Photo: Ewen Sergison / SWNS
Last weekend, Storm Eunice hit Europe, pummeling major areas in the United Kingdom with winds as strong as 100 mph (161 kph). Among the numerous damages caused to buildings and property was also racing driver Ewen Sergison’s barn, which housed a $700,000 car collection when it went down.
Ewen Sergison is a 46-year-old F1 racing engineer from Scotland. He’s also a professional driver and racing instructor, and he runs a related business out of Newark, in England, where he has a house and, until Eunice, an open barn that housed an impressive collection of cars. Speaking to SWNS, Sergison estimates that the value of the vehicles inside was close to £500,000, which is approximately $677,000 at the current exchange rate.
He doesn’t say exactly the number of vehicles in the barn when it collapsed, but he does say this: there were several, and the damage to them is in the hundreds of thousands. The only upside to the story is that there were no staff or customers inside when it happened.
Sergison had been at home for a little over an hour when he heard one of the tiles from the roof of the barn fly off and shoot across the courtyard. That’s when he and his partner decided it was best if they moved the cars, but they never got around to it: just as they came out of the house, they saw the back wall to the barn fly away, and then the roof and the other two walls collapsed over the automotive treasure inside.
Of the cars damaged, Sergison mentions an Alfa Romeo GTA worth £350,000 ($475,000), an Aston Martin V8 Vantage that he’d gotten as a retirement present, a Mini Marcos he had inherited from his late mother, a Triumph Stag, and two TVRs. He takes the damage to his personal cars very, well, personally, because of the emotional connection, he says. But he’s also terribly happy damage to the Alfa Romeo was minimal.
“I'm not sure of the exact costs yet and I'm not looking forward to finding out,” he tells local media. At the same time, he’s happy to see the amount of support they’ve been getting through all this, down to neighbors bringing them food and offering to help out with the repairs. The Daily Mail has more photos of the damage.
He doesn’t say exactly the number of vehicles in the barn when it collapsed, but he does say this: there were several, and the damage to them is in the hundreds of thousands. The only upside to the story is that there were no staff or customers inside when it happened.
Sergison had been at home for a little over an hour when he heard one of the tiles from the roof of the barn fly off and shoot across the courtyard. That’s when he and his partner decided it was best if they moved the cars, but they never got around to it: just as they came out of the house, they saw the back wall to the barn fly away, and then the roof and the other two walls collapsed over the automotive treasure inside.
Of the cars damaged, Sergison mentions an Alfa Romeo GTA worth £350,000 ($475,000), an Aston Martin V8 Vantage that he’d gotten as a retirement present, a Mini Marcos he had inherited from his late mother, a Triumph Stag, and two TVRs. He takes the damage to his personal cars very, well, personally, because of the emotional connection, he says. But he’s also terribly happy damage to the Alfa Romeo was minimal.
“I'm not sure of the exact costs yet and I'm not looking forward to finding out,” he tells local media. At the same time, he’s happy to see the amount of support they’ve been getting through all this, down to neighbors bringing them food and offering to help out with the repairs. The Daily Mail has more photos of the damage.
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