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Hugh Grant Has a Breakdown in His Ferrari California

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos


Hugh Grant had an embarrassing incident on the way to a posh golf club in Kent, UK the other day when his $220,000 Ferrari California broke down leaving him stranded on the roadside. Grant purchased the flashy car for his 50th birthday in August but seems to have ended up with an expensive lemon. The actor was on his way to play golf at the nearby Royal St. George's club when the Italian stallion stalled out, the London Daily Mail reports. He tried to rev the engine back to life, leaving the fast lane blocked and forcing passing cars to swerve out of the way. Unable to get it started again he eventually managed to pull off to the side of the road, where he then called a tow truck. After a long wait during which the actor answered a call of nature in the bushes as drivers gawked at the spectacle, he eventually he had to beg a ride from a passing VW van in order to make his tee time. Grant later took the car in to a Ferrari dealership in London where he read them the riot act.

Qatar Royal Crashes Lamborghini in London

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Qatar Royal Crashes Lamborghini in London
Back in August we told you about the Qatar royals' $2.5 million in customized baby blue supercars which were clamped by the cops in London outside Harrods, which they bought for $2.2 billion last spring. Now a member of Qatar's ruling Al-Thani clan has crashed one of them, the $550,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce (above) in London as well. The car was nearly totaled at Hyde Park Corner after a high-speed chase involving a white BMW M5, which got the worst of it. "The BMW smashed into the central reservation, bounced off and then hit the Lamborghini," an eyewitness told the London Evening Standard. "Both cars were definitely traveling very fast." There were no injuries and no arrests following the incident, which came after most of the Arab playboys had taken their toys home again after a high octane summer. "We thought it was going to quieten down but it's picking up again," solicitor Bruce Beringer, who lives in the posh neighborhood, told the paper. "It's like a second season. We are kept up until 4 am because of the noise of these people revving their engines and racing down the street. These Bugattis and Ferraris make a huge amount of noise."

VIDEO: How NOT to Test Drive a $1.25 Million Bugatti

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Video



There's a right and a wrong way to test drive a Bugatti Veyron. The right way: crank it up past 200 mph on the Autobahn with a coked-out supermodel riding shotgun. The wrong way: back it into a Corolla two minutes after taking the wheel. Here we have a demonstration of the wrong way, courtesy of some hapless schmuck in Chicago with good credit but lousy driving skills. It seems the unfortunate fellow was test driving a $1.25 million 2008 black-and-white Veyron 16.4 with a brown leather interior at Chicago's Bentley Gold Coast when he clipped an idling Toyota for no apparent reason while backing out of the dealership. He then proceeded to scrape up the Veyron's front bumper on the pavement while pulling forward to extricate himself. All in all he caused an estimated $30,000 worth of damage, or enough for a couple of brand new Corollas. Adding insult to injury he didn't even buy the Bugatti.

[via JamesList]

$2 Million Bugatti & Three Other Supercars Smashed in Wild Autobahn Weekend

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Crimes and Misdemeanors


A recent weekend in Germany saw the wanton destruction of a small fortune in supercars in a series of unbelievable smashups on the Autobahns. In the space of a mere 48 hours a Bugatti, two Lamborghinis and an Audi R8 were all totaled while traveling at eye-popping speeds. The first two casualties were a rare $2 million Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport (above) and a Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster, involved in separate incidents mere hours apart. The Lamborghini was driven by a 32-year-old who lost control of the car in Vaterstetten in lower Franconia but miraculously walked away unharmed. The driver of the Grand Sport lost control while passing another car at 125 mph, causing some $560,000 worth of damage. Then a black Lamborghini LP670-4SV driven by a couple of mechanics who'd just performed an oil change on the vehicle spun out and got pretty badly banged up. And finally a limited edition $200,000 Audi R8 GT, one of only 333 built, burned to cinders after crashing near Denkendorf on the A9.

