Crash dents Mclaren fleet’s tour
A man who crashed a Mclaren F1 sports car, valued at an estimated $20 million, near Queenstown on Saturday, has been charged with careless driving.
Police said the driver of the multimillion-dollar supercar lost control and crashed into a ditch at Closeburn, about 11.45am.
The driver and owner of the supercar, a 65-year-old Australian, was taken to the Queenstown Medical Centre with minor injuries. A passenger was uninjured.
The driver is due to appear in the Queenstown District Court today.
The car is a 1994 Mclaren F1 capable of almost 400kmh, and one of 64 standard roadgoing versions built.
Sergeant Blair Duffy of Queenstown police said the cause of the accident was not yet known.
‘‘The vehicle was one of a procession of Mclaren cars travelling from Queenstown to Glenorchy.’’
Organisers of the tour arrived on the scene moments after the crash and put a sheet over the car. Mclaren Automotive Asia Pacific marketing manager Geoff Tink said no other cars were involved, and it was not driving at excessive speeds.
‘‘This is a car that was built in the early 90s that has some older electronic stability systems in place and there was a minor accident but we’re obviously very confident that we have taken the appropriate safety precautions throughout the event. All drivers receive a safety briefing before each day and at the end of each day, on each New Zealand road to make sure that we do not cause any accidents.’’
The car was taking part in the nationwide Epic NZ tour organised by Mclaren, with 34 cars from around the world taking part - from as far afield as Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Britain - driving in convoy around the country. NZ