Crawling from the (Ferrari) Wreckage

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Wrecked Ferraris don’t fade away -– they just end up on EBay.

The 2003 Ferrari Enzo that actor Eddie Griffin famously plowed into a wall during a promotion for the movie “Redline” has been put back together and recently was offered for sale on the online auction site.

The asking price was $1.2 million. It got 59 offers -- ranging from $950,000 to “$2 and a box of double-stuffed Oreos,” said seller Matt Groner, owner of Matthews Auto Sales in Houston. It didn’t sell and the auction is now closed, but Groner said he was negotiating with five potential buyers and was close to a sale.

Groner acknowledges that putting a value on collector cars that have been extensively damaged is controversial. The car was valued at $1.3 million before it was wrecked.

“It’s a car that has a history of hitting a wall, and some people will run away from it for that reason,” he said. “Other people who know how we fix cars will appreciate the car has been put back together.”

Griffin wrecked the car during a practice lap at a celebrity charity race at Irwindale Speedway in March 2007. The event was promoting “Redline,” a film about high-end exotic cars that Groner said “may be the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”

This isn’t Groner’s first brush with celebrity-tinged auto wreckage. He bought the Mercedes-Benz that actress Lindsay Lohan crashed on Sunset Boulevard last year, later selling it for a price “in the low $100,000s.”

-- Martin Zimmerman