Musk and Peter Thiel (one of the founders of PayPal) were on their way to confront with venture capitalist Mike Moritz to seek investment in PayPal when Musk crashed the F1 on a Palo Alto road.
As he told Pando Daily, “We’re driving up Sand Hill Road, and I didn’t really know how to drive the McLaren.” Thiel asked Musk what the car was capable of, to which Musk cheekily responded, “Watch this.” Musk said he then floored it and immediately lost control of the 640-horsepower beast, crashing it into an embankment. All of the glass in the car was shattered, and it suffered extensive body damage, but fortunately, neither man was injured.
Musk didn’t have insurance on the car, however, and ultimately had to repair it out of pocket. He kept the F1 until 2007, and this past summer, the car was displayed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. However, the crash did irreparable damage to Musk and Thiel’s business relationship. In his book “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power,” author Max Chafkin wrote, “The experience shook Thiel, who came to see Musk as reckless” (via Business Insider).
