The Ferrari has long been a simple of status, a supercar owned by the rich and famous. But the new offering from Ferrari seems to have been plagued by a mysterious curse, as now ten of the cars have crashed or been gutted by fires. Over the last three months, six of the cars have been involved in accidents or fires, with no apparent technical fault to account for them. Reaching speeds of two hundred miles per hour, the car owners have nothing to blame it on, other than bad luck.

The Ferrari 458 was launched in spring this year, to accolades from celebrities such as Jeremy Clarkson calling it one of the all time greats.

The curse was discovered by Greg Carlson, founder of website www.wreckedexotics.com, whose site documents crashes from other supercars such as Lamborghinis, porches and bugattis, as well as the new Ferrari models. According to car buffs, new cars are prone to crashes, as designers tweak their mechanics and machinery to finely hone the vehicle.

But that isn't much consolation to new Ferrari owners. After shelling out one hundred and seventy thousand pounds on a new supercar, it is a slight worry that it might spontaneously burst into flames, and imagine the Car Insurance premiums on something so risky?

A Ferrari spokesman has declined to comment on whether the cars have a fault, and the company is investigating the fires. The car has a 4.5 litre engine, a zero to sixty two miles per hour time of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of two hundred and two miles per hour.