The Audi R8 V10 has a maximum speed to 333km/h. Photo / Supplied
The Audi R8 V10 has a maximum speed to 333km/h. Photo / Supplied
A motorist has been filmed driving at the "suicidal speed" of 260km/h on the open road.
Auckland man Andrew Pile has posted video on his Instagram account showing the offending vehicle's dashboard speedometer jumping from 142km/h to 260km/h in 20 seconds on a two-lane road.
Pile says he was not the driver and only shared the video online, which he claims was stolen from his social media account.
The video appears to have been taken as the motorist headed south of Orewa on the Northern Motorway between Dairy Flat Highway and Wilks Rd. It is unclear when the video was shot.
Pile's Instagram page show photos and videos of himself in a black Audi R8 V10 and with motorcycles and a jet ski. He lists motor sports as a skill on his LinkedIn page.
Pile told the Herald he was not the driver behind the wheel and had sold the Audi to a dealership about two months ago. He would not name the dealership.
He said he had shared the video on his private Instagram account, but would not say whose content it was.
"I like cars and post stuff on fast cars," Pile said, adding that someone had stolen the video and given it to the Herald.
"It's a breach of my privacy," he said.
Automobile Association spokesman Barney Irvine said driving at that sort of speed on any New Zealand road at any time of the day or night was "insane".
"Reaction time is almost zero, the chances of losing control are huge, and if you have a crash, the forces involved mean it's just not survivable.
"Racing cars are designed to absorb that sort of impact – on specially designed tracks, anyway – but passenger cars certainly aren't," he said.
Irvine said thankfully, it was pretty rare that people drove at those sorts of "suicidal speeds".
The AA's Barney Irvine says driving at 260km/h is insane. Photo / Herald
Pile is listed as living in Dairy Flat where the local highway is one of the most dangerous stretches of road in New Zealand. Between 2014 and 2018, six people died on the highway and another 22 people suffered serious injuries in car crashes.
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said the video was posted on Tuesday night and removed automatically 24 hours later.
"This driver needs banning for life and such an idiot filming himself...he will kill himself or someone else sooner or later."
A spokesman for the NZ Transport Agency said anyone driving at extreme speeds like this puts themselves and everyone on the road with them at extreme risk.
They added that a crash at this speed was simply not survivable.
