Before Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, took the helm of the most valuable car manufacturer in the United States, he was a software developer who struck gold by selling his first company, Zip2, to the now-extinct tech titan Compaq in 1999 for a whopping $300 million. Musk pocketed $22 million from the deal, and immediately splurged $1 million on a mind-blowing McLaren F1 capable of reaching speeds of 240 mph. While it’s widely known that he made this high-end purchase, less known is the fact that Musk actually smashed the supercar in 2000—without insurance—while showcasing it to investor Peter Thiel.
After taking delivery of chassis #067, a process that was captured by CNN in a fascinating interview, Musk extensively drove the McLaren, using it as his daily mode of transportation around San Francisco and the broader Bay Area, commuting back and forth from Los Angeles (a 400-mile journey), and logging 11,000 miles on the vehicle in his initial year of possession.
However, as is often the case with a 627-horsepower, unrestricted rocket, good things must end, especially if an inexperienced driver is at the helm. On the day of the incident in 2000, Musk was chauffeuring Thiel to a meeting with the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as they were seeking investments for their budding company, PayPal (which was not yet named as such). The pair was traversing Palo Alto’s Sand Hill Road when, as recounted by Musk in an interview with PandoDaily in 2012, Thiel supposedly turned to Musk and questioned the car’s capabilities. Musk’s response was infamous: “Watch this.”
