Driver branded 'irresponsible' after boasts of speed record from John O'Groats to Lands End — at 90mph average
"Police have all the evidence they need"
MANY DRIVERS put their licences at risk by speeding but few choose to boast about it in public, and even fewer would advertise a ‘record’ average speed that’s 20mph above the UK limit.
But that’s what one 26-year-old has done by claiming to have broken an unofficial land speed record, between John O’Groats in Scotland and Lands End in Cornwall, at an average speed of almost 90mph.
Tommy Davies, of Llangollen, north Wales, said that he completed the 840-mile trip in nine hours, 36 minutes, meaning an average speed of 87.5mph.
Browse NEW or USED cars for sale
He and a friend, who sat in the passenger seat, set off at 8pm, to avoid the worst traffic, and arrived on the Cornish coast at 5.36am.
His lightly-modified Audi S5 included a larger fuel tank in the boot, upgraded brakes and an engine performance chip boosting power to around 400bhp, as well as ‘countermeasures’ to detect speed traps.
He claims he encountered only one red light on the journey, which took him through 15 police force areas and past 50 speed cameras. Mr Davies said that his upgraded Audi was “a worthy adversary to a police car”.
“An outrageous example of putting lives at risk.”
He said: “If you speak to a lot of people, the ten-hour mark doesn’t seem possible to break. With the speed cameras and the police, the odds were stacked against us. A lot of people said it couldn’t be done, so we set out to prove them wrong. We believe we are the only ones to do it that quick on land.”
Ian Crowder, head of road safety at the AA, said that the stunt was reckless and irresponsible.
He said: “Britain’s road are crowded, and far too many people are injured and killed in road accidents every day.
“For somebody to deliberately set about to break the land speed record and admit how many police he passed and how many cameras he avoided is an outrageous example of putting lives at risk.
“And to film it? I think it will provide the police with all the evidence they need to prosecute him.”
