A few hours ago, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, a massive Category 4 with winds reaching 150 miles per hour. It’s reportedly the 5th strongest hurricane storm on record. Among the things which it has damaged is this McLaren P1, and its owner says the exotic supercar was pulled by the waters straight out of the garage it was parked in.
The footage we’ve obtained from owner Earnie @lambo9286 shows an absolutely devastating sight. The beautiful exotic is sitting in water that’s gone past the level of its wheels, choppy, dirty salt water we might add.
Hurricane Ian undoubtedly destroyed many other supercars in the area. But beyond the property damage is a story of personal sadness because the owner clearly loved this special and rare McLaren. The same massive storm has reportedly damaged two priceless and rare winged warriors, the Superbird and Daytona, pulling them out of a garage as well.
Making matters worse, Earnie reportedly picked up this P1 only about a week ago. The only McLaren in yellow to go on sale recently was listed on Bring A Trailer out of Fort Myers, Florida. Chassis number SBM12ABA6FW000348 did not sell but it matches the description, especially the low miles. The car with only 300 miles on the clock was recently part of the Gulf Coast Motorworks collection, and we believe its current owner must have reached out with an offer after the BAT listing ended.
This particular example of 2015 McLaren P1 is #348 of 375 units produced and originally lived in Beverly Hills. The average price for one of these is about $1.7 million right now, and I know it’s hard to feel empathetic for a millionaire who can afford a supercar, but mother nature destroys indiscriminately.
Some unkind comments on his social media photo suggest this is an insurance job. However, footage from security cameras shows both this McLaren and a Rolls-Royce were parked in a solid-looking garage with thick walls. About the only thing that could have been done is to move the two exotics to a multi-story car park to avoid the flood. However, there might not have been enough time or the owner might have been out of town.
What makes this incident almost unique is that the yellow McLaren P1 was apparently pulled straight out of the garage through the door by the flood waters. Sure, insurance will cover the cost of the car, but it’s not like these come up for sale very often and can easily be replaced.
In theory, the water-damaged car can be sent off to McLaren to be rebuilt. It’s a costly process, and flood water is notorious for the complex and often hidden damage it causes. If somebody does decide to rebuild this salvage title, it’s going to need new… everything, including an engine rebuild.
The P1 was revealed at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, with sales starting the following year. It was one of the top three advanced exotics at the time, together with the LaFerrari and Porsche 918. The thing that made it special was its powertrain a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 aided by an electric motor developed by McLaren to deliver 903 horsepower and 723 pound-feet of torque. Despite all this tech and some hefty batteries, the whole thing only weighs 3,075 pounds, about the same as some compacts. It’s amazing to think there are only about 127 of these in America.
Update (October 7, 2022): Here’s how the insurance company is handling the case of the flooded P1 and what a collector who may buy and revive it (emphasis on “may”) says about the situation.
