Top Gear's Clarkson boasts of 186mph London Veyron dash
Clarkson takes to the wheel of a Bugatti Veyron
Author: Robin Brown
Published: 29 May 2008
Jeremy Clarkson has been condemned by road safety groups for boasting of hitting 186mph while driving a Bugatti Veyron on public roads in London.
Clarkson made the apparent claim at the Hay literary festival in Wales, when asked what was the fastest he had driven by host Rosie Boycott. "On a public road? 186mph," Clarkson is reported to have said.
Clarkson said he had broken the speed limit by more than 100mph along Limehouse Link between central London and Docklands while driving a Bugatti Veyron.
“I got a great speeding ticket. I think it was 186 in the Limehouse Link. Well, somebody did.
"Obviously it might not have been me,” said the Top Gear host of his Veyron experience.
The speed limit on the tunneled road is 30mph.
The claim has not gone down well with road safety charities and pressure groups.
RAC Foundation spokeswoman Jo Abbott said: “We are disappointed that someone with Jeremy Clarkson’s influence and popularity does not realise the safety implications of his behaviour for young drivers.”
Mary Williams, chief executive of Brake, said: "Jeremy Clarkson is extremely offensive and irresponsible. The BBC should sack him – he is totally out of control.”
A spokeswoman for the BBC denied Clarkson had driven at 186mph and described his remarks as flippant.
Clarkson had a recent brush with the law when he was photographed using a mobile phone while at the wheel of a car. Clarkson has twice been rapped over the last year - once for smoking a pipe in the Top Gear studios and once for using language deemed offensive when he called a Daihatsu Copen 'very ginger beer'.
Earlier this year the Top Gear presenter revealed that £5,000 had been stolen from his bank account after he published his bank details in a national newspaper.
In 2006 Top Gear co-presenter Richard Hammond was critically injured while driving a rocket car at over 280mph.
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