Luxury Cars

Ben Chen Crashes Rare Gemballa Mirage GT in New York City

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Ben Chen aka @bc crashes his rare Gemballa Mirage GT in a drug-fuelled joy ride through the streets of New York City, also taking out a Toyota Sienna and three other cars in the process.

Earlier this week a rare Gemballa Mirage GT driven by owner Ben Chen caused automotive carnage after a drug-fuelled joy-ride down the center of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

In a city currently battling to contain over 81,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 4,500 deaths, a Gemballa Mirage GT crashing into a Toyota Sierra van parked on the side of the road and then taking out a further three cars in the process was the last thing most people expected to see happening on the streets of NYC under a “Stay At Home” directive.

The official NYPD account reads:

“On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at approximately 0730 hours, officers responded to a motor vehicle collision in the vicinity of West 44 Street and 11 Avenue, within the confines of the Midtown North Precinct.

Upon arrival officers observed a 33-year-old male operator and sole occupant of a 2014 Porsche Gemballa Mirage GT conscious and alert. Further investigation revealed that the operator of vehicle #1 struck the rear of a parked unoccupied vehicle #2 and fled southbound on 11 Avenue in his Porsche The motorist proceeded to strike vehicles #3,4 and 5 that were also parked and unoccupied in the vicinity of West 44 Street where his vehicle came to a rest. The suspect was taken into custody at the scene.

The following individual was arrested and charged with the above incident:

Chen, Benjamin

33-year-male

[Address redacted]

Charges: Operating a Motor Vehicle Impaired by Drugs and Reckless Driving

In footage shared to social media, the Gemballa Mirage GT can be seen hurtling out of control through the near-empty streets of Midtown Manhattan and crashing into a parked Toyota Sienna before continuing out of the CCTV line of sight.

In another clip shared online, pieces of the damaged Mirage GT are seen flying off the car as he drives away from the first collision (running a red light in the process) and further reports note that he proceeded onto 11th Ave, leaving a “trail of damaged vehicles” in his wake before coming to a stop and being apprehended by police.

Ben Chen (also known as @bc online) is a somewhat well-known figure in the supercar community thanks in part to his incredible collection of supercars and his previous involvement in the Gold Rush Rally events that saw supercar owners participate in multi-day rallies across the continent while enjoying some of the best parties, hotels, and events along the way.

According to one Reddit user, his extensive collection has included some of following models: Koenigsegg Agera R, Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe, Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe Series II, Mercedes McLaren SLR GTR, Mercedes SLS Black Series, Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, Bugatti Veyron (Pur Blanc 1 of 1), Porsche Carrera GT Gembella GT, Porsche Carrera GT, Bugatti EB110 Super Sport, Porsche 997 Turbo S, Lamborghini Murcielago SV, Lamborghini Aventador SV, and a Range Rover Sport SVR

It’s not only his extensive supercars though have brought him notoriety in the past, but his propensity for crashing them.

To date Ben’s totaled a rental McLaren 12C Spider on a Gold Rush Rally in 2013, trying to swerve at high speed to miss a truck and crashing into a storage unit complex.

That did not end well for the McLaren 12C…. Credit: Discount Storage

Then in 2016 he wrote off his 2010 Lamborghini Murcielago SV in Westlake Village Californa after speeding off from a car meet and there are reports online of several other crashes.

Another one bites the dust. Credit: Unknown

The Cobalt Blue Gemballa Mirage GT which is now his latest victim was a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT that was converted by German-based auto tuners’ Gemballa somewhere around 2013-2014. According to an interview with Dupont Registry not long after he had taken delivery of the newly converted Gemballa, the choice of the Cobalt Blue color was in honor of his late father who he had purchased his first exotic car with in the same color – a 2007 Porsche Turbo – and was planning on having all future Porsches finished in the same color. The Gemballa Mirage GT was also one of a few special cars that his father had thought about purchasing back in the early 2000’s when they first came out but had never done so.

At the best of times, the un-modified Porsche Carrera GT has been known to be a beast with Porsche test driver Walter Rohrl quoted in Drive Magazine as saying it’s “the first car in my life that I drive and I feel scared”, leading one to believe it should be handled with all the respect one would have approaching a raging tiger.

Based on the Porsche 980 Carrera GT, a project that was first developed for a Le Mans prototype in the late 90’s, the Mirage GT is an even more powerful vehicle upgrade starting at €300,000 that features 2 extra exhaust pipes, a roof-mounted air intake, a special Gemballa Sports Clutch, Gemballa wheels, and a completely new Gemballa body kit.

Before this spectacular misdemeanor only 25 of these Gemballa Mirage GT’s existed in the world, of which Ben Chen’s was the only one in USA.

After having been identified as the driver, Ben Chen was taken into custody, arrested and charged for reckless driving of his Gemballa Mirage GT under the influence of drugs.

Whether there are long term consequences or a change in the owners driving behavior (if he even still has a license now) remains to be seen given his previous driving offenses but one can only hope he will seriously reflect on these recent events.

The only upside of this story is that despite the extensive vehicle damage thankfully no one was hurt or killed.

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