Up until yesterday, there were only two Ferrari Californias on Australia’s streets. The number is now down to one. Police have impounded the rare Ferrari California being driven by Financial Review motoring writer Rod Easdown. Baruthian car and driver were clocked by Australia’s finest at 231kmh, more than twice the legal limit.
According to the report, the perp with the press pass was “spotted by police on “Julimar Rd, near Toodyay.” The press car, worth nearly half a million Aussies, was brought into Australia by Ateco Automotive for test drives with media outlets this week. Easdown’s colleagues must wait for their turn on the entry level 4.3-liter V8 powered hideaway hardtop two-seater. The 460 hp brutto, ma simpatico has been impounded under Australia’s “hoon” legislation for seven days, Perth Now reports.
If Wikipedia has it right, at the turn of the 20th century in Australia, the term “hoon” meant “one who lived off immoral earnings (i.e., the proceeds of prostitution—a pimp or procurer of prostitutes.)”
Today, we are told, hoon is “a derogatory term used in Australia and New Zealand to refer to a person who engages in loutish, anti-social behavior. In particular, it is used to refer to one who drives in a manner which is anti-social by the standards of contemporary society, that is, fast, noisily or dangerously. Hoon activities can include speeding, street racing, burnouts, doughnuts or screeching tires. Those commonly identified as being involved in “honing” or street racing are young, predominantly male although increasingly female drivers in the age range of 17 and 35 years.“
The 57-year-old scribe doesn’t fit the profile but was charged with reckless driving nonetheless.
For irresponsible behaviour such as this, I would describe the driver in question as a “Flamin’ Drongo” or possibly even a “Bloody Gullah”.
Now he can write about how driving the car does not give on as much stroke as owning the car.
For the metric impared, thats >140 MPH on a public road.
Either he was not paying attention, or driving on the wrong road at the wrong time. Next time, check out the road prior to high-speed runs. In many European countries, he’d be behind bars and the car would sold at auction.
Twotone
Only 140mph ? That is only a small fine, right?
Oh wait, you have to live in Ohio & be a police officer to get that treatment.
My bad….in that case lock him up & throw away the key.
He ought to review his finances now.
I think it depends. If he was going that fast on an empty and straight highway = so what? Have fun. If he was going that fast on a busy road, then that would be dangerous.
I’m going to take a wild guess and assume this happened on some deserted stretch of road many miles form the nearest impressionable child or fluffy bunny. Not that it’ll matter to the safety police.
It’s exactly this kind of thing that makes Top Gear Australia unwatchable.
According to the report, he was “spotted by police on “Julimar Rd, near Toodyay.”
Any owner of a sports car has probably had it well over the legal limit once or twice (wink wink). He just made the mistake of getting caught, but then it should make for an interesting article.
@ stevenm
You must mean deserted private road, right? Cause if it was a public road, I’m pretty sure he still broke the law. What with speed law not having fluffy bunny clauses, it shouldn’t matter to those who enforce it.
Unless you’ve visited Australia, it’s hard to describe how very dangerous this was. You basically can’t drive anywhere for fear of kangaroos, even in the “cities”.
The car (and the driver) were probably very very very lucky to be stopped, just in time.
Though neither’s a genius, I think you’ll find Baruth is a wannabe Easdown.
230 clicks is an idiotic speed even [especially] in WA.
Hell, I’d almost move to Australia to be able to drive on the Bindi Bindi Toodyay road.
Once I got over this ingrained habit of mine of driving on the right side of the road, that is. For quite a while I’d be a worse driving hazard than kangaroos.
Looking at the satellite version of the map, it looks like somewhat open country. I suppose one has to watch out for ‘roos, but nowhere near all the big trucks have roo bars mounted. We may not have kangaroos in western Washington, but there are times to be wary of deer on rural backroads, and even the occasional bear.
@MMH:
No, I mean exactly what I wrote: some deserted stretch of road many miles form the nearest impressionable child or fluffy bunny. My implication being, of course, that this is not the sort of event that should be in any way remarkable beyond a traffic fine.
Sure, he broke the law, and worse still, got caught doing it. My issue isn’t that he did so. My issue is with the pants-crapping-hysteria that the safety police roll out in such situations.
Pulling 140 in a Ferrari, on what Google maps would suggest is a rather desolate stretch of country road, is not an event that would tend to bring about the end of civilization as we know it. Frankly, that is not terribly fast, given the vehicle in question. It’s somewhere in the middle of third gear, at a speed it can stop from in around 350 feet. BFD.
