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Mr Bean Got $1.4m From Insurance After Crashing His McLaren F1, Later Sold It For $12 Million
Mr Bean holds one of the most expensive car repair, got $1.4m from Insurance after crashing his McLaren F1.
Funny actor, famed for daily driving his classic 2-door 1977 Mini in the Mr. Bean show, bought the McLaren F1 in 1997.
618-hp McLaren F1, which boasts a center-based driving seat, remains one of the fastest production cars ever made.
After owning the McLaren for 17 years and after two crashes, Mr Bean sold the immaculately repaired F1 for $12 million.
English comedian, Rowan Atkinson, popularly known as Mr Bean, holds the record for the most expensive car repair in the UK after his insurance company paid out $1.4 million to put his damaged McLaren F1 sports car back on the road.
The funny actor, famed for daily driving his classic 2-door 1977 Leyland Mini 1000 Mark IV in the Mr. Bean show and movies, bought the iconic McLaren F1 for $800,000+ in August 1997.
Atkinson drove the F1 chassis 061 around the UK as his daily driver before getting involved in a minor accident in 1999, needing the help from British sports car brand, McLaren, to repair the car.
Again, the F1 was involved in more serious crash in 2011 during which which Atkinson broke his shoulder blade. This time around, the F1 required $1.4 million of remedial work to get back on the road.
After owning the McLaren sports car for 17 years and putting 40,000 miles (65,000 km) on the odometer, Mr Bean was still able to sell the immaculately repaired F1 to an European buyer, who paid $12 million to own it.
When the McLaren F1 sports car came up for sale, Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) told Andrew Frankel in a Daily Telegraph article that “it was never bought as an investment.”
“I bought it for the quality of the thinking that went into its design, and now it has become a thing of value, it is time for it to be enjoyed by someone else.”
The McLaren F1 was able to sell for a record price, considering just 106 examples were built between 1992 and 1998. Just 72 were street legal, including this example formerly owned by Mr Bean.
With a top speed of 240 mph (386 km/h), the 618-horsepower McLaren F1 two-door Coupé, which boasts a center-based driving seat, remains one of the fastest production cars ever made.
