The day I had a $1000 bingle in Lara's $200,000 Aston Martin

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The day I had a $1000 bingle in Lara's $200,000 Aston Martin

* By Maureen Shelley
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* March 16, 2010 11:00PM

We test drive Lara Bingle's Aston Martin at Rick Damelian's prestige car dealership.

IT was all going so well until I had to park it.

I'd almost mastered the six-speed manual gearbox, worked out how to use the two-stage handbrake for reverse hill starts, managed to declutch the engine and use the starter button.

But a simple parallel park was too much. I ended up scraping the 19 inch spoked alloy wheel on Lara Bingle's $230,000 Aston Martin.

Sorry Clarkey, I truly tried to return the vehicle in the almost pristine condition it was in before I took it for a spin along Parramatta Rd.

I'd booked the car that Clarke had bought for his former fiance Lara Bingle for a test drive. It is an Aston Martin that would set back the purchaser $235,000 after stamp duty and insurance. I'd seen the car the day before and been driven around the block by the dealer.


The car hadn't been out of the showroom in a month and it failed to start first time. When it did, smoke poured out of its stainless steel exhaust system, which comes complete with active bypass valves - whatever that might mean.

As an experienced driver, I thought I was capable of driving anything.

Yet this all-alloy, quad overhead cam, 32 valve 4.7 litre V8 is a brute. To satisfy the dealer's requirements, I paid a $5000 deposit, signed a test-drive agreement and agreed to a full credit check before taking the vehicle out of the showroom.

The dealer drove on to Parramatta Rd and we swapped seats on a quieter road around the corner from Rick Damelian's prestige showroom.

I was glad because it took a while to master the six-shift box. Also, driving in 10cm heels didn't help. (My comment DOH !!!!!)

At 168cm tall, I sat low in the vehicle and it felt like the full-grain leather seats (with tan saddle-stitching) were wrapped around me.

I managed to rev the vehicle to about half its capacity on Parramatta Rd, about the third time I tooled the monster around the block. It's a high-revving vehicle that will deliver 313kW of power when asked. I was driving it like an old lady going to church, I was so scared that I'd damage the brute.

All my care and attention was paying off. I managed to stall it just once, ground the gears only twice and got stuck with my tail sticking out blocking traffic on the odd occasion. Then, after my sixth lap of honour, I thought I could handle a simple parallel park.

I lined up beside the car in front outside Fort Street High School. I used the brakes to control the vehicle downhill and moved it gently into position. Sadly, over-confidence struck and I scraped the passenger-side front wheel on the kerb. The car dealer was not a happy chappy and I drove back to the yard in disgrace.

Getting out of the Aston, my legs were like jelly, only partly because of the fear and loathing I thought was about to be unleashed on me by the harried dealership staff.

The 19-inch spoked alloy wheel would need to be reground and sprayed at a cost of $1000.

After a free and frank discussion, they gave me a fairly direct assessment of my conduct.

Executive general manager Shaun said they'd be deducting about $1000 from the $5000 deposit that they'd taken from my credit card.

I don't think an Aston Martin is me really; I think I'll stick to the Astra.