---
title: "Seattle Driver Crashes Rental McLaren 650S on Wet Road, Blames Summer Tires"
description: "It's often said that inexperience can be an asset. Unfortunately, that doesn't really apply when driving someone else's 641-horsepower McLaren 650S on a rain-slicked highway, as a man who crashed the $265,000 supercar during a four-hour rental early Thursday morning found out."
date: "2018-03-23"
modified: "2018-03-23"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/19550/seattle-driver-crashes-rental-mclaren-650s-on-wet-road-blames-summer-tires"
categories:
  - "McLaren News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "650S"
  - "Crash"
  - "mclaren"
  - "rental cars"
  - "Supercar"
  - "Washington State"
---

# Seattle Driver Crashes Rental McLaren 650S on Wet Road, Blames Summer Tires

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/03/crashed-mclaren-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

It's often said that inexperience can be an asset. Unfortunately, that doesn't really apply when driving someone else's [641-horsepower McLaren 650S](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/19075/driver-abandons-mclaren-650s-in-snowstorm-refuses-to-move-until-roads-are-clear>) on a rain-slicked highway, as a man who crashed the $265,000 supercar during a four-hour rental early Thursday morning found out.

Trooper Rick Johnson of the Washington State Patrol [tweeted out a picture](<https://twitter.com/wspd2pio/status/976913278797463552>) of the smashed 650S, which came to rest on the side of Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday after the driver lost control in a tunnel and spun out. While these sorts of late-night supercar crashes [generally involve some form of impairment,](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/18253/alleged-drunk-driver-crashes-lamborghini-gallardo-under-construction-trailer>) Trooper Johnson wrote that this was simply a case of an inexperienced driver going too fast for the wet conditions.

https://twitter.com/_/status/976913278797463552

And with a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine sending 641 horses to the rear wheels, there's no denying that the McLaren 650s can be a handful. But the driver, who reportedly rented the car for four hours earlier that night, has a different theory. [According to *KOMO News,*](<https://komonews.com/news/local/man-rents-fancy-mclaren-then-crashes-it-on-i-5>) he told police that he wasn't speeding and instead blamed the car's summer tires for letting go in the rain.

Those Pirellis might not be in the best shape, but the State Patrol pointed out that he was going fast enough that the [McLaren](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/19410/brave-owner-goes-off-road-in-his-285000-mclaren-720s-with-predictable-results>) bounced off both sides of the Convention Center tunnel before coming to a halt.

There are now [more ways than ever](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/18273/audi-gets-into-the-rental-car-business-and-it-looks-pretty-darn-cool>) to slide behind the wheel of someone else's supercar for a few hours—though as this cautionary tale shows, sometimes the experience will stay with you in more ways than one.

![message-editor%2F1521785818676-dy6xbomu8ae9vep.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1521785818676-dy6xbomu8ae9vep.jpg>)
**Twitter | @wspd2pio**

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)