(David McGlynn)
CLOSE CALL:
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wo of the four Bentley occupants walk out of Bellevue Hospital yesterday after the smash-up.
CAR-NAGE!
A $200,000 Bentley (top) and a $37,000-plus BMW sit smashed on Sixth Avenue yesterday after a collision in which both drivers face DWI charges. (
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Two drunks — one driving a rare Bentley, the other a Beemer — went head-to-head early yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mangled metal littering a Chelsea street corner, cops and witnesses said.
Eight people, four from each car, were taken to Bellevue Hospital after the 3:45 a.m. crash, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.
The slightly injured driver of the Bentley, Joel Antoine, 48, of Brooklyn, told cops his beloved 2007 black convertible, worth about $200,000 when new, had been a law-school graduation gift from his parents, a source said.
Hours after the smashup, a passer-by left a note under the windshield of the totaled heap, offering $25,000 cash — about the price of a VW Beetle.
A police source said Antoine had been drinking at a local bar before the crash.
The driver of the silver 2007 BMW was Arnaldo Gil, 28, of Miami.
Two of his passengers were crew members on a yacht, Moonraker, owned by Canadian clothing exec Michael Silver. It’s moored at Chelsea Piers, and rents for $50,000 a week.
One of the crew members, who identified himself only as John, said he and the chief stewardess, Rachel, had been drinking at a Village bar, Down the Hatch, where they met Gil and a female friend of his.
“I think [Gil] was drunk,’’ said John, the Moonraker’s engineer, outside Bellevue. “I know I was.’’
Still, he and Rachel accepted Gil’s offer of a lift to Chelsea Piers.
“I don’t know if he ran a red light, but the front ends of the cars smashed together,” John said.
Both drivers were arrested for DWI at the scene, Sixth Avenue and West 16th Street.
They were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and held on $10,000 bail. Gil’s lawyer said his client, a Marine reservist who served in Iraq, had not been drunk and blamed the crash on faulty brakes.
A car expert identified the Bentley as a 12-cylinder Continental GTC.
“It’s in the same class as a Ferrari or a Lamborghini,” he said, adding it’s handcrafted in Crewe, England, boasts a wood-appointed interior and hand-stitched leather, and takes five months to build.
BMWs start at about $37,000 and can top $100,000 with options.
Additional reporting by Christine Parker