A record-breaking driver who traveled the length of Britain in just nine hours should be prosecuted for speeding, critics say.
Tommy Davies broke the land speed record from Land’s End to John O’Groats in nine hours and 36 minutes, hitting just one red traffic light.
He drove through 15 police constabularies, went past 50 speed cameras, and spotted seven police cars on the 841-mile trip.
Despite an average speed of almost 90mph, Davies didn’t get caught speeding.
“Reckless and irresponsible”
Ian Crowder, head of road safety at the AA, said: “This is just totally reckless and irresponsible.
“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, film it, and admit how many police he passed and how many cameras he avoided is an outrageous example of putting thousands of people’s lives at risk.”
The 26-year-old undertook the challenge in a specially adapted Audi S5 with a 4.2 litre V8 engine in September.
Davies said: “If you speak to a lot of people, the ten hour mark doesn’t seem possible to break, with the average speed cameras and the police, the odds were stacked against us.
“A lot of people said it couldn’t be done – so we went out to prove them wrong.
“We believe we are the only ones to do it that quick on land – only a FG1 Phantom fighter Jet has done it faster in just under 47 minutes.
Car modifications
“We needed a car that was fully equipped to handle this sort of thing, so we made a number of modifications to it.
“It’s a worthy adversary to a police car, with upgrading taking it to 400 brake horsepower, counter measures to avoid speed traps and a detector to pick up police radio signals so we know if there are any police with in a kilometer of us.
“It may just look like a lot of beeps and warning lights, but to us it’s vital information that helps us build a picture of what or who is around us.
“We had a fuel tank in the boot that extends the range of the car from 250 miles to over 400 miles which meant we only had to stop once.”
Neal Champion, who held the previous record on a motorbike, did it in 11 hours 14 minutes at an average speed of 78.7 mph back in 1984.
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