The crazy story behind Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 crash
The story of Elon Musk’s McLaren F1, the million-dollar supercar he bought before he was 30, and summarily wrote-off without insurance …
Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 was made famous back in December 1999. At the time, the 28-year old sought to purchase a set of wheels that perfectly symbolised his burgeoning dot-com success. If only we all knew how much more the former Pretoria Boys’ High boy had in the tank, so to speak. Tesla, SpaceX, the Whitehouse …
However, before all that, back in the ‘90s, Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 was by some considerable margin the world’s most exclusive supercar. Fresh from selling his first company, Zip2, to Compaq for approximately $307 million, Musk personally received roughly $22 million. With it, the youngster decided to reward himself with arguably the finest automobile ever created. It was such an auspicious moment that a CNN camera crew was somehow on hand to document it.
ELON MUSK’S MCLAREN F1
Mind you, Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 wasn’t just any supercar. Designed by South African-born engineering legend Gordon Murray, it was produced in very limited numbers. Only 106 were ever built and it was famously marketed from the outset as the ‘million-dollar supercar’. This made it even more desirable for the super-rich.
What made the F1 remarkable was its central driving position, flanked by two small passenger seats slightly offset. It featured an all-carbon fibre construction and gold-foil heat shields for the gorgeous naturally aspirated BMW V12 engine. In the video footage, a visibly excited Musk and then-fiancee Justine Wilson appear to treat the McLaren F1 with outright apprehension. Musk even coyly remarks: “Wow, it’s a million dollars for a car. That’s pretty nutty,” as he stands staring at it.
CRASHED AND UNINSURED
Unfortunately, Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 was to suffer a regrettable end. In 2000, while driving with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Musk reportedly attempted to demonstrate the car’s zero to 100 km/h acceleration (a claimed 3.0 seconds). However, Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 lost traction hit an embankment and spun in mid-air like a discus before crashing into a ditch. Remarkably, neither man was injured, but the supercar was uninsured and damaged beyond repair.
In typical fashion for the cavalier billionaire, Musk later reflected on the incident in an interview with nonchalance: “I didn’t have insurance, but that didn’t seem like a big deal since I had plenty of money,” he said. Moreover, Elon Musk’s McLaren F1 arguably laid the groundwork for his relationship with automobiles. The man’s passion for engineering and automotive eventually found expression in Tesla Motors. Of course, the electric-only Teslas would represent a radical departure from the V12 supercar Musk once coveted. However, the company clearly shares a similar commitment to pushing engineering boundaries and redefining performance. To bad about the F1 though …
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