Eight Ferrari, three Mercedes and a Lamborghini in Japan
2011
If it is not the most expensive car crash in the world, it is certainly one of the most spectacular (and stupid!): twelve supercars worth about 3.85 million dollars were damaged. All happened in Japan – in the prefecture Yamaguchi, near the town of Simonoseki: a cortege of twenty cars was going along the narrow highway to the party of supercar owners in Hiroshima. According to eyewitnesses, they were all driving at a considerable excessive speed, though not absurdly fast: about 140-160 kilometers per hour.
The asphalt was wet after the rain, and powerful rear-wheel drive cars can be very treacherous in such conditions! But how did so many cars get into an accident at once? Eyewitnesses say that the owners of sports cars were driving in pairs. And driver’s mistake caused a chain reaction! A 60 years old businessman’s Ferrari F430 Scuderia skidded while redesigning, hit the roadblock dividing the streams…
Our selection includes accidents involving the most expensive cars of our time. But for an ordinary driver, an accident with a native Volkswagen or Kia is more painful and the damage is more significant, than for an oligarch – an accident with a Ferrari. That’s why Rosgosstrakh has created a product called Anti-Crisis Casco, where insurance is more favorable than usual.
The drivers who were following him even managed to slow down, but collided with each other, and at the same time “collected” a couple of Toyota cars driving nearby: all in all fourteen wrecked cars were left on the asphalt…
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL in Germany
2013
The owner of the legendary “gull wing” had nothing to do with this accident, which happened in Pleidelsheim, north of Stuttgart. All he did was bring his rarity to Mechatronics, a company that specializes in vintage Mercedes, for maintenance. After the work was done, the 26-year-old mechanic decided to test the car on the road, taking a 19-year-old trainee for company. But he went too fast – the police report says the car was going “clearly faster than the allowed 80 kilometers per hour.”
The sports car went off the road and overturned. Fortunately, nobody was killed in the accident, and the car was insured, and the insurance also covered such incidents. According to experts’ estimates, the inflicted damage costs 650 thousand Euros (48.5 million rubles at today’s exchange rate). This is the minimum value of a 300 SL coupe in good condition. In the period from 1954 to 1957 year was released only 1400 cars with in-line six-cylinder engine capacity of three liters and 220 horsepower. However, the lightweight version with an aluminum body (29 copies) is valued much higher: at auctions, it was offered for more than four million euros.
Ferrari Enzo in Nice
2006
Terrible accident in Nice with a black Ferrari Enzo was especially memorable in Russia. At the wheel of the car was Suleiman Kerimov, a billionaire, and with him was Tina Kandelaki, a TV presenter. The details of what happened we know only approximately: Kerimov was driving past Nice airport, and it seems that he was going much faster than the permitted speed.
The billionaire lost control of his supercar while overtaking one of the passing cars – the Ferrari skidded on the wet asphalt, flew onto the dividing lawn, crashed sideways into a tree, broke in half and burst into flames. Both occupants managed to get out of the burning car; Kerimov received severe burns, but survived. And the car belonging to his acquaintance costing about 650 thousand Euros was fatally damaged: it is impossible to repair it without complete replacement of parts of the chassis…
Bugatti Veyron in the USA
2009
The notorious accident that took a Bugatti Veyron to the bottom of a salt lake in Texas turned out to be an episode of insurance fraud. The owner of the supercar Andy House, owner of the “dismantling” exotic cars claimed that he drove the car into the water to avoid collision with a large pelican. In doing so, he “forgot” to turn off the engine – the engine got sloshed with water, and the car was deemed a “total loss.”
But, coincidentally, the accident was filmed on a smartphone by passing drivers, attracted by the sight of the exotic sports car. Their footage clearly showed that no bird was there! Then House changed his statement – he allegedly dropped the phone and bent down to pick it up.
The investigation revealed that House had insured the $1.6 million supercar for $2.2 million – and deliberately sunk it to get the insurance payout.
Bentley Azure, Ferrari F430, Porsche 911, Aston Martin Rapide, Mercedes-Benz S-Class in Monaco
2011
To get on our hit-parade, one blonde in a Bentley, who “successfully” went to Monaco, was enough. Such concentration of expensive exotics, as in this Mediterranean princedom, is difficult to find. No wonder the driver of a light-blue convertible on the square near the casino snagged a Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
