- A BMW M3 Competition was clocked at 197 km/h (122 mph) in a 70 km/h (43 mph) zone.
- The performance sedan was driven by a 21-year-old in a Sydney suburb of NSW, Australia.
- Officers suspended his driver’s license for six months and issued a AU$2,595 (US$1,650) fine.
Getting behind the wheel of a high-powered performance sedan in your early 20s is a bit like giving a toddler a chainsaw—technically possible, but almost always a bad idea. Responsibility, unfortunately, doesn’t always come factory-installed. That’s exactly what played out in Australia, where a 21-year-old driver was caught doing nearly triple the speed limit in a BMW M3 Competition that didn’t even belong to him.
More: 21-Year-Old Caught Flooring Mom’s Mitsubishi EVO IX At 111 MPH
Police say the M3 was clocked tearing down Captain Cook Drive in Woolooware, a suburb in Sydney, at 197 km/h (122 mph). That’s on a road with a posted speed limit of just 70 km/h (43 mph), meaning the driver was blasting along at 127 km/h (79 mph) over the limit. Fortunately, the incident unfolded late on a Sunday night, when traffic was light enough to avoid turning reckless driving into something far worse.
No Car, No License, No Sympathy
Officers pulled the M3 over and quickly realized the driver didn’t own the car. That minor detail spared the BMW’s license plates from being impounded under local rules, but it didn’t do much for the driver’s immediate future. His license was yanked on the spot, suspended for six months, and he was handed an AU$2,595 (US$1,650) fine for exceeding the speed limit by more than 45 km/h (28 mph).
Photos shared by the NSW Police Force’s Traffic and Highway Patrol Command on social media reveal that the M3 in question was a black, G80-generation model. Adding a bit of irony, the unmarked “highway patrol intercept vehicle” that pulled him over was also a BMW, this time a grey 5-Series sedan.
Photos: Traffic and Highway Patrol Command – NSW Police Force
For context, the pre-facelift BMW M3 Competition comes fitted with a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine, good for 503 hp (375 kW / 510 PS) and 650 Nm (479 lb-ft) of torque. In the recent mid-cycle refresh, BMW upped the ante slightly, bumping the xDrive variant to 523 hp (390 kW / 530 PS). It’s not exactly a car that needs much encouragement to get itself into trouble.
With a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of just 3.4 to 3.9 seconds, depending on the configuration, it doesn’t take much effort (or much road)b to push the M3 into dangerous territory. Hopefully, this young driver takes the hint and keeps any future need for speed confined to a racetrack, where the worst consequence is usually tire wear, not a revoked license.
Germany’s Autobahn famously has sections with no speed limit, giving drivers free rein to stretch their car’s legs. In contrast, Australia’s strict speed limits top out at 130 km/h (81 mph) on select roads, with most highways capped at 110 km/h (68 mph).
H/T to CarExpert