A couple of days after police in Marseilles, southern France pulled over a microcar with a pony riding shotgun, authorities near Lyon had to deal with another kind of horsecrap a hot-rodder who thought he could evade the law via raw horsepower, but who also forgot to top off his gas tank.The citys Gendarmes de la Drôme explained via Facebook that it was prepared to hand out a red card to the driver of a Mercedes-AMG C63 in the late evening November 30 after clocking him doing 206 km/h in an already generous 130-km/h zone.“(The Valence motorway’s squad) caught up with said vehicle five kilometers (from the Pont de l’Isère on the A7) in a 90 km/h-limit zone where the vehicle was now clocked driving at 240 km/h. The Mercedes’ driver then used all the performance of his automobile to outrun patrolmen, but the latter did not give up,” reads the post, translated here into English.“The car is spotted 60 kilometers further, still traveling at crazy speeds. He will finally be found, stopped on the emergency shoulder, out of fuel because of its very high (fuel) consumption.”Indeed, despite the navy blue two-door coups sleek aerodynamics, the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 must have sipped all 66 liters in its tank much faster than its driver planned.Finding the powerful car out of gas, sitting by the curb side after such a folle course-poursuite, would have been enough for the officers to impound this aspiring-Alain-Prost driver and his bolide.Thats when the offenders doubled down on their trouble. Sitting in the back seat, they told police the front passenger and driver had already fled on foot, leaving them behind. Nice try.“On December 4, after investigations that determined the role of each, the driver, a 32-year-old owner of a Saint-Etienne mechanic’s garage, is placed in custody for three crimes: Repeated excessive speeding (since he was already convicted for a more-than-50-km/h offense); refusal to comply with police orders, and so endangering others; and tampering with the vehicle anti-pollution device.” The police investigation also found the C63 unfit for public roads the cars engine control unit had been opened illegally, the exhaust system modified and a replacement alternator improperly installed. The Gendarmes figured the car was making well above its stock 503 horsepower, and thanks to its wonky alternator, was liable to have burst into flames at any point.The drivers will face a total five infractions when he appears in Criminal Court in June. Until then, hes banned from driving for six months. Authorities still have his AMG at the impound lot, too, according to the post, leading one commenter to suggest the police keep the car anyway, it is the right color just add flashing lights. And a larger fuel
Origin: This French garagiste flees the police at 240 km/h in a Mercedes-AMG C63… only to run out of gas
French
French policemen arrest a MicroCar because its passenger is… a pony
French policemen from Sud de la France were conducting a distracted driving crackdown near Marseille last week when they spotted surely the strangest thing theyll see in their career: a goddamn pony riding shotgun in a microcar.They snapped the photo you see above, then they arrested the woman driving the vehicle, only to discover she also didnt have a drivers licence.Luckily, behind the wheel of a microcar like this, thats not a problem: in France, as long as youre over 14 years old, you can drive said voitures sans permis on almost any road, except expressways and highways. And anyway, you dont want to ride those citadines anywhere but cities or on quiet regional roads, since theyre legally limited to 45 km/h.Prêts à devenir #Policier et à affronter l#Insolite ? https://t.co/PdWDtr7qY9 Surprise lors dun contrôle routier 🚔 entre #LaCiotat et #Marseille, un poney au service des enfants handicapés !!! Noble cause certes mais attention aux règles de transport de nos amis les #Animaux pic.twitter.com/tJoZNFmRAU Police nationale 13 (@PoliceNat13) November 22, 2019The problem here was more the, uh, animal. As Police Nationale 13 told the media after the bizarre event, there are rules for keeping our four-legged friends safe in an automobile. In this case, they were obviously not respected.To be fair, the horse seems like it was treated humanely, as its owner explained to the officers. First, wood planks on the floor gave it space to stretch comfortably. And while the pony got into the car from the trunk, once they got to their destination a center for handicapped children hed exit via the passenger door. The woman, a psychomotor physiotherapist, pleaded she was simply transporting the therapy animal in the microcar until she got her drivers licence, when she could legally drive the horse in a much more suitable van.Police officers checked her story and found she was telling the truth so they let her go. No fine was issued. But, boy, did those cops have a story to
Origin: French policemen arrest a MicroCar because its passenger is… a pony
French authorities return classic ute after realizing it’s not built for smuggling
An Australian automotive enthusiast living in the U.K. found himself in a bit of hot water with French customs when they deemed his 1970 Holden HG ute a smuggling vehicle, threatening to crush it and hand him a fine along with a jail sentence. Thankfully, after a year of explaining the ute is just obscure and not criminal, the owner is getting it back. It began when Travis McKimmie bought the well-maintained HG in the Netherlands and had it put on a truck and shipped to England. Along the way, a French customs patrol dog caught the scent of cannabis and sniffed out a small amount of years-old pot that was tucked in the vehicle’s spare wheel. Oh, mon dieu, un joint! Then, during a more thorough search, officials uncovered what they suspected to be a pair of smugglers’ compartments under a hatch at the rear of the vehicle. That’s when they impounded the vehicle and handed McKimmie a €70 fine for the cannabis. In actuality, the two 4020 cm hatches were created by the automaker itself. See, the Holden HG was built on a sedan or station wagon floorpan, so when the brand put a steel panel over the footwells to fashion the bed of the ute, it left two hollow compartments below. Some people put nothing in them, some put ice in them, and others, apparently, fill them with drugs. McKimmie was first told the vehicle would be crushed, then informed that instead French customs would use it as an educational tool for spotting smuggling vehicles. But he wasn’t having any of it. He bought the car fair and square and wasn’t about to let a little stale weed stand in the way of the restoration he had planned. So he began an education of his own, sending photos and emails and information to French customs, explaining the history and strange but explainable build of the Holden. At first the customs officials resisted, even threatening McKinnie with a heavier fine and a jail sentence if he challenged their decision. But he didn’t relent. After a year in the impound (for which McKinnie was charged €280) and many emails sent on its behalf, the vehicle is finally on its way to the U.K. “I finally got the end of the story that I wanted,” McKimmie said in a Facebook post in late April. “People in the U.K. don’t get it they just think it’s a old pick up as they call them over here but to me it’s a bit of Aussie
Origin: French authorities return classic ute after realizing it’s not built for smuggling
All about car 