I would really hate to be the insurance agent who gets this call!
“An outing of luxury sportscar enthusiasts in Japan ended in an expensive freeway pileup — smashing a stunning eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini and two Mercedes likely worth more than $1 million together.”
What I love about this was that when I first heard it, the broadcast didn’t say whether or not any people were hurt. Just all them poor Ferraris and Lambourghinis.
Even in the first written acount I found, I had to go quite a ways down before they reported that no one was killed or seriously injured.
Now I’ve got Godzilla Godzilla Godzilla runnin’ through my head.
Although it wasn’t mentioned in the article you have, DMark, what cracks me up about this story is the Prius that somehow got involved in the pile-up as well. One of these things is not like the others…
Glad nobody was hurt though. It’d be a lot less funny if there had been fatalities.
$1 million? Bitch, please.
A few years back there was a pileup at a vintage car race right at the flying start. Want to say at Buttonwillow. Lots of rare old cars. Will try to find the link later.
This is the race I suspect you’re thinking of…
From the article:
Never mind the Lamborghini and two Mercedes - this would have to be about the rattiest bunch of 8 Ferraris ever assembled to be worth only a million total.
Most Ferraris on the road aren’t 288 GTOs. Looking at the pictures, I can see an F430 Scuderia (~$200k), A 512/Testarossa (dunno, $60k maybe?) and a bunch of F355s ($60-70k ) and F360s ($70-$80k). Assuming the Scuderia is the most valuable one, it probably adds up to about that much.
The Japanese press is reporting that because of the speeds involved, the insurance won’t cover the damage.
So a few people will be out some pocket change on their own
The estimate I saw on the BBC was 300m yen, $3.85m, £2.46m. Rumour on Radio 2 was that one was an F40.
Insurance companies spread the risks by reinsuring with other companies.
Or by not paying for reckless driving. See post above.
Heck, I was the tail car in a 70 car pile up on I-93 in NH. With some buses and tractor trailer rigs in the mess I bet we added up to $1 million in that one alone. There have been some amazing big pile ups on interstates in the midwest due to fog and snow, I bet they ended up costing even more.
I bet the agent carrying the prius on the books was relieved …
/cries
The Ferrari driver who caused it admits to speeding.
Indeed.
There was one in Taunton (UK) only last month
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45173146/ns/world_news-europe/t/fiery--car-pile-up-kills-several-injures-dozens/
When I clicked on this link there were links at the bottom to several other stories about the crash including estimates of the cost of the crash:
the original $1 million
$2.8 million
$3.8 million
$4 million
I think perhaps we should accept that reporters rarely know what they’re talking about 
Unless you just bent your fender ------ in which case it should be “Turning Japanese”