Gemballa Mirage GT Smashes Into Four Cars In NYC, Owner Arrested For Drug Driving

With New York City on lockdown, its normally bustling, traffic-filled streets are eerily quiet. But that didn’t stop one Gemballa Mirage GT owner finding things to crash into on Tuesday morning.

Ben Chen, former co-owner of the controversial Gold Rush Rally (note - we’d previously referred to Chen as the founder, but Gold Rush has since informed us otherwise), went on a drug-fuelled rampage in Midtown Manhatten, smashing into four parked vehicles in the process. Numerous bystanders caught the Porsche Carrera GT-based Mirage - one of only 25 made - on camera, posting its mangled form on social media.

One especially memorable video (below) shows the Mirage being driven off at speed with a wonky wheel dragging along the tarmac. In the distance, we can see what looks like the frunk lid flying off the supercar.

We’d also like to draw attention to the Toyota Sienna minivan at the beginning of the video, the back end of which looks to have been caved in by at least a metre. Over at Road & Track there’s CCTV footage of the impact that caused the damage, with Chen’s Gemballa hitting it so hard the Toyota is shoved out of frame.

According to the NYPD report, Ben Chen hit the first parked car and fled southbound along 11 Avenue, before hitting three more and finally coming to a stop near West 44 Street. The 33-year-old was arrested at the scene and charged with Operating a Motor Vehicle Impaired by Drugs and Reckless Driving.

Chen has a history of smashing up exotic cars. At the 2013 running of the Gold Rush Rally, he flung a McLaren 12C off the road and into an industrial unit - ripping much of the rear end off. The above video of Chen leaving a fuel station in a Mercedes CLK GTR shows how little care he seems to show his cars, and we’ve seen a few claims linking Chen with the wrecking of a manual Lamborghini Murcielago SV.