Mark Wahlberg Admitted the Bugatti in ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ Was Off-Limits
While celebrities may be rich and famous, sometimes, even celebrities aren’t allowed to drive an exotic car. This was the case for Mark Wahlberg when he was filming Transformers: Age of Extinction. Here’s a look at the expensive Bugatti that even Mark Wahlberg wasn’t allowed to touch, let alone drive.
The cars in ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’
Cars and movies have been a popular combination for a long time. While most car movies are like Ford v. Ferrari or Fast & Furious, the Transformers franchise takes a fun spin on things. Obviously, in the Transformer movies, the cars can transform themselves into cool robots. As such, not only do the Transformers need to be cool, but so do the cars.
According to Business Insider, quite a few cool cars showed up in Transformers: Age of Extinction. For example, Optimus Prime transforms himself into the 2015 Western Star 5700, which is a big rig that’s estimated to cost about $150,000. Bumblebee fans obviously know that Bumblebee turns himself into a Chevy Camaro, and in Transformers: Age of Extinction, he becomes both a 1967 Camaro as well as a 2014 Camaro.
However, the most expensive car that was in the movie has to be the 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Not only was it a very rare car that transformed into a samurai robot, but the stars of the movie couldn’t even touch it.
A look at the 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse
The Bugatti Veyron name is probably well-known by now, as the Veyron was not only a very fast car, but it was also a very expensive and rare car. This was exactly the case with the Vitesse, which was a trim of the Veyron that had an open-top. Not only did it have an open-top, but it also had a very powerful engine, an engine that was actually a bit more powerful than the original Veyron’s.
The Vitesse had an 8.0-liter W16 quad-turbocharged engine that got about 1,200 hp and 1,100 lb-ft of torque. According to Bugatti, this allowed the Vitesse to accelerate from 0 to 60 MPH in about 2.6 seconds.
On top of that, it could also hit a top speed of 254 MPH. As a result of those impressive specs, Business Insider said that the Vitesse was the world’s fastest open-top supercar in 2013.
And of course, all of that power and speed means a lot of money. The Vitesse started at about $2.5 million, and only a few dozen were ever created. Due to that fact, it’s not surprising that when the Vitesse was used in Transformers: Age of Extinction, very few people were allowed to touch it.
Mark Wahlberg couldn’t even touch the Bugatti
Wahlberg said, according to USA Today, “They don’t let you touch it unless you’re going to shoot in it, you got to be very careful.” Wahlberg explained that this was because of two factors. First, the Vitesse was very expensive and obviously, the people in charge didn’t want anything to happen to it. Secondly, they only had access to just the one Vitesse, so if anything happened to it, Wahlberg said that it would’ve been “a problem.”
Every part of the Vitesse was worth protecting, as Wahlberg said about the Vitesse, “That’s like a $600,000 carbon fiber paint job on it.” It didn’t help matters that for the movie, they had to film in a rock quarry, and as a result, a lot of rocks ended up touching the Bugatti.
All that effort seemed to have paid off, though. Like USA Today wrote, Transformers: Age of Extinction made $201,200,000 worldwide in just its opening weekend.