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Here Are the World’s Most Expensive, Heart-Breaking Ferrari Crashes

A crashed car is a horrible sight, even when you know for a fact that no human was harmed in the accident. A crashed Ferrari is perhaps even worse, if only for the knowledge that Scuderia makes some of the finest, most powerful and most expensive machines in the world.
A crashed Ferrari can break any (Ferrarista) heart 6 photos
Photo: SellTheCarUSA
961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder forgotten on beach during hurricane seasonFerrari 250 GTO/64 crashed at Goodwood Revival in 20171962 Ferrari 250 GTO, fully restored after 2012 crashFerrari pile-up in Japan in 2011Ferrari Enzo, after Bo Stefan Eriksson crashed it into a pole at over 190 mph
Exotic cars have a lot of appeal for a certain segment of the financially well-off, mostly male demographic. In many cases of Ferrari ownership, those drivers don’t know what they’re dealing with and, as such, the odds of a crash increase.

When you go for something out of your league, you should expect nasty consequences.

This wasn’t the case here. Below are five of the most expensive Ferrari crashes ever to take place and only one of them was caused by a reckless driver with not enough experience and skill to handle a powerful car like that. The others were either experienced collectors or even race drivers.

In all instances, the result is the same: the heart-breaking sight of a multi-million dollar, excellent piece of automotive engineering and craftmanship, completely wrecked.

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO ($28-35 million, estimated)

In 2005, American businessman Christopher Cox bought himself one of the 36 Ferrari 250 GTOs ever build. No one knows how much he paid for it exactly but the entire world knows that he crashed it in 2012, during a race in France, when he collided with another vehicle.

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, fully restored after 2012 crash
Photo: Hemmings
Just two months before Cox’s crash, a Ferrari 250 GTO built for Stirling Moss sold at a private auction for a reported $35 million. Cox’s didn’t have the same pedigree, but it was still worth a fortune.

The car took extensive damage to the front and side, and Cox had Ferrari Classiche do a full restoration. It would take two full years and an unspecified amount of money to bring the 250 GTO back to its former glory. It returned to racing afterwards.

Ferrari 250 GTO/64 ($30 million)

To this day, this is considered the most expensive car crash in history. It occurred at the Goodwood Revival in 2017 and saw Andy Newall lose control of an incredibly rare and expensive Ferrari 250 GTO/64, which veered off the track and hit the tire wall.

Newall wasn’t injured and, compared to other crashes on this list, damage was comparatively smaller. But the car still took damage to the body, with bending panels and scrapped paint, and the suspension.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder ($10.9 million, estimated)

961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder forgotten on beach during hurricane season
Photo: Extravaganzi
File this under “A fool and his money are easily parted.” The unnamed owner of a 1961 Ferrari GT California Spyder parked the car on the beach and then forgot to drive it back home. It was hurricane season, and the poor bloke ended up with a wrecked car literally filled with sand.

Ferrari Enzo ($2 million)

In 2006, a car crash would lead to a breakthrough in a major criminal case involving Swedish mobster Bo Stefan Eriksson, also known as Fat Steve or The Banker. After a life of crime back home, as part of The Uppsala mafia, Eriksson moved to the UK, where he would co-fund Gizmondo, which was supposed to take over the gaming industry.

He and his partner were able to scam, through Gizmondo, over $300 million in funds from investors from all over the world. With the money, he funded the life of a true playboy, including an appearance at 2005 Le Mans, where he drove a Gizmondo-sponsored Ferrari 360 Modena GTC. He didn’t make it to the end.

Ferrari Enzo, after Bo Stefan Eriksson crashed it into a pole at over 190 mph
Photo: thedrive
In 2006, he was driving a red Enzo in the Malibu hills, at over 190 mph while intoxicated. The car hit a lighting pole and split in half, but Eriksson and his passenger walked away relatively unhurt (Eriksson busted his lip on the deploying airbag).

Police in the U.S. would later seize the crashed Enzo, a 2005 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a second black Ferrari, and two other Mercedes-Benz cars he had brought into the country illegally, after stopping payments on their lease in the UK. Their total value was estimated at $10.8 million.

Ferrari pile-up in Japan ($3.85 million)

This is a classic case illustrating while some people shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of powerful cars. An estimated $3.8 million worth of exotics went down the drain when eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benz, a Lamborghini Diablo, a Nissan GT-R and a Toyota Prius (look who’s keeping fancy company!) crashed on the Chugoku Expressway in Japan.

The cars were part of a 20-car convoy heading to a car meet, and were traveling at considerable speed on the rain-soaked, winding highway. The driver at the front of the convoy, a 60-year-old man in a Ferrari F430 Scuderia, lost control and caused a chain reaction accident.

Ferrari pile\-up in Japan in 2011
Photo: jalopnik
Police called the massive crash “a gathering of narcissists,” which is, if you think about it, quite an elegant way of putting it.

*Disclaimer:

This list is not exhaustive and doesn’t pretend to be so. Feel free to add you own examples we might have / probably missed in the comments section.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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