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5 times Elon Musk proved he’s the world’s biggest eccentric: the billionaire bought and crashed a McLaren F1 supercar and wants to build a colony on Mars

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, often makes headlines for his eccentric antics. Photo: Austin American-Statesman/TNS
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, often makes headlines for his eccentric antics. Photo: Austin American-Statesman/TNS

  • The Tesla CEO gifted himself a McLaren F1, the world’s fastest car, named his baby the meme-inspiring X Æ A-12, and bought and sold 20,000 flame-throwers
  • Recently unseated by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world, the SpaceX CEO is planning a sustainable base on Mars for humans

Backed by enormous amounts of wealth, the world’s super-rich have been known to do (and buy) some outlandish things from time to time.

From splashing out on over-the-top parties (like spending millions to have celebrities like Michael Jackson attend and perform) to purchasing extravagant gifts for loved ones (like that time Angelina Jolie bought Brad Pitt an actual waterfall and the property surrounding it), it seems the more money in the bank, the more outrageous the lives of the world’s richest become.

Take Elon Musk, for example. The tech billionaire is famous for engaging in certain endeavours many would consider “out there”.

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Unseated by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has done quite a few eccentric things over the years – here are some of his more bizarre antics.

He bought himself the fastest car in the world

Before being named the wealthiest man on the planet (and before the position was quickly usurped by Jeff Bezos), Musk used a good chunk of his new-found wealth (over US$800,000) to buy a McLaren F1.

Only 106 units of the supercar were made, and about a year after Musk bought his, he crashed it.

He bought – and sold – 20,000 flame-throwers