Photo: Paul Grover/The Telegraph
Famous British actor Rowan Atkinson was racing his 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint in the Shelby Cup at the vintage car rally Goodwood Revival when reports say he crashed and had to quit. The accident happened after a competitor two cars ahead lost control, but fortunately Mr. Bean star was not injured.
For a celebrity that just loves cars and affords buying only the best available on the market, the 59-year old actor doesn’t seem to be very lucky whenever he holds the wheel. He crashed his McLaren F1 twice. First time it was in an accident in Cabus, near Garstang, Lancashire with an Austin Metro, in October 1999. The second time, was yet a more serious crash when it caught fire after Atkinson reportedly lost control and hit a tree.
The McLaren was so heavily damaged that it took the mechanics four weeks to calculate the repair costs and one year to actually bring it back to its perfect factory state. But the actual jaw-dropping part is that the insurance company had to pay no less than $1.44 million (GBP 910.000 British pounds) to get it fixed at McLaren's workshop in Surrey. This makes it the biggest repair bill ever recorded in the United Kingdom.
However, this time it was not his fault. The driver two cars ahead lost control of his vehicle and Atkinson didn’t manage to heave his classic Falcon around the stricken car, so ended up hitting it. Even though nobody was injured, the incident was enough to ruin the actor’s race, so he abandoned the car.
In case you didn’t know, Rowan Atkinson is in fact an avid car collector and race enthusiast. He raced several cars including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series. Besides the McLaren, he previously owned a Honda NSX. An Audi R8 and Honda Civic Hybrid add up to the actor’s pretty big car collection, which, however, does not include any Porsche.
One car Atkinson has said he will not own is a Porsche: “I have a problem with Porsches. They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people - and I wish them no ill - are not, I feel, my kind of people.”
The McLaren was so heavily damaged that it took the mechanics four weeks to calculate the repair costs and one year to actually bring it back to its perfect factory state. But the actual jaw-dropping part is that the insurance company had to pay no less than $1.44 million (GBP 910.000 British pounds) to get it fixed at McLaren's workshop in Surrey. This makes it the biggest repair bill ever recorded in the United Kingdom.
However, this time it was not his fault. The driver two cars ahead lost control of his vehicle and Atkinson didn’t manage to heave his classic Falcon around the stricken car, so ended up hitting it. Even though nobody was injured, the incident was enough to ruin the actor’s race, so he abandoned the car.
In case you didn’t know, Rowan Atkinson is in fact an avid car collector and race enthusiast. He raced several cars including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series. Besides the McLaren, he previously owned a Honda NSX. An Audi R8 and Honda Civic Hybrid add up to the actor’s pretty big car collection, which, however, does not include any Porsche.
One car Atkinson has said he will not own is a Porsche: “I have a problem with Porsches. They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people - and I wish them no ill - are not, I feel, my kind of people.”
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