Rowan Atkinson’s insurers failed to see the funny side after being handed a record £910,000 repair bill for the comedian’s McLaren F1 supercar crash.
The Mr Bean and Blackadder star, 58, made a quick recovery from his second crash in the vehicle but the 240mph supercar spent more than a year at McLaren’s Woking base being repaired by expert technicians. The work got the go-ahead from insurers because the F1′s value has soared beyond its £640,000 price tag – one sold for £3.5 million last year.
The TV star, best known for his role as funnyman Mr Bean, suffered a shoulder injury after losing control of his 240mph vehicle in August 2011 when he hit a slippery patch of road near Peterborough.
Damage to the mangled vehicle resulted in the biggest repair bill ever recorded in Britain after McLaren’s expert technicians spent a year restoring it in Woking, Surrey.
It took the mechanics more than four weeks just to calculate the cost of the repairs before the work was signed off by Mr Atkinson’s insurers.
The comedian, who starred at last summer’s Olympic opening ceremony, is now back behind the wheel, comparing the experience to ‘putting a familiar sweater on.’
‘I’m not a collector. I don’t like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate,’ he told this month’s Classic and Sports Car magazine.
‘It depresses me that they are hidden away like investment art, or gold ingots in a Swiss vault.
‘The McLaren is just so usable, it is a crime not to use it. No gritted teeth, you just get in and drive.’
It was the second time Atkinson had crashed his F1 car after front-ending it into a Rover Metro in 1999.
The former Blackadder star’s eye-watering £910,000 bill was three times as much as the most expensive repair claim previously documented.
Source Metro
Continued:
Rowan Atkinson’s insurers pay out record payout of £910,000 to repair 240mph McLaren F1 he crashed into a tree
