Wrecked McLaren F1 Gets UK's Largest Ever Insurance Payout

Actor Rowan Atkinson says that crashing his McLaren F1McLaren F1United Kingdom, 1992 > 19986 versions
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in 2011 was responsible for the largest UK auto insurance payout ever. 

He has owned his purple F1 since 1997 and in that time he has wrecked it twice. 

The first time came in 1999 when he rear-ended a Rover Metro.

The second time was on August 3, 2011, when he spun the car in wet weather into a tree and lamppost after which it caught fire. Atkinson suffered a shoulder injury in the second crash and was hospitalized. He talked about the crash in a recent interview with Classic and Sports Car magazine.

After the accident the car was shipped to McLaren's Special Operations that is responsible for customer relations and servicing customer's F1s. After a month of analysis, the McLaren team decided that it would cost £910,000 ($1.426 million or €1.063 million) to repair the car. However, the current going rate for F1s is around £3 million ($4.7 million or €3.5 million. So instead of writing the car off, Atkinson's insurance company paid for the repair. 

Atkinson still owns the car and is still driving it. 

"It depresses me that they are hidden away like investment art or gold. It is a crime not to use it," said Atkinson in the interview. 

Source: Top Gear