of motorist beats 98mph speeding charge - by buying back his car and proving it can only manage a top speed of 85mph

Motorist beats 98mph speeding charge - by buying back his car and proving it can only manage a top speed of 85mph: Dale Lyle showed magistrates that the mobile speed camera was wrong.


Dale Lyle, who was accused of driving at 98mph, holds up the test certificate which proves his 14-year-old Honda Civic has a top speed of 85mph

About 14 years old and with 130,000 miles on the clock, the Honda Civic driven by Dale Lyle was barely capable of reaching the speed limit. So when he received a ticket for apparently driving at almost 100mph on the motorway, he told magistrates the mobile speed camera must have got it wrong. Prove it, they said. He did . . . but it wasn't easy. Mr Lyle, 21, who has a clean driving license, had already sold the car to a friend for $600. He had to take out a bank overdraft to buy it back. Then he had to pay an independent driving expert $600 to test the 1.3litre Civic's top speed at a circuit in Bedfordshire. The result was as expected. Even when driven flat-out, the Honda could still only do a top speed of 85.4mph in fourth gear and 81.3mph in fifth.