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Owner Of Ultra-Rare Porsche Goes For Joy Ride On Locked Down Manhattan Streets, Totals His Car

Ben Chen, the owner of the modified Carrera GT, was charged with a DUI and reckless driving.

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Rough morning *photos taken by me*

A post shared by ronnie c 📷 (@ronniecnyc) on

One Porsche owner is having a morning they’d likely wish to forget.

A driver of a Gemballa Mirage GT—an ultra-rare, highly modified version of the already rare Carrera GT—wrecked into a handful of cars in Midtown Manhattan Tuesday morning. The damage isn’t pretty, judging by these pictures shared by Instagram user ronniecnyc.

The owner of the car, Benjamin Chen, was arrested following the series of crashes around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed to Road & Track. Police said the car was not stolen, but was being operated by Chen when the incident occurred. He’s been charged with operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs and reckless driving.

Chen, who goes by BC on Instagram, owns an extensive collection of exotics. According to a CarFax report, the formerly grey Carrera GT has had three owners, the most recent of which bought the car in 2014. That timing jibes with an interview Chen did with DuPont Registry in 2014 about Gemballa’s modifications to his new car. And while his Instagram is private, Chen has 378,000+ followers and frequently posts photos of his cars, like this one of the Mirage GT from last April.

The car struck several vehicles along 11th Avenue on the west side of Manhattan before eventually coming to a stop on 44th street, just north of the Javits Center. The New York International Auto Show is held annually at the convention center, though the space is currently being used as field hospital amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Video shows the driver losing control of the car on 11th Avenue while crossing West 49th Street, crashing into what appears to be a parked Toyota Sienna.

An additional video shows the car speeding away after the collision, and continuing down the avenue. Despite the significant damage done to the front end, the car was able to flee the scene, running at least one red light in the process. Five parked vehicles were struck, police said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-rwRrNJHl7/?utm_source=ig_embed

And below, the end of the ordeal when a New York State Police trooper caught up with the crashed Porsche. Chen was “conscious and alert” when officers arrived at the scene, police said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r3xalniA9/?utm_source=ig_embed