A COUPLE were recovering from serious injuries last night after a £40,000 sports car they had taken for a test drive was involved in a horrifying pile-up.

Lynn Conder was flown to hospital by air ambulance with a suspected broken back and neck following the head-on collision on the A658 near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

Her husband, Simon Conder, 43, who was driving the orange TVR Tuscan, is in Harrogate District Hospital, where he is expected to be detained for at least a week.

Mrs Conder is in St James's Hospital, Leeds, and relatives are understood to be comforting the couple's two daughters, who are aged 11 and 15.

The four-car pile-up happened ten minutes after the couple, from Acaster Malbis, near York, had left the Horseless Carriages showroom in Harrogate.

Police said it was thought that the TVR lost control before smashing into a Peugeot 306. A Vauxhall Cavalier and Vauxhall Corsa were also struck.

Pauline Marsden, 21, who was travelling in the Peugeot, suffered serious injuries and was recovering in Harrogate District Hospital yesterday.

PC Ian Crozier, of Harrogate Police, appealed to witnesses to the accident, on Saturday afternoon, to call (01423) 539474