pulse Report This Comment Date: December 04, 2011 10:32PM
Source:
theage.drive.com.au/motor-news/3-million-smash-supercars-caught-in-mass-pileup-2
0111205-1odyh.html
A Sunday drive has ended in a $3 million nightmare, with eight Ferraris, three
Mercedes-Benzes and a Lamborghini involved in a 14-car pile-up in Japan.
Police said the pile-up happened on the Chugoku Expressway in Yamaguchi
Prefecture about 10.15am yesterday, with 10 people hospitalised with minor
injuries.
Japan's largest English language newspaper, The Daily Yomiuri, reported the
crash happened on a curve of the road and one Mercedes-Benz was driving in the
oncoming lane.
ANN news video of the crash aftermath shows the sportscars lying mangled on the
road, a mess of ripped metal, broken glass and snapped alloy wheels, with
several cars wedged up against metal barriers.
About $3 million worth of supercars and luxury coupes from the 1980s to today -
and a Toyota Prius - were damaged in the crash.
According to a translated report from the Asahi Shimbun the smash occurred when
one of the Ferraris hit a median strip.
The report said there was then a series of crashes over 400 metres as the
drivers went around the bend, with car parts flying through the air.
The group of drivers was made up of self-employed "car enthusiasts",
who were travelling from Kyushu to Hiroshima.
A 36-year-old self-employed man from Kanzaki, Saga Prefecture, said he was
driving in the opposite lane at the time of the accident.
"Cars were making a tremendous noise," he said.
The pile-up made headlines around the world, with the UK's Mirror reporting
"it could be the most expensive car crash ever".
The cars involved included at least two Ferrari F430s (one was the race-ready
Scuderia, these days worth more than $400,000), two Ferrari 360 Modenas (each
worth almost $200,000), two Ferrari F355s (each worth about $150,000) and a
Lamborghini Diablo (one of the most expensive supercars of the 1990s and still
likely worth upwards of $200,000). There was also a Nissan GT-R - the only
current Japanese supercar - while the cheapest invovled in the crash was a
Toyota Prius hybrid, worth closer to $20,000.
90130_ Report This Comment Date: December 05, 2011 05:45AM
God damn Asian drivers.....
