plan that required calling in a favor. Police agreed to shut down a public road so the pair could have some fun.
“The police are closing down this road so we can have some fun in this car. Just a normal day,” Rimac casually mentioned in a video he posted on social media. Because apparently, when you run Bugatti, getting roads closed for joyrides is completely routine. The Mistral certainly is the sort of car that deserves roads to be shut down for it to be enjoyed to the fullest. It’s the final road-legal car to feature Bugatti’s iconic W16 engine. In the Mistral, it puts out 1,600 horsepower, does the 0-62mph run in about 2.4 seconds, and tops out over 260mph. There aren’t a lot of vehicles that can keep up, on land or on water.
But Hsieh’s boat is no ordinary fishing vessel either. Bad Company Fishing Adventures’ new toy is christened the 50 Gameboat. Built by Crosswait custom composites using lightweight materials, it was designed to chase marlin and tuna around the globe.
Twin MAN 850 engines give it enough power to hit 44 knots, a top speed far faster than most other fishing vessels of its size. To call this just a fishing boat is sort of like calling the Bugatti Mistral just a car, which is to say, they’re both understatements of the century.
The race pitted hypercar against hyper fishing boat, with both vehicles pretty much the absolute peak of their respective domains. Rimac teased the showdown online, and it’s already got a lot of attention. The result of the race is yet to be revealed, but the real winner is already clear. It’s the billionaire who came up the hard way, and is now celebrating success by having police close roads for your entertainment.
