Car Clocked Going At 150 MPH

16 June 2015, 14:21 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A car was clocked by police driving in excess of 150mph, one of the fastest speeds ever recorded in Britain.

An Audi RS4 overtook a North Yorkshire Police officer in an unmarked car on the A1(M), south of the Thirsk junction, while driving at among the fastest speeds ever recorded on a busy road.

The car was travelling so fast that the police were unable to catch-up.

As the patrol car officer attempted to follow the sports-focused executive car shortly after midnight last night, police were alerted to an extreme speed incident.

The £55,000 car, weighing nearly 1.8 tonnes with a top speed of 155mph, was finally intercepted 20 miles further south near Garforth, West Yorkshire.

Officers seized the vehicle, which Jeremy Clarkson extolled on Top Gear in 2013, along with five mobile phones.

The driver was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and money laundering.

The 37-year-old has been released on police bail and is due to answer on July 13.

Kevin Delaney, the charity's head of safety, said a speed of 150mph equated to 225ft a second.

He said in dry conditions, it would have taken the car 1,275ft - nearly a quarter of a mile - to come to a halt, while the maximum range of the Audi's headlights would have only been around 150 yards.

Mr Delaney added: "Driving at that speed is either homicidal or suicidal, but it was definitely dangerous.

"If a deer had went onto the road there would not have been a lot of it left, the car or the driver.

"No matter how good the brakes are, unless the driver turns out to be Lewis Hamilton, he would be unlikely to be able to use the braking potential of the car as the G-force would be too great.

"I would say the driver was extremely fortunate to have done that and got away with their life."

In 2012, in what is though to be the fastest speed case to come before a UK court, a West Midlands man was jailed for nine years for driving at 180mph in an Audi RS5 alongside other offences.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) said the highest speed recorded by police in England and Wales in 2014 was 146mph, on the M25.

A spokesman for the road safety charity Brake said treating roads like racetracks showed disregard for others.