Driver Annihilates Ultra-Rare Gemballa Mirage GT in Manhattan Hit-and-Run ‘Rampage’ (UPDATE)

Just remember that a Porsche Carrera GT died to make this atrocity.

byJonathon Klein|
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If you felt a disturbance in the force this morning, you weren’t alone. Early this a.m., a Gemballa Mirage GT—you might recognize it as a modified Porsche Carrera GT—was used to smash into several parked cars in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City before finally coming to a crumpled halt just past the Javits center. It's unclear why the rampage occurred, but let's pour one out for the poor Porsche that’s under all that bodywork.

Update 2:00 p.m. ET: Reports on social media and elsewhere point to the owner of the Gemballa Mirage GT, noted supercar collector and Gold Rush Rally founder Ben Chen, being the driver at the time of the crash. You can see a man that strongly resembles Chen exiting the wreckage in the video below. The Drive reached out to the NYPD, who said the driver was in custody and taken to perform a sobriety test, though the spokesman did not disclose the driver's identity. We'll update this post when we receive more information. The original story continues below.

Update 5:00 p.m. Police identified the arrested driver as Chen. Read our updated story on his arrest here.

It isn’t known what occurred to cause the driver to crash. It wouldn't surprise us if it was due to the Mirage GT’s 650 horsepower, or the base Carrera GT’s notoriously snappy demeanor. Based on the video below taken by an onlooker, after an initial crash, with the left front wheel partially hanging off the side of the car, and pieces of carbon fiber splintering everywhere, the driver reversed and sped off down the street. 

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According to Fox5 New York, “A trail of damaged vehicles was left behind along 11th Ave. north of the Javits Center." Another witness took a handful of photos of the Mirage GT at its final resting place, giving us a clearer look at the damage, which includes nearly obliterating the front end, a smashed windshield, the rear suspension properly borked, and some left-side damage that’s partially obscured, though that could’ve been inflicted when the large piece of carbon fiber flex off when the driver attempted to leave the scene. 

Based on The Drive’s own research, this particular Gemballa Mirage GT is number 23 of 25 and was built for infamous supercar owner, Ben Chen. If the name’s not familiar, he’s one of the founders of the goldRush Rally, a supercar and exotic rally that’s found itself in legal trouble a number of times. He’s also the guy who destroyed his McLaren 12C during one of his rallies and might have damaged an ultra-rare Mercedes-AMG CLK GTR. 

As for the car itself, in a Dupont Registry article about this particular Mirage GT, Chen stated that he was “extremely” involved in its design, saying, “This is probably my favorite part of the buying experience of a car, the spec and design process. I am extremely particular, down to every nuts and bolts detail. Nothing on any one of my cars both in and out was not carefully thought about. I always have a very clear vision of how I want my cars to look, I knew exactly what my Gemballa Mirage would look like before I even got my first CGT in 2009. 5 years later, it’s a dream come true.”

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