Michael Fux, below, with admirers at a 2011 car show in Red Bank that featured dozens of his cars, including the Ferrari above. (Click to enlarge)
A rare Ferrari Enzo owned by foam-mattress maven Michael Fux was badly damaged in a crash on I-95 in Stamford, Connecticut, Tuesday morning, according to numerous reports.
Fux, 71, was not in the car, which was driven by a mechanic when it spun out on the interstate and smashed into the divider, causing heavy damage, according to the Stamford Advocate. The driver and a passenger suffered minor injuries.
Britain’s Daily Mail has post-crash photos of the car.
Fux became familiar figure in downtown Red Bank both for his investment in the now-closed Blue Water Seafood restaurant on Broad Street and his propensity to park his expensive Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis and Aston-Martins out front.
The Ferrari, named for company founder Enzo Ferrari, is one of only 400 made, and is valued at more than $600,000, according to the Journal-News.
A retailer who dealt in everything from dead car batteries to carpeting over the course of a long career, Fux (pronounced ‘fyooks’) amassed a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A chunk of that sum was invested in more than 100 rare cars, many of which – including an Enzo – he put on display in a downtown car show for charity in September, 2011.
In a 2011 interview, he told redbankgreen he grew up “very, very poor” in the Weequahic section of the Newark, but hit the jackpot when he turned something called Memory Foam into a runaway consumer bedding product.
“I’m a regular guy who got lucky, that’s all,” he says. “I’m a merchant, a marketer.”
Blue Water Seafood has been shuttered for months, its tables set with napkins and glasses. A sign outside says the business is for sale.
