Reports are coming in that early this evening, August 4th 2011, Rowan Atkinson best know for his character of Mr Bean, crashed his McLaren F1. Reports state that he lost control, spinning several times before smashing into a tree and lamppost before the F1 set on fire. Lucky he managed to pull himself from the accident before been seen to by paramedics and taken to hospital.
A witness to the aftermath stated “no pics needless to say but the left hand door had been cut away and the whole left hand side of the car was wrecked and bent twisted. It was ruined. It looked like he lost control on the wet road and hit the trees at some speed.”
This is the second time Mr. Atkinson has crashed his McLaren F1, the first time being in October 1999 in Lancashire where he rear ended a Rover Metro.
[Picture 1 via Pistonheads.com, picture 2 via Crankandpiston]
He recently took over the top spot in Top Gear’s Star in a reasonably priced car & this happens… Get well Bean!
Thats my picture i took !! That black wingmirror is my cars ! lol.
Would appreciate people asking to use my pictures from my facebook first before putting them online .. lol. Anyways the crash didnt look that bad, i would be suprised if he has any bad injuries. from what i have heard he is okay now :)
@Terry, we came across the picture on Pistonheads, so we used the link. If you share your Facebook picture link, we will change the source. :)
OMFG… Not a F1 :(
I heard that the first time he actually parked under the Metro. LOL It’s sad though. I hope it’s not crashed beyond repair.
Again hahaha http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/485692.stm
Rowan seems to be a real gentleman when he was on Top Gear, he must be just having fun, sounds like he love his F1, it got 37k km on it! Don’t worry Kris, no machine is beyond repair if there is enough money, they can just rebuild the entire car from the ground up. And I am sure Rowan got planty of money to rebuild any car. Plus I am sure his insurance would pay for all, if not most of the bill.
Obviously he knows a fair bit about driving seeing as he took top spot on Top Gear test track but this car is a handful for anyone, even the best drivers give this thing respect.
How many Mclarens Atkinsons owns?
As far as I know only 1.
@Julle85: This is his second one. The first one was orange and is now owned by a car collector in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The F1 is one of the best driver’s car ever created, it is not a handful at all. Only badly engineered cars are a handful, the F1 is not one of them.
@Luke – This is not accurate information.
The orange F1 in Germany is chassis #071 and was purchased new by its current owner (initials AKV). There is a photo of this gentleman taking delivery of the car in the book “Driving Ambition” and as he is tall and slender with red hair, he couldn’t look more different than “Mr Bean”.
Rowan Atkinson’s F1 is chassis #061 and was the first F1 he purchased and the only road car he has ever owned. He did have a crash in it back in 1999 but the damage was not severe and his car was repaired by McLaren, good-as-new.
I was told by Gordon Murray back in 2005 that Atkinson had also recently purchased longtail GTR #24R from the estate of the late Steve O’Rourke. If it was true that he owned that GTR it was only briefly, as by mid-2007 it had a new owner in the UK named Paul Knapfield.
>8^)
Erik
WTF kind of paint job is that in the top picture????looks like the bozo left it out in the sun since 1990 when the crappything was made LOL
His car is covered in dew from sitting outside on a damp night in the UK. Then the photographer used a flash that’s the result.
Atkinson’s F1 is a subdued Dark Burgundy. Here’s a better image of the paint color in the daylight.
bean dead or alive
You are all fussing about a car! A car can be fixed but you cannot bring a dead person back to life.
Don't tell me you are so sad that you think the car is more important than a human being!