A $1.5 million McLaren sports car was wrecked when a customer taking it for a test-drive met with an accident last week that left a truck driver with head injuries. The occupants of the car were unhurt.
It was the second such crash for McLaren - a relatively new make part-owned by Singapore billionaire Peter Lim. There are only about 60 on the road here. Mr Lim himself drives one, among other cars.
According to police, the 650S Spider convertible, which has a top speed of 329kmh and is able to reach 100kmh in 3.0 seconds, was on the Pan-Island Expressway heading towards Tuas when the incident happened close to midnight on June 11.
The Straits Times understands that the tipper truck collided with a bus that had broken down on the left lane and veered sharply right into the path of the sports car, hitting it on the left side.
Despite having almost its entire left side smashed, the two car occupants - businessman Arjunan Kulasegaram and a companion - were not injured.
Police said the truck driver had to be extricated by the Singapore Civil Defence Force, and was taken to the National University Hospital. Almost the whole of its cab section was crushed.
McLaren distributor Wearnes Automotive said damages would be covered by insurance pending investigations, which the police said were under way.
The incident followed a similar one last year, when a customer took a McLaren MP4-12C out, lost control, and smashed it.
The recent accident - though seemingly through no fault of the driver - was another blow to the distributor as it had launched the car barely three months ago. Wearnes said it would register another vehicle for test-drives.
There has been a rash of crashes involving sports cars here. Last July, a businessman died when his Lotus was involved in a three-car accident on the East Coast Parkway.
Last May, a Lamborghini crashed into a lamp post in Outram Road and burst into flames.
And in May 2012, a rare Ferrari travelling at nearly 180kmh ran a red light and smashed into a taxi at a Victoria Street junction, killing the driver, the cabby and his passenger and injuring two others.
