65the Middle East are frequent
destinations.) If the disaster
is in the U.S., Lamborghini
can also transport the car
to a dedicated repair cen-
ter in Seattle, which the
company has developed
with research labs at the
University of Washington.
While there, the doctors
do things like strip the car
down to its bare bones so
they can graft new layers
of carbon fiber to the
monocoque tub under-
neath, building it up again
from the inside out. To com-
plete even a small patch
takes hours and the preci-
sion of a fine art restorer.
The process means sand-
ing down the torn portion,
layering on skeins of car-
bon fiber, and baking on the
new components to make
them blend impercepti-
bly with the existing body.
It can take weeks, and the
price can reach six figures.
McLaren employs a
more proactive approach
with the hautest of its haute couture cars. For its F1, made
from 1992 to 1998, the company suggests sending the car by
air or ship to its Woking, England, headquarters for routine
annual maintenance. An oil change there costs $8,000; repair-
ing the damage done by a single nail puncture in a tire runs
$6,000, since to achieve the perfect rolling splendor of the F1
means replacing both tires on an axle. (Compare this with the
tire plug, patch, and repair rates for the hoi polloi at a local
garage like Les Schwab, which are free.)
Closer to home for some of the toniest F1 owners (Ralph
Lauren, for one), McLaren opened a certified service center in
Philadelphia in 2017, the only one outside the factory. Owners
can send their F1 there for everything from minor mainte-
nance to a large rebuild, but most choose the Woking option.
All told, annual running cost of an F1 is estimated at $30,000
per year, McLaren says—before any major collision. That level
of TLC doesn’t apply to the $1 million Senna, or anything
“below” that car, like the $285,000 720S, both of which get
sent via truck to the nearest dealer in the event of a crash. “The
F1 is just a different animal,” the McLaren spokeswoman says,
“because of the limited quantity and the price point.” Just 106
of them have ever been made, and insuring one can cost more
than $20,000 per year, according to Hagerty Classic Insurance.
There’s not really such a thing as wrecking an F1 beyondsalvaging anyway, since
the value of this extraor-
dinary car is rising so con-
sistently. Witness Rowan
Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean):
He crashed his twice—then
sold it for $12.2 million in
2015, or a rumored $8.5 mil-
lion profit on what he paid
for it in 1997. Even if it’s
just matchsticks, it proba-
bly merits rebuilding.
“Up to $250,000, I prob-
ably wouldn’t even report
the claim,” says one super-
car owner, who prefers to
remain discreet. It’s just not
worth the insurance bump
compared with the value
of the car. Also, a wreck on
a car’s public record can
diminish its resale value.
Then again, for the
hypercar elite, it’s more
about time lost driving
than expense. No one has
any fun when the car is in
the shop. And if the dam-
age isn’t too bad, it’s tempt-
ing to opt for a rather more
mundane repair, such as
fixing the car in your own shop, as Jay Leno did years ago
when he backed one of his half-million-dollar Lamborghini
Miuras into the other. (It’s not a common problem.)
The DIY method is usually what California collector Dan
Kang does with his Swedish-built Koenigseggs. He has the
knock-on-wood fortune of having sustained only minor cos-
metic damage after occasional mishaps on the track, he says.
And between the mechanics he keeps on his own payroll and
the close working relationship he has with company founder
Christian von Koenigsegg and his 220-person operation, he
often just orders parts from the factory and has his guys install
them stateside. Should anything more severe happen, Kang
says, Koenigsegg would take back the entire car and rebuild it
as necessary. “If it goes back to the factory, then we know it’s
going to come back in even better condition than before the
accident,” he says, noting that any upgrades developed since
that particular car hit the street would be integrated into the
repairs. “Christian would never let a car just be buffed out.”
Some collectors even make the same call as the rest of
us. “I will usually just call AAA,” says David Lee, an L.A.
businessman known to his 1.2 million Instagram follow-
ers for his large collection of modern and vintage Ferraris.
“Their Plus service will do more than the car companies’
PROP STYLIST: ANDREA GRECO basic roadside service,” he reasons. “It’s easier.”
CARS Bloomberg Pursuits October 7, 2019Not a real Lamborghini
Huracán Performante