Can you believe this 2004 Carrera GT was totaled once?

A unique 2004 Porsche Carrera GT with a troubled past just went up on sale for £399,995 (over 500,000 USD). What’s so special about it to warrant parting with a sum as large as that?

Apparently, the previous owner of the supercar crashed it in a severe road accident 12 years ago and almost sent it to the scrapyard – but an enthusiast took it upon himself to restore it to its former glory.

The car has traveled barely over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) in its three years of service, but the accident turned it into a complete wreck. Despite this, the owner found a man who agreed to pay for it. Several months later, the buyer felt that the restoration was too challenging a task for him, too, so he passed it on. Luckily for the Carrera GT, the third owner proceeded to restore the supercar to peak condition.

He then used it as his main ride, covering more than 100,000 kilometers (62,000+ miles) in the 12 years that followed. Today, he put it up for an auction sale. While £399,995 may seem like an exorbitant amount to pay for a once-dead vehicle, note that only 1270 units of the 1270 Porsche Carrera GT ever rolled off the lines, and a new vehicle costs still much more than this. For instance, one such car went up on sale last year in unused condition for U.S. $1,500,000+.