Supercars crash on Japanese highway - check out the video

There has been a pile-up with a difference on a highway in Japan - involving a small fleet of expensive supercars.

Japanese police say eight Ferraris, two Mercedes Benz and a Lamborghini crashed into each other when the lead car hit a central barrier as they drove through the country's west.

Speeding was mentioned as a possible cause for the crash, with witnesses saying they thought the lead car was travelling too fast before it slid across a wet road surface.

TV footage showed wreckage spread across over 400 metres of highway in Yamaguchi prefecture, as well as a trail of crumpled red sports cars.

Some of the damaged Ferraris are believed to be worth several hundred thousand dollars.

Police say 10 people - five men and five women - sustained slight injuries in the accident and were taken to hospital.

"It is highly possible that they were driving in couples," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani said.

Police say the lead car slid into a guard rail and those behind slammed on their brakes, but for many of them it was apparently too late.

"I've never seen such a thing," lieutenant Kamitani said.

"Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers."

"Many of them were probably on their way to Hiroshima," some 130 kilometres to the east, for a gathering of supercars there, lieutenant Kamitani said.

He said the lead Ferrari was being driven by a 60-year-old self-employed man from Chikushino, near Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu.

"Speeding was possible but we have yet to determine the exact cause," he said.
'Great mess'

An unidentified male eyewitness told the TBS network: "A group of cars was doing 140-160 kilometres per hour. One of them spun and they all ended up in this great mess."

The speed limit on that section of the highway is 80 kilometres per hour.

"The front car crashed into the left embankment and bounced off toward me," another man told public broadcaster NHK.

One of the Ferraris was reported to be a F430 Scuderia, a model with a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour.

Japanese media says the total cost of the pile-up could run to nearly $4 million.