Doing that in a SUV, in a school zone, is another matter entirely. If the safety police really gave half a running crap about “safety”, rather than “control”, they’d be hauling soccer moms off to jail for doing 20 over the limit in a school zone, something I see damn near every day, and not running the “ah, here’s someone we can make an example of!” infraction du jour up the bloody flag pole.
@ stevenm…
You said it perfectly. But isn’t it amazing how many people you can rile up and get to jump onto the pants-crapping-hysteria bandwagon?
Sheeple at their best…
Australians have been neutered by their authorities much the way the UK subjects have been.
he should take the car to NZ where dangerous driving is an Olympic sport.
Well said stevenm. There are any number of places where topography, weather conditions, visibility and traffic make 140mph in a Ferrari no less safe than 65mph in a Yukahoe.
And yeah, roos may be a hazard but if he takes out himself I guess that’s his own problem.
So, I like to consider myself far from the pants-crapping hysterical type, but thanks for the jab, wolven.
I fully agree that 140mph in a Ferrari on a deserted road is far less dangerous than 40mph in an Escalade in a school zone. And, as a full supporter of Darwin’s thesis (and as someone who is regularly amused by the yearly awards that bear his name), I absolutely couldn’t care less when someone driving like an asshat wraps themselves around a remote tree. My point was that it’s still illegal. The law is the law, folks (and see my posts in the ‘buzzed’ article before you get all over me for that remark). Is it a victimless crime? Sure, and because of that it should be treated much less harshly than most. Was it probably less dangerous than the incident Baruth’s drivers’ ed essay? Hell yes it was. That said, it was still illegal. End of western civilization? Nope. Defensible as ‘no big deal?’ Nope.
Of course, if he wanted to risk life and limb on some Outback “roads” or “trails,” and had the fuel stops planned out, he could have driven up to the Northern Territory. From what I understand, that’s Australia’s Autobahn minus wide freeways and fuel stops every dozen miles, but adds colorful road kill and other critters that would love to make sweet love to your windshield.
I just saw one of these in the flesh and I can say that it looks a little better in person. The bubblebutt does take a lot away from the profile but if someone were to throw the keys to me and tell me to have some fun, I wouldn’t complain!
Here what he is in store for:
Km/h over the speed limit Fine Demerits*
Not more than 9 km/h $75 0
More than 9 km/h but
not more than 19 km/h $150 2
More than 19 km/h but
not more than 29 km/h $250 3
More than 29 km/h
but not more than 40 km/h $350 5
More than 40 km/h $1000 7
230km/h exceeds speed limit by 140km/h
Speeding by 45 km/h or more constitutes reckless driving. For a first offence the Court can impose a maximum fine of $1000 or imprisonment for 9
months. (b>Licence suspension of at least 6 months is mandatory. Penalties are higher for repeat offences.
He should have read Jack Baruth’s guide on speeding…
This whole thing is just a kneejerk reaction from a knowitall nanny state. Unfortunately, the nanny state is getting more powerful all the time.
So now there’s at least as many Californias on the road in Finland as in Australia. One, that is. But still a lot more Californias per capita around here…*haha funny smiley*. It does look better in real life than in pictures though.
As for the speed, on a deserted road, a fine is fine by me but it should not be used as evidence for worldwide 40kmh speedlimits in all areas. Which is sometimes feels like. Speeding should not be measured in absolute speed anyway, but in percentages. 50 in a 40 zone is 25% over, 110 in 100 zone is 10%. 25% over in a 100 zone is 125 but still you get a larger fine than doing 50 in a 40 zone. then again does humans field of vision get narrower linearly with speed or is it logarithmic? If its the latter then never mind.
@ BMWnut
WTF? You’re joking right?? Here’s how I would do it;
1. Have the road closed for the test.
2. Inspect the road surface for the test.
3. Examine the owner’s manual for high speed driving checks (Ferrari’s used to come with such manuals/pages).
4. Triple check the tires before the run.
5. Have medical attention handy.
In short CONTROLLED conditions.
If any of those things annoy you or you can’t live with them, take it to the track!!!
Such people are ruining the roads for the rest of us who just want to go about our business without cameras or other such heavy handed “enforcement”.
I’ve driven out there a few times, and ridden my mountain bike out there sometimes. It is very rural, with narrow roads in a hilly area. I don’t recall if I have been on Julimar Road. Maybe.. but it is not the main road.
Regarding roos. It depends on what time of day he was racing. They tend to sleep during the heat of the mid day. Early morning and late afternoon are the most dangerous time since they are moving around feeding.
I suspect, given the vehicle and the road, he would have been fine. But rules are rules. He was busted and now he has to pay the price.