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Driver of Lotus Elise clocked at an ‘impossible’ 173mph

 
8 3,879 views March 24, 2009

Lotus has stated that it is in no way associated with the prospective 2010 F1 team planned by David Hunt

Lotus has stated that it is in no way associated with the prospective 2010 F1 team planned by David Hunt

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British police have discovered the world's fastest unmodified Lotus Elise, having clocked motorist Tex O'Reilly at the phenomenal speed of 173mph - almost three-and-a-half times the speed limit for the area where he was 'caught'.

Unfortunately for the Derbyshire police, the Lotus Elise they managed to clock at 173mph actually has a top speed of only 127mph. Nevertheless, the Telegraph reports that the police stuck to their story that the radar equipment used on the day was properly tested and calibrated and that everything was in working order, despite suggestions that this was not the case from 'theories' such as physics.

In the end, either through some technicality (or perhaps having a terrible lawyer) O'Reilly admitted to doing 105mph, forcing him to pay a fine rather than spend three years in jail - the outcome he was looking at if he had admitted to traveling at 173mph in a 50mph zone.

Interestingly, if Tex did manage to reach 173mph in his unmodified Elise he would have the dubious record of earning Britain’s highest speeding ticket by a margin of just 1mph. As of 2007, this honor rests with 33-year-old Timothy Brady, who drove a 'borrowed' Porsche 911 Turbo to 172mph before being stopped by police and entering the record books.



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Comments (8)

  1. ma_Chris avatar Chris Posted: 3/24/2009 10:42am PDT

    i wonder who is responsible for calibrating and certifying that radar gun. makes you wonder.

    last time i was pulled over i was told i was traveling 7kmph faster than my speedometer read. i told the officer and he still ticketed me for the amount he said. i fought to have the ticket reduced (a common practise in ontario, it doesnt take much complaining), but i still wonder if it was in fact the gun that was wrong or the officer lied.
     
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  2. ma_www.mywheelsonwalls.com avatar www.mywheelsonwalls.com Posted: 3/24/2009 11:40am PDT

    Radar guns here in the states are calibrated with nothing more than a tuning fork. The last time I was clocked with radar I took the case to court. My attorney (a very sharp man) asked for the tuning fork to be x-rayed for cracks ofcourse this revealed cracks in the metal and the judge through my ticket out two weeks later based on those results. For the rest of the time I lived in that town I drove the speed limit as the cop was non to pleased that he got beat.

    The idiot above should have kept his mouth shut!
     
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  3. ma_SuperSkyline89 avatar SuperSkyline89 Posted: 3/24/2009 11:58am PDT

    i wonder who is responsible for calibrating and certifying that radar gun. makes you wonder.

    last time i was pulled over i was told i was traveling 7kmph faster than my speedometer read. i told the officer and he still ticketed me for the amount he said. i fought to have the ticket reduced (a common practise in ontario, it doesnt take much complaining), but i still wonder if it was in fact the gun that was wrong or the officer lied.

    Both the radar gun AND your speedometer were probably a bit out of whack. when me and two friends drove down to Detroit for the auto show, his Nissan Pathfinder was saying 120 km/h on the speedo but his GPS unit was indicating 115 km/h.
     
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  4. ma_justinhk2000 avatar justinhk2000 Posted: 3/24/2009 2:41pm PDT

    To SuperSkyline,
    What you are saying is not entirely correct. The reason for this is because the speedometer is not 100% accurate, the speedometer is always about 5% off. I know for a fact that most BMW's speedometer is always 2 mph faster than normal. This is not intentional, it's the speedometer. It loses to friction therefore not giving you the most accurate measurment. In most states, Police officers won't ticket you over 10% of the speed limit. The GPS navigation system is also not 100% accurate, the GPS takes time for the signal to reach the device. Thus, this is why you see the lag of the arrow when you're traveling. This also contributes to the difference. As a result, there is a little bit of a difference. And 5km/h is hardly anything, nothings perfect. And you shouldn't convert mph to km/h in america, you'll have to convert it back if you read speed limits.
     
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  5. ma_gus avatar Gus Chyba Posted: 3/24/2009 3:58pm PDT

    No.
    Speedometers don't have friction, they measure the tire rotation electronically via the ABS sensor. There haven't been speedometer cables for many, many years.
    And yes, GPS is 100% accurate if it has a good lock on three satellites, down to the billionth of a second. The delay in the arrow you mention is the software keeping up, but if you look at top recorded speed, this is incredibly spot on.

    But what this story calls into question, more than anything, is how many bunk "nomral" tickets are issued in England due to faulty radar cameras/guns.
     
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  6. ma_gus avatar Gus Chyba Posted: 3/24/2009 4:00pm PDT

    If speedometers are inaccurate it is becuase they are programmed to read a tiny bit high, to make sure they show a speed that is greater than, rather than less than actually travelled (for legal reasons, and to account for various tire modifications).
     
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  7. ma_justinhk2000 avatar justinhk2000 Posted: 3/24/2009 5:07pm PDT

    They are not 100% efficient, read it anywhere, even automakers state out that speedometers are old tech that they need to revise, they don't provide the most accurate reading. Yes, there is friction, without friction, there will be no speedometer. But, checking my sources, you are correct about the speedometer cables. Still, the speedometers are still 5-15% off. GPS, are not accurate to the Billionth second, this has been a false myth. If it was this accurate, then all GPS navigation systems should be accurate to the milimeter. Which is not the case today. So, GPS also are inaccurate in speed. The most accurate speed measuring devices now would still be a radar gun on a low humidity sunny day.
     
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  8. ma_gus avatar Gus Chyba Posted: 3/27/2009 5:37pm PDT

    Incorrect again.
    GPS units measure SPEED extremely accurately, but position is variable. There is a HUGE difference in calculating the two. SPEED is easy to calculate, wheras position is much more difficult, and purposely made inaccurate for military and security reasons, but NOT speed.
    So I'm sorry, but GPS measures speed almost perfectly, at least down to the 10th of a mile per hour. Please refer to several articles in Scientific American on the subject. Google to them and search the back issues.
    Your sources corrected you about speedometers, they can probably correct you about GPS and how it works as well. Believe me, the center in Colorado that synchronizes the satellites to BILLIONTHS of a second every day due to the quantum theory of space-time, which states that time changes the further away from the gravitational pull of the earth, and which states that time is measured differently than it is on the ground (which is where your reciever is) would love to correct you as well.
     
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