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World’s First 'Flying' Car Is a McLaren Senna GTR a Millionaire Craned Up to His Penthouse

Some millionaires pledge or outright give away chunks of their fortunes, while most will flaunt their wealth to get a much-needed ego boost. Even fewer will try to devise ways of using their riches to inspire and motivate others to be their best, so they can follow suit and join the exclusive millionaires' club.
Australian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouse 14 photos
Photo: Instagram / Adrian Portelli (Composite)
Australian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouseAustralian millionaire causes outrage by taking a $3M race car by crane up to his $39M penthouse
Adrian Portelli claims to belong to that third category, though one could argue the distinction between the second and the third is only theoretical. Portelli is a young Australian millionaire who made his fortune running a platform with luxury car giveaways and is now into investments and charity. He's also trying to use personal example as a means to inspire and motivate, turning himself into a sort of living example of what you can achieve if you work hard and never give up. And he does that by buying expensive stuff, staging stunts, and basically showing off his wealth.

Portelli is in the news right now for having his new car taken up 57 floors by crane so that he can use it as centerpiece in his equally-brand new, $39 million penthouse located smack in the heart of Melbourne, Australia. The fact that he paid $3 million for the car and that it's a purebred racing machine only adds extra drama to the unfolding scandal.

A couple of weeks ago, Portelli laid the grounds for what would become this week's breaking news: he'd bought the penthouse atop the towers Sapphire by the Gardens, the one that will feature a sky bridge that connects the two skyscrapers. But the biggest teaser was that he was planning to crane something really special up there, he promised.

Australian millionaire causes outrage by taking a \$3M race car by crane up to his \$39M penthouse
Photo: Instagram / Adrian Portelli
That something special lived up to the hype. Portelli bought a McLaren Senna GTR for a reported $3 million, and he was planning to lift it to the 57th-story penthouse so that it would become the centerpiece of his future home. Forget that this meant taking down a side of the building so a platform could be set to "receive" the car or that it made little sense to spend this kind of money for a racing machine that would never be used as it had been meant to! Portelli had made up his mind.

Earlier this week, it happened: Portelli had the car taken 57 floors up while he watched from down below, mingling with other spectators. Unlike those, though, he went up to the still-unfinished penthouse to see it put into its future location and used the opportunity to show off some more to his social media followers.

Then, the coup de grace came in the inspirational message. "When I went to bed last night I just giggled. Young Portelli would be proud. The one nobody knew 10 years ago," he wrote. "If I can motivate and inspire people to want to succeed, my job is done because I understand how hard and lonely it is on the pursuit of success."

Australian millionaire causes outrage by taking a \$3M race car by crane up to his \$39M penthouse
Photo: Instagram / Adrian Portelli
Portelli has been at the receiving end of very harsh criticism since. Between being mocked for paying $3 million for a car that is demoted to an ornament, he's harshly attacked for flaunting his wealth when people are struggling to make ends meet or are living out of their cars because of the housing crisis. Criticism of this kind is a double-edged sword: there's shamelessness in the gesture, no doubt, but it's not exactly fair either to hold one-percenters accountable for all societal ills.

Is it stupid that he forked over a fortune for a car that he can’t even enjoy, except visually – which accounts for nothing, in this case? Most likely, yes. Is it even stupider to claim such an ego-boosting stunt is some kind of generous, well-intended gesture for the betterment of the peasants everyone else? Most probably, yes.

But there's a "but."

For starters, Portelli had no other use for the Senna. He tells the local media that the car was "forgotten" in a storage unit, and he bought it after falling in love with it at first sight. Since it's a race car, he couldn't register it for road use, so he thought it would be better if he kept it with him at all times, as opposed to locked away somewhere, only to see it on the rare occasions he'd go to the race track.

Australian millionaire causes outrage by taking a \$3M race car by crane up to his \$39M penthouse
Photo: Instagram / Adrian Portelli
Then, there's the question of marketing potential in all this. Right now, Portelli is a viral star because he turned his rare and very expensive McLaren Senna GTR into a "flying car" by lifting it to his penthouse by crane while people watched and, only minutes later, clutched pearls on social media. As many of his commenters point out, this is a man who made a reported $350 million in personal wealth off publicity stunts, and this is perhaps his biggest to date. He has given the world its the first proper flying car.

Call it the "Kardashian effect;" you can hate Portelli and lash out at him, or you can applaud him for doing what most of us would do in his situation and with his money, but he's still winning. Plus, he gets to go home and put his wallet and keys on the roof of a race machine on display in his living room (or wherever he decides to put it). If that's not the ultimate sign of a passionate auto enthusiast and the ultimate flex, we don't know what is.

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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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