Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson has been in an accident in his McLaren F1, a supercar with a top speed of over 230-mph. Apparently, Atkinson lost control of the car and went off the road. Initial reports claimed the car was totaled and caught fire, along with quotes from witnesses saying Mr. Bean was “lucky to be alive” but pictures have since surfaced showing that those reports were probably exaggerations .

I wish Rowan Atkinson the best for crashing his McLaren, partly because I’m not a lunatic who wishes harm on others but mostly because he is a true car enthusiast who is living the dream and actually driving the supercars he’s lucky enough to afford.

Alex Roy wrote about the film C’etait Un Rendez-vous and about the responsibility that owners of expensive cars like the McLaren F1 Mr. Bean owns have in the book The Driver:

“Rendezvous demonstrated what one can do, what one must do, if one owns a car like a Ferrari. There is no dignity in bragging about one’s car when it has never surpassed 50 percent of its maximum speed, or in comparing diving watches that have never seen the ocean, let alone a shower, or in driving to a restaurant where the girls see not a car but the promise of the rest of their lives pulling up in front of expensive restaurants in bright red sheet metal and tan leather. There is only the absurd cash outlay for the best engineering on four wheels, the question of what equally outrageous challenge it must be put to, and whether that test will be sufficient to please the god of decadence from whose domain the car has been borrowed. To do any less is far worse than wearing $200 sneakers for a pleasant stroll, or domesticating an animal meant to roam free – it’s eating McDonald’s in Paris, it’s watching porn instead of having sex with one’s girlfriend, it’s returning from war with one’s gun unfired. Such second rate decadence is worse than bad taste. It is not a victimless crime. It’s an insult to everyone who can’t afford the option.”

Both images via Jalopnik, accident picture by Reflex Photography.