Auto Express / Evo Critic done for speeding

DAIR

DAIR

DAIR

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A fomer racing driver was caught speeding along one of the north’s busiest roads at 127mph in his bright yellow Porsche.

Owen Mildenhall had been on his way to the Highland capital when he was snared on a 60mph stretch of the A96.

Police heard the howl of his powerful 911 Carrera S model approaching before he roared past them at more than twice the speed limit.

They chased him and eventually stopped him by switching on their flashing blue lights.

Last night, road safety campaigners said his behaviour could have caused a fatality.

Mildenhall appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted driving dangerously on a single carriageway stretch of the A96 at Tornagrain, near Inverness.

The 41-year-old had been travelling north from his home at Edenbridge in Kent to put a new BMW through its paces.
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- Source - https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...mer-racing-driver-caught-speeding-127mph-a96/

You may recognise Owen from the following -


 
Margaret Dekker, secretary of Scotland’s Campaign Against Irresponsible Driving, said: “I find it incredible that anyone should even consider driving at twice the recommended limit on any public road.
“A man in a professional position like that should be setting an example, not acting like this.
“It leaves me speechless, it really does.
“Driving at those kinds of speeds puts all road users in danger. He could quite easily have killed someone completely innocent, or himself.
“It just beggars belief really.”
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Yeah alright, calm down Marge.
 
“I was just accelerating out of the roundabout. I was testing the vehicle’s acceleration through the gears. I know it is not an excuse.”

ROFL -Your right that is the worst excuse ever. 127mph is a little bit crazy.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
“I was just accelerating out of the roundabout. I was testing the vehicle’s acceleration through the gears. I know it is not an excuse.”

ROFL -Your right that is the worst excuse ever. 127mph is a little bit crazy.
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It is, but cars like these make speed like a Focus heading to 70mph. It is no excuse but it never really feels that quick....even as you nudge towards 200
 
Looking at the facts as presented:

- Ex-racing driver with a lot of experience of driving high performance vehicles and no accidents.
- Driving on a stretch of road which appears to be wide, well surfaced and with good visibility (just going by Streetview)
- Driving a car designed with much higher speeds in mind.
- "one of the north's busiest roads"...at 12.45AM?
- July 10; weather not likely to have been poor.

Weighing all that up, I'd say it probably wasn't really that unsafe.
Bit silly, should have known better - but not the crime of the century.
 
Conscript said:
Looking at the facts as presented:

- Ex-racing driver with a lot of experience of driving high performance vehicles and no accidents.
- Driving on a stretch of road which appears to be wide, well surfaced and with good visibility (just going by Streetview)
- Driving a car designed with much higher speeds in mind.
- "one of the north's busiest roads"...at 12.45AM?
- July 10; weather not likely to have been poor.

Weighing all that up, I'd say it probably wasn't really that unsafe.
Bit silly, should have known better - but not the crime of the century.
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Maybe, but what kind of example does it set?
 
Joe T said:
Maybe, but what kind of example does it set?
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Please that's such a low argument these days.

If you are a stiffler for bad examples then open your eyes and look at society.

Whilst driving at that speed is a risk, and obviously not advisable, there are far worse things out there.
 
Joe T said:
Maybe, but what kind of example does it set?
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I'm not defending the legality, just the "think of the children" style of reporting, which makes out that this was a particularly dangerous stunt. When in reality, it probably wasn't.

As for "setting an example" - is he under any obligation to do so when out for a drive in the middle of the night?
 
Either he was very unlucky, or most people I know with decent cars are very, very lucky. There can't be that many car enthusiasts around who haven't achieved those speeds at least a few times in their lives.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
“I was just accelerating out of the roundabout. I was testing the vehicle’s acceleration through the gears. I know it is not an excuse.”

ROFL -Your right that is the worst excuse ever. 127mph is a little bit crazy.
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Its nothing really, I go from 60mph upto 140mph on the back straight at Donnington repeatedly without feeling crazy at all, infact it all seems rather slow.

The only time my brain has gone, this might be too fast is beyond 170mph.

But in a powerful car designed to do it 140mph is nothing, if both the car and driver are capable and not pushing the limits it is safe at the right place and right time, i.e. the race track or closed roads when conditions allow.

Now trying to do say 60-140mph in my Jag would indeed be crazy and dangerous, it would take forever get there, was not built for it and should I need to slow fast it would simply not.
 
geekman said:
Either he was very unlucky, or most people I know with decent cars are very, very lucky. There can't be that many car enthusiasts around who haven't achieved those speeds at least a few times in their lives.
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I sat on the autobahn at 210km/h for several miles, I only did not go faster as that was the maximum safe speed for the vehicle on winter tyres.

Travelling at such speeds in right conditions and a vehicle capable is not crazy in the slightest, I never once felt trouble or like this is too fast.
 
geekman said:
Either he was very unlucky, or most people I know with decent cars are very, very lucky. There can't be that many car enthusiasts around who haven't achieved those speeds at least a few times in their lives.
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I'm going to go with very unlucky.

I love "driving" as much as the next car enthusiast. So you wont see me heckling the guy. If anything I feel sorry for him.
 
Don't see a problem with it myself. Plenty of "what if" situations, reality is nothing was likely to happen. I would rather he was driving that along at 127 MPH than some scummer in an undermaintained banger doing 70 MPH.
 
Housey said:
It is, but cars like these make speed like a Focus heading to 70mph. It is no excuse but it never really feels that quick....even as you nudge towards 200
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Whilst it is true a performance vehicle feels very planted and comfortable at that speed, with eyes open, the closing speed on any object that is stationary feels extremely fast, and even on a car travelling at 70 you close on it at 60mph which is noticeably quick and very different from driving another vehicle at 70mph.

EDIT: It was a single carriageway with a 60 limit but at 12.45am that is gonna feel fast in any car and unlikely he could have stopped within his useful headlight range.
 
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