Classic car collection destroyed as barn collapsed in Storm Eunice
Storm Eunice caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage to a man’s prized collection of motors.
Racing engineer and high-speed driving instructor Ewen Sergison, 46, was travelling back to the UK on Friday when the storm hit the UK.
‘I drive Formula One cars for a living and I have never been so scared in my life,’ he said.
‘I’m not religious but even I started praying for us to reach the ground safely.’
His plane struggled to land at Gatwick Airport during the severe conditions, which saw gales of up to 100mph in some areas.
When Ewen returned to his home in Darlton, Nottinghamshire, which houses valuable racing cars which are used in international events.
The weather became worse while Ewen’s team were on the site working.
‘We’d only been home for around half an hour,’ he said.
‘We got the dogs in the house and I said to my partner that I thought a tile was going to come off.
‘Straight away one did and then the whole courtyard just filled with dust. The building’s roof and walls came down.’
The barn collapsed onto a number of his cars, including an Aston Martin Vantage and a 1968 Mini Marcos, which his late mum gave him when he was 14.
Two cars belonging to customers were in the building, but only received minor damage.
But Ewen was more concerned about his staff than the damage to the vehicles.
‘My partner was absolutely hysterical,’ he added. ‘My first thought was, “Are there any members of staff in the building?”
‘So when I saw there wasn’t and everyone was alright, it was a massive relief.
‘I had customers cars in there as well as my own – one of them is worth more than £350,000. Thankfully there was only minor damage to that one.
‘Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done. It’s pretty devastating.’
Work is now underway to clear the damage and prevent the vehicles from being damaged further.
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