“I am satisfied that you were the leader of the group.
“You have an appalling record. This was an atrocious piece of dangerous driving.
“You drove through suburban streets of Wolverhampton at speeds which meant the police car could not keep up.
“You were driving on the wrong side of the road.
“You then got on the motorway and there was a moment in that pursuit that your intention was to outrun the police helicopter.”
So said the English court in sentencing Ben Westwood to nine years in prison. His offense, according to an article by London’s Daily Mirror, was in attempting to steal 21,000 pounds sterling from an ATM and then leading the cops on a high-speed chase.
His vehicle of choice was an Audi RS5, which was white when he’d stolen it. Modified with a “Lamborghini engine” and a “special racing brake”, the car was repainted black after the police became aware it was being used in the robberies.
It’s likely that the whole “Lamborghini engine” business comes from a misunderstanding: the outgoing Audi S6 and S8 had a variant of the Lamborghini Gallardo’s V10. That engine is found, with different accessories, in the Audi R8 5.2 as well. Nor would a special engine be needed to play drag race with a cop-chopper; the RS5 can knock on the door of 174mph even with the factory limiter in place.
Mr. Westwood will be forty-two years old when he comes out of prison, but if he can’t find any more work knocking over ATMs perhaps he can call up Gordon Ramsay, who was pinched doing 132mph in a 911 Turbo a decade or so ago, and whose license is reportedly always a violation or two away from complete revocation even now.
Everyone knows an FIM-92 is the best way to deal with a police helicopter.
Everyone? I think only those who make their GI Joe dolls rape Barbie.
How is that comment not way out of line?
Out of line?
I appreciated it.
Which comment? The offensive one about using a MANPAD to blow up law enforcement, or the one attempting to illustrate the immaturity of such a statement?
Indeed both.
Yawn.
I would’ve been more impressed with a Jaguar Mk II with the same engine stuffed under its shapely bonnet…and no other modifications!
The Ramsay reference reminded me of a woebegone chef he worked with on the UK version of “Kitchen Nightmares”, who spend most of his cash on an E46 M3 with vanity plates that read “A1 CH3F.”
I’d be interested to know what the plate was, because that plate’s not quite possible in the UK.
That plate is perfectly possible in the UK. You can pretty much have anything you like (minimum 2/maximum 7 digits/letters) – you’ve just got to pay a small fortune for it. I remember once being passed on a country lane by a Ferrari F40 with the plate ‘BEG 4 IT’. Smart arse.
Wonderful, now let’s talk business. Get the suits at TTAC to buy the commenting software that Gawker used about three years ago. You know, the commenting system that acutally worked, lead to free-wheeling disucussions and built a community. TTAC’s writers and that commenting system would rule.
No thanks, the “community” here is just fine and not a bunch of riff-raff like other blogs. I’ve been on TTAC for close to 6 years now and with Safari, it works just fine.
Jack, love the tag about your old green Audi coopay.
It’s too hard to see if you have a reply without just scrolling through the entire thread. The community here is great, but that problem often takes care of itself.
1. Press CTRL
2. Hold it down
3. Press F
4. WHILE holding CTRL down
5. Type doug-g
6. click Next OR press N until you find your comment.
7. Realize that no matter how hard you try, you can’t take 10 steps to explain this to someone.
8. …
9. Profit!
As my father told me when I got my driver’s license:
“The police don’t need to win the race; they only have to come in second.”
Obvious Guy says: “The real problem that caught him a 9 year stretch is his habit of robbing banks.”
Less Obvious Guy says: “Seems the judge wanted to take a moment and highlight his tactics in attempting to allude the police as a way to rub salt in his wounds.”
Subtle Guy says: ” ‘Twas a race between car and police communications equipment.”
I thought Lambos had Audi engines. Hmph, marketing.
Almost read like a “congratulations, you’re hired” prelude for an evil henchman interview.
Oh Jack Baruth, I mean “Ben Weston” -wink, -wink, you so crazy. Never change your wacky Street Speed ways.
Keep writing for TTAC in prison.
Cheers!
You don’t need to outrun Police helicopters. Just drive somewhere where they can’t fly after you – like into the restricted airspace of an international airport.
I maybe out of line here but to me the man deserves a medal,not only has he swapped in a more powewerful engine into this thing to out run the cops (ever driven in the UK?where do you drive fast?) but he has done a really nice paint job on what is basically a boring little car which wouldn’t have stuck out in the crowd. I hope his sentnence included a short parole period, which means he will be out in a couple of years. He could make more money honestly working over Audis with better paint jobs.