Porsche 911 turbo. A British driver was clocked driving one at 172mph.

Fastest motorist jailed after 172mph Porsche spin
by Gulliver

The fastest motorist ever caught speeding in Britain has been sent to jail for 10 weeks.

Tim Brady was clocked on speed camera driving at a record 172 miles (277 kilometers) per hour on the A420 near Abingdon in Oxfordshire.

The 33-year-old from Harrow in North West London was taking a £98,000 ($198,000) 3.6-litre Porsche 911 Turbo for a spin.

Brady pleaded to one count of dangerous driving. He denied another charge of aggravated vehicle taking.

At Oxford Crown Court, he was jailed, banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £474 in costs.

Sentencing him, Judge David Morton condemned his driving as "criminally self-indulgent and utterly thoughtless of the danger you might be creating for the innocent."

The court heard that Brady took the Porsche from his workplace without permission on January 27.
When stopped by police, he said: "Oh s***, oh s***, I've lost my job."

Brady quit his job as a delivery driver for the luxury car hire firm Helphire days after his arrest.

His lawyer, John Reilly, said Brady had admitted his actions were "foolhardy, stupid and done in a moment of weakness".

A police spokesman said the Porsche was travelling at 77 metres per second and needed over 500 metres in which to stop.

"To put that into context, the average duration of a single blink of the eye is 0.3 seconds, during which time the car would have travelled 23 metres," the spokesman added.

Police said Brady managed to stop the car in 681 metres, though it was wobbling due to the heavy braking.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents described the episode as "an absolutely terrifying piece of driving".

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