Wrecked Porsche Carrera GT

Hooniverse Asks: What’s the most valuable road car you’ve seen crashed?

Jeff Glucker

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The Gemballa Mirage GT crash from yesterday has me thinking about banged up metal. That car was worth about $750,00. It’s likely totaled, though that’s based on cursory glances at the images snapped at the scene. This accident is an expensive one, and that’s before we get into the other vehicles, potential jail time, or any other associated costs that arise from the crash. Have you seen a more expensive vehicle crash?

I remember years back I drove past a Jaguar E-Type on the 405. It had lost a wheel, likely due to a poorly maintained knock-off, and the car lost control. Luckily, it appeared no one was injured and the car appeared fixable. That was an expensive vehicle, but it’s nowhere near the Gemballa.

Others out there may have seen all manner of supercar crashes. Even those are likely on the lower side of the six-figure range. This one is on the upper end. What have you seen? What crazy vehicles have you seen banged up, be it a fender bender or …worse? Sound off below.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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22 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What’s the most valuable road car you’ve seen crashed?”

  1. Michael McFarlane Avatar
    Michael McFarlane

    R33 GT-R in the hands of a new owner

    Reply
  2. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    I didn’t see it happen, but I saw a phone pic of the damage. A friend’s mom took somebody to the emergency room. In her haste, she parked in the doctor parking area. Unfortunately, also in her haste, she pulled just a little too far forward, and made bumper contact with a doctor’s McLaren. It was the kind of damage that, if you were returning a rental car that had been in a similar incident, you wouldn’t mention it to the rental check-in person and they wouldn’t notice, however Dr. McLaren wanted his baby to be made perfect. That meant a replacement bumper and some very high-end paint work to blend the repair with the rest of the car..

    The estimate was $18K, however her insurance adjuster misread it without the decimal point, and told my friend’s mom her coverage would not be able to pay a $1.8 million claim.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      Wow, I’m sure that barely bothered her at all!

      Reply
  3. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    Automobiles have nothing on boats in this arena. Seems that people are both more prone to conspicuous overspending while simultaneously being under skilled and often inebriated. I once watched a guy overcook a turn in a river in a cabin cruiser that was easily a $100k rig. Understeered his way right up on the bank into a tree.

    Reply
    1. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      Reply
    2. Troggy Avatar
      Troggy

      Hanging out at a boat ramp provides the best (and worse) of both worlds.
      Newbie boaties are the best, for they can neither back a trailer, or drive a boat.

      I felt sorry for the wife of one I watched one day. The husband made her back the trailer (which she had clearly never done in her life) while the guy barked confusing orders from the cockpit of the boat. He kept tripping over in the boat because of the car doing unpredictable things.

      Finally the wife hit her breaking point (she was seriously pissed with he boofhead of a husband by this point) – with the exhaust of the car under water, she shut the engine off. The sharp hissing from the front of the car suggested that water had been drawn up the hot exhaust and maybe up as far as the exhaust manifold to cause untold damage.

      Not satisfied, she got out of the car to yell back at him, but forgot the handbrake…

      The entire rig was hauled back out of the water by a Suzuki Jimny.

      Reply
  4. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/legacy/static/drive/CrashedF40V2.jpg?token=1497899381

    I want to say I drove by this accident scene (about a block north), but I might be misremembering things.

    Reply
  5. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    Street-legal racing-spec Humber Super Snipes are incredibly rare and, by any reasonable automotive standard, quite valuable.

    http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LAF12/636%20-%20LeMons%20Chuckwalla%202012.jpg

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      “by any reasonable automotive standard”?

      Reply
      1. Troggy Avatar
        Troggy

        It depends on how you define “Reasonable”, “Automotive”, and “Standard”.

        Reply
        1. Rover 1 Avatar
          Rover 1

          ‘Almost impossible to assign a value to’ may mean ‘priceless’ or ‘worthless’.

          Reply
  6. longrooffan Avatar
    longrooffan

    Is Disqus eating comments on this post?

    Reply
    1. mdharrell Avatar
      mdharrell

      I saw your earlier comment before it vanished but yes, now it’s gone. Maybe it’ll come back? I had no end of trouble getting Disqus to recognize me so I could make my Super Snipe comment this morning, including several visits directly to disqus.com in order to log into or out of the system properly. I’ve never had to do that before and only tried it out of frustration. The system seems to be unusually grumpy today.

      Reply
      1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
        Jeff Glucker

        I just added a handful of you to the Trusted Users section under Disqus… which I didn’t know was a thing. Hopefully that cuts down on any comments being moved into Pending or Spam.

        Reply
    2. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      I’ll check – hold please

      Reply
  7. onrails Avatar
    onrails

    The leader – by a wide margin – of last year’s One Lap crashed out on day 6 on a drying track at Blackhawk Farms. 3 month old McLaren 720S. He’s an excellent driver and he and I actually had walked the track together that morning marveling at how much grip it felt like it had. I think he put a wheel off the exit of turn 3 and the grass was still so wet there was no hope of getting it back. Next came the tire wall, wrecker, and a lot of fellow competitors expressing condolences. I’ve heard he has gotten it put back together ready to run this year. Now next year. Guessing his repair bill was more than my car was worth! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9924abb2a6e7f62745dcb135ad1d9a46af06f870f0a530bfa461aabf4eb1e3f2.jpg

    Reply
  8. FM Avatar
    FM

    Last Winter I was on the Autobahn passing Nuremberg and after some warm days, it suddenly had become freezing and a little snowy.
    One lane was blocked for maybe two hundred meters, as debris was spred there.

    Slowing down, I saw an ADAC truck that carried a more or less brand new Ferrari GTC4 Lusso – I’d guess Grigio Titano – on its flatbed.

    The road conditions must have surprised the driver, causing the car to spin out, as its front and rear were both badly damadged, so much so that the car lost probably two feet in lengh.

    Reply
  9. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
    SlowJoeCrow

    I haven’t seen any really expensive stuff in person, but Rowan Atkinson’s Mclaren F1 crash was the most expensive car insurance claim in the UK at the time, and it was fixed.

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      F1s are worth so much money that they can’t be written off.

      Reply
  10. longrooffan Avatar
    longrooffan

    #2 I spotted this on the track, it was a road car. It’s no Super Snipe though. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3cf42a1cb476c9242d088cb9c18aee135694e1bd6a6775fe0e6532e1c0fc7a49.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb8a8a6d403e20950cfc74a84fdf869b9cdb90d20f2b4918b6f71d69440517cf.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0efc88b76c6ebb4a326c47a6960d7937ed1b7761e5dc1cb06f7b4fbaba02129.jpg

    Reply
  11. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    The one I can think of was a pretty-new-at-the-time Ferrari backed into the base of a light tower on a very gentle curve on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne early one Sunday morning. How fast you had to be going to lose control there I can’t imagine, or something else was going on.

    In light of longrooffan’s post, have seen a couple of track accidents including a Lotus that wiped the wall at Bathurst on a track day.

    Reply
  12. longrooffan Avatar
    longrooffan

    Although this one was on the track, it was a road car. It’s no Super Snipe though. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3cf42a1cb476c9242d088cb9c18aee135694e1bd6a6775fe0e6532e1c0fc7a49.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb8a8a6d403e20950cfc74a84fdf869b9cdb90d20f2b4918b6f71d69440517cf.jpg

    Reply