How to Crash an Enzo Ferrari

  Before I give you the details on these million dollar car crashes, here is some info for those who aren’t informed on the fastest Ferrari ever built. Built during ’03 and ’04, there were 349 built and an additional 50 cars due to demand. These Enzo’s were only offered to special buyers among big Ferrari owners and collectors. They sold for $670,000 US and are worth about $1.2-$1.5M USD today. There was one more built for the pope, bringing the total to an even four hundred. On June 28th, 05’, in Maranello, Italy, the birth place of Ferrari, the pope put it up for auction at Sotheby’s auction house. It fetched a solid 950,000 Euro ($1.3M USD). The Enzo’s V12 produces 650 HP at 8500 RPM and does the 0-60 in 3 seconds with a 217 MPH top speed, naturally aspirated. Sharing Ferrari’s F1 racing technology, it has a carbon fiber composite body making it ultra-light. Note that the cabin separates and protects the driver during a high speed accident, just like a F1 crash. None of these Enzo owners are F1 drivers; they are just very rich F1 fans. Who might some of these lucky owners be? Here’s a short list of celebrities that picked one up: Nicolas Cage, Sergei Federov, Eric Clapton, Tommy Hilfiger, Paul Allen, Jay Leno, Cody Leibel of C-Note Records, Nic Mason of Pink Floyd, Jason Kay of Jamiroquai, Pharrell Williams, and, of course, Ferrari F1 champ Michael Schumacher. Now let’s get to some ways you can write one of these rarities off, in no particular order.


1) "Undercover Brother's good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can't drive," was all Eddie had to say after destroying the front end of Hollywood Producer Daniel Sadek’s dream car. Crashed on a closed course, Eddie manages to completely under-steer the Enzo straight into a cement divider. Eddie claims a cone got jammed in the wheel well and caused the wheels to lock up. This was during the Race for a Cause charity, sponsored by the upcoming movie “Redline”, which Eddie stars in and is produced by Daniel Sadek. Several exotic sports cars from Sadek’s collection are featured in the film and several are destroyed, including a $500,000 Porsche Carrera GT. Rumors immediately started circulating that it was publicity stunt, which Eddie denies, "I mean, how retarded do you got to be to think that somebody is going to wreck a million and a half dollar car as a hoax?" and "And why would I want to be the one driving it and running it into a concrete divider as a hoax!". Considering the marketing budget for most Hollywood movies, 1.5M is cheap promotion, but this Ferrari is irreplaceable. Sadek was pretty passive when asked about it, "I'm glad Eddie came out of the crash OK, but my dream car got destroyed." I guess pretending to drive one in a movie is slightly easier that driving one in real life… on a closed pylon course…with only one cement barrier in sight. Anyway, can’t be too hard on him, we can all have a good laugh, which is why he’s famous after all.

2) Frank Mountain, a big property developer and amateur racer, was sitting shotgun with Paul train, a Ferrari dealer, who drove his Enzo into a bus on the way to a Top Gear photo shoot in England, Dec. ’04.

3) Stefano Sidoli was a successful entrepreneur and was in his native Milan in Oct. ’05 when he spilt his Enzo in half. He did not survive.

4) Gary Irwing Eisenberg, a popular Ferrari collector, hit a tree and exploded in Monterey, California. Sadly, he also died on impact.


5) Richard Losee, producer, director and racing enthusiast, crashed his custom targa-top Enzo in Utah on Aug. 2nd ’06. He was taking part in the four-day charity run, the Utah Fast Pass Road Rally. This special race has a $5000 entry fee where the police close a 15-mile stretch of highway for 25-30 super cars to rip on it. He claimed he was close to 200MPH when he hit a bump and rolled approximately seven times. His helmet saved him during the rolls which flattened his ride. He survived with a couple cracked vertebrae and some broken bones.

6) Donald Wallace, owner of Lazydays RV SuperCenter, trusted his son with the keys in Tampa, Florida sometime in ’06. What he got was a $400K repair bill. Pretty much a write off, Shelton Ferrari was set to rebuild it. Donald then threw $1.3M on the table at Sotheby’s and bought the Pope’s Enzo for Charity. Once you crash one of these, you might as well spring for a new one. I imagine his son had to get a summer job to pay that one off.


7) Russian billionaire, Suleiman Kerimov, made his money by investing in oil, gold and other big time capital investments. Currently ranked as Forbes Magazine’s 76th richest man in the world, he was borrowing a friend’s black Enzo when he decided to go for a rain slicked drive across the beautiful Mediterranean shoreline in Nice, France. The crash happened on Nov. 25th, ’06 where he had Tina Kondelaki, a Russian TV presenter, FHM cover girl, and lingerie expert, as his co-pilot. Tina sustained only minor injuries from the crash, leaving her good looks intact. Kerimov, on the other hand, was not so lucky: witnesses saw Kerimov jump out of the Enzo on fire. He was rushed to the hospital with serious burns in a coma and Tina flew back to Moscow before police had time to question her. She later denied involvement. The police confirmed it was not an assassination attempt on this billionaire’s life with chemical and mechanical tests, Kerimov later recovered.


8) The most infamous crash has to be that of Stefan Erriksson, who launched the failed Gizmondo hand-held device, in 2005. Erriksson got paid millions for his position with Gizmondo’s parent company, while Gizmondo went $300M into debt over three years. He resigned while in America promoting the new gadget… to deluxe mansion in Bel Air. This is where he somehow smuggled in his million dollar exotic car collection. After all this, his criminal record came to light, revealing he was a member of the Swedish Mafia, called Uppsala. His list of crimes ranged from counterfeiting, kidnapping to drugs and living the good life of a professional con-artist.

  At 6am on a February morning in 2005, Erriksson’s crimes caught up to him on the Pacific Coast Highway, at about 162MPH. Rumor has it that he was racing a Mercedes SLR (also part of his collection), earlier that night. Nobody knows if the SLR was there when the Erriksson’s Enzo bottomed out on a hill crest, took air, and sliced through a power pole. The Enzo was cut in half on impact and, leaving a1200 feet of debris straight down the PCH. When you see the pictures of the separated cabin and the V12 engine just sitting on the highway by itself, you will be surprised to hear Erriksson escaped with only a bloody lip. When the police and press arrived, Erriksson claimed he was not the driver, and a man he just met called “Dietrich”, was behind the wheel. He said after the crash, “Dietrich” took off into the hills never to be seen again. The police observed that there was only blood on the driver side airbag and none on the passenger side. Blood tests were done, but never disclosed to the public. Erriksson blew .01 over the legal limit on a breathalyzer on the scene. A Glock clip that was found near the scene didn’t help his case either. This got a lot of press time in LA and it brought the justice system down hard on him. The police are quoted as saying, “Erriksson had somehow managed to import $3.8M in cars he didn’t own into post 9/11 America.” Other than the destroyed red Enzo, he also had a black one, as well as the Mercedes SLR. When he made the news, a British bank claimed ownership of these cars, and said they should not have left England. The police confiscated his rides and locked him up for a huge list of white collar crimes. He currently has an unusually high bail, sitting at approximately $3M.


  Below are insurance shots of two single vehicle accidents, one in Seoul, Korea and one in Abu Dubai, UAE. Check the bottom for the CNN recap on Eddie’s latest comedy. In conclusion, I hope we have all learned a valuable lesson: when buying a new Ferrari, take the complementary driving lessons.