Together with Elon in the car sat his friend and co-worker Peter Thiel. They were on their way to the famous venture capital firm Sequoia Capital where they would brainstorm fund-raising strategies. Thiel sat in one of the two passenger seats. The driver in a McLaren F1 is sitting in the middle of the car in a seat personally customized for each owner. Slightly behind the driver, there are two passenger seats on each side of the driver’s seat.8,123
“So what can this do?” Thiel asked Elon after a fifteen-minute demonstration of the car.
“Watch this,” Elon replied and floored the gas pedal.
The McLaren F1 has no traction control because the car is designed for maximum performance, so the car began to spin after a lane change. Elon did what he could to avoid the other cars driving on the same road while he at the same time tried to control the spinning car. After some terrifying seconds, the McLaren F1 slammed into the embankment of the road. The car lifted from the ground and began rotating like a discus flying through the air. They finally crashed down on the ground.328
When the dust cleared, Thiel heard how Elon laughed. Thiel asked him why he laughed when he had just wrecked his new dream car. “You don’t know the funny part, it wasn’t even insured,” Elon replied.328 It’s unclear exactly why he laughed. One reason might have been the shock from the traumatic event that had just happened. Another reason can be explained with the new word “muskitude,” defined as a supercilious attitude caused by having made too much money too young.301 It might have been a combination of both.
Elon and Thiel survived the crash without any major injuries. “The first woman who saw us thought we were dead, and the whole thing felt like a roller coaster gone a little bit out of control,” Thiel said.8 Before the emergency services arrived to the scene, Thiel opened the gull-winged door, stepped out of the car, and hitchhiked a ride to not miss the meeting with Sequoia Capital. Elon also hitchhiked a ride to the meeting once a tow truck arrived to the scene.
Despite the dramatic accident, the McLaren factory could repair the damaged car. The car’s main body had survived, but the front and the suspension were damaged. After the brief detour to the workshop, Elon began using the McLaren F1 as his daily driver to and home from work.
Another unfortunate McLaren F1 driver was the British comedian and actor Rowan Atkinson, also known as Mr. Bean. His black McLaren F1, number 61, has crashed twice. Luckily he survived the accidents without any major injuries, but his insurance company had to pay the most expensive insurance payout ever recorded in Britain.6 In favor of Atkinson’s driving skills, he has driven the car since 1997, covering a distance of 37 000 miles [60 000 km]. It’s probably a world record among McLaren F1 owners.7
While Atkinson competes with other sports cars on a racetrack, Elon never participated in a race with his car. Elon, however, once tried to see how fast he could drive it on an airstrip, and he pushed the McLaren F1 to speeds of 215 mph [346 km/h].4
In 2007, Elon felt he had to sell his beloved McLaren F1. As the manager of a company manufacturing environmental friendly cars, he wanted to improve his image. “It was an environmental decision,” he said. “My McLaren F1 was a great car. It was a work of art, really, but it’s not good for the environment and I didn’t want people always writing that I have a high-performance gasoline sports car, so I decided to sell it.”69
Number 67 wasn’t more safe with its new owner. After six months of winter storage in a garage, the new owner wanted to take it out for a spin. A passing onlooker alerted the driver that smoke came out of the rear engine compartment. As the owner jumped out, the fire spread quickly, destroying large parts of the car. Since the car is a collectibles item, the McLaren factory had to save it yet again. But there’s no need to feel sad for the owner while the car was repaired – the owner had one McLaren F1 in reserve.5
So who said it was dull to be an engineer?
Lost Cities
It’s funny how distant events can affect the modern world. In the late 12th century, surnames became necessary when the English government introduced personal taxation. It was common that families from the upper class took the titles of their domains as surname, such as Lancaster or Locksley, while artisans took their surnames from what they were working with, such as Smith or Taylor.13 The surname Musk, however, originates from one of the oldest surnames ever recorded in England.
Led by Duke William II of Normandy, Normans and French troops invaded England. The final battle of the war was the Battle of Hastings where the invading army defeated King Harold II of England. It was now in the year of 1066 the origin of the surname Musk was introduced to England. Originally a nickname to distinguish a younger person from an older bearer of the name, the Norman-French word “le meschin” means “the younger.” The first written record of the surname is that of William le Meschin, who was an English feudal baron. As time passed, the surname le Meschin altered to surnames such as Musk, Misk, or Miskin.72
Elon Musk’s family can be traced back to as early as the 18th century when Henry Musk married Mary Faulkner. They lived in England and they had four children, and one of the children was Henry Musk the younger.96
Henry Musk married Charlotte Lane in 1824. They lived in Exning, a small village in Suffolk, England. One of their thirteen children was Eliza Musk, born in 1844.
Eliza Musk’s husband is unknown. She never married since she kept her maiden name. What is known is that she worked as a servant in London, but she had three children while she was still living in Exning. One of these children was Harry Musk, born in 1863. He worked as a bricklayer before he moved to an area known today as South Africa.
As the first European, the Dutch Jan van Riebeeck settled in a region known today as South Africa. He arrived in 1652 and established the Cape Colony. The purpose of the colony was to re-supply the ships from the Dutch East India Company with fresh provisions, almost like a charging station for electric vehicles.75 As the Suez Canal had not yet been constructed; ships had to sail around the entire African continent to get to their destinations. The risks involved with sailing around Africa was the main reason why Christopher Columbus tried to find a faster route by sailing west from Europe. Since Columbus failed to find a shorter route, the Cape Colony became an important region.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the British Empire took control of the Cape Colony during the Napoleonic Wars, and British immigrants began to move there. Most emigrated from England because of financial reasons and they chose between America and the Cape Colony as their destination. “These are regions of possibility, and as we drove along before our now friendly wind I could not but speculate on the future,” Winston Churchill wrote while traveling through the southern parts of Africa. “Here are wide tracts of fertile soil watered by abundant rains… while Englishmen choke and fester in crowded cities, while thousands of babies are born every month who are never to have a fair chance in life.”11
Led by the discovery of vast amounts of commodities, primarily gold and diamonds, the region’s economy grew fast during the 19th century.75 Because of these natural resources, and as often happens when humans become greedy, several conflicts broke out.
Between 1899 and 1902, the British Empire and the Boers fought each other in a conflict known today as the Second Boer War. Boer is the Dutch word for farmer, and the Boers originated from Dutch, Flemish, German, and French settlers. Some Boers even originated from British settlers who felt they didn’t belong to the British Empire in a similar way as when the settlers in US decided to not anymore be a part of the British Empire. Because of the conflict across the Atlantic Ocean, Britain lost the American Revolutionary War and US became an independent nation. The Brits were now determined not to lose control of their colony in southern Africa.