Is Ferrari's New $265,000 Supercar an Accident-Prone Firetrap? [video]

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Video


Is there a curse on Ferrari's new $265,000 supercar, the stunning 458 Italia? In the mere 90 days that have elapsed since the first models were delivered to well-heeled customers, 458s the world over have been the victim of an inordinate amount of crashes, fires and other mishaps, the sheer number of which seem to indicate a mechanical flaw rather than mere idiotic driving. Their frequency and severity – such as the spontaneous combustion of one example on a Paris street (above) – has prompted Ferrari reps to declare that "We are taking it very seriously and investigating each incident" but they have declined to comment further or admit to any production flaw. Rumors abound however that faulty gas overflow tubes and vapor systems are to blame. Designed by famed styling house Pininfarina, the 458 has a 4.5-litre V8 engine boosting it from 0–62 mph in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 202 mph. There have been 11 recorded wrecks in all, making for nearly $3 million in trashed exotics. Check out a timeline of the 458 Italia incidents and a video of the one that recently caught fire in China after the jump:

[via JamesList]

Arab Playboys Arrested After Supercar Smash in London

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors


Yesterday we reported that a cabal of mega-rich Arab playboys have made London the world's supercar capital this summer, shipping an estimated $80 million worth of eye-popping vehicles to the city while waiting out the heat in their homeland. With all the ultra-luxe vehicles racing around the crowded city, something was bound to go wrong, and it has; two of the fast-living fellows were arrested in Knightsbridge the other day after plowing their $280,000 Lamborghini into four other vehicles, the London Daily Mail reports. Abdulla Saeed Khalfan Al-Dhaheri, 28, and Sultan Khalifa Al-Muhairbi, 35, both from the United Arab Emirates, were taken into custody after their Lamborghini Murcielago smashed into the parked cars, flipping a BMW over completely.

Luckily no one was injured, but Al-Muhairbi was charged with dangerous driving and driving with no insurance and Al-Dhaheri was charged with perverting the course of justice. The men, who are due to appear in court on October 12, are said to have walked away from the pile-up, telling a passerby, "It's all right, we'll pay for the damage." The incident took place in posh Lowndes Square, home to some of the city's wealthiest residents, including Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Check out an image gallery of some of the Arab-owned supercars, including Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Bugatti models, which have been flown to London for the summer from the UAE after the jump.

The World's Most Expensive Car... Wrecks

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors

ferrari wreck
Here at Luxist we write a lot about the world's most expensive cars. Now the London Telegraph has compiled a list of the world's most expensive car wrecks, following Jackie Stewart's trashing of a Pagani Zonda supercar in Scotland, which my colleague Noah Joseph reported on last week. Here's the paper's list of flaming Ferraris, burned-out Bugattis and other smashed-up supercars. The values given are those at the time the crashes occurred as calculated by the Telegraph. Let's hope all the insurance was in order:

Sean Stewart Involved In Bentley Crash

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

sean stewartThe latest celebrity involved in a exotic car crash in Rod Stewart's son, reality TV star Sean Stewart. TMZ reports that while Sean wasn't the driver he was a passenger in the Bentley which wrecked on Los Angeles's Sunset Blvd. hitting the curb and crunching the front end. TMZ has the pictures. The Bentley Continental GTC was rented from Beverly HIlls Rent-A-Car for $2,500. Generally the more expensive rentals (this car is worth around $200,000) require a security deposit.

Soccer Star Crashes Ferrari Into Tunnel Wall

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Celebrity Shopping


Add another to the long list of celebrity car crashes. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Manchester United, crashed his Ferrari on his way to work on Thursday morning. The fleet-footed star crashed into a tunnel wall under Manchester Airport on his way to practice. After a breath test (negative) he was on his way to work again, injury-free albeit a bit shaken up. The Telegraph quotes an onlooker who said the Ferrari went straight into the wall. He reportedly took part in practice later in the day. Now that's impressive. The car however, doesn't look like it will be ready for action anytime soon.

Ferrari Enzo Crash on PCH

I saw this on the local news this morning. Apparently some idiot took a Ferrari Enzo out for a little early morning spin along Pacific Coash Highway in Malibu. The genius smashed the $1 million car into a telephone pole and then took off into the hills leaving his passenger in the car with a cut lip. A three-hour search by helicopter and car failed to turn up the driver. According to details from the news, the engine was on the highway while the Ferrari wreckage was a few hundred yards away and it is estimated the car was traveling at least 100 mph. Given that the Enzo is an extremely rare and pricey car it makes me wonder if we are looking at a celeb-on-the-run situation here.

UPDATE: It turns out the passenger was the owner of the car. The  owner who is from the Beverly Hills-Bel Air area says the driver ran off but according to police only the driver's side airbag had blood on it.

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