Alleged B.C. street race with $2M in luxury cars

B.C. Mounties say 13 high-end luxury cars were impounded and 13 people fined after an alleged street race in Metro Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon — and police are looking at permanently seizing the vehicles.

At about 3:30 p.m. local time, police received several complaints of high-end cars speeding southbound along Highway 99 in the area of the George Massey tunnel.

Witnesses reported the cars were travelling at speeds up to 200 km/h, and on several occasions two cars would travel side by side and slow down to allow vehicles in front of them to take off in a race.

The cars exited the highway into Surrey, where six of the 13 vehicles were stopped by Surrey RCMP. The other seven cars were located and stopped by White Rock RCMP a short distance away.

Thirteen drivers were pulled over and their cars — worth a total of more than $2 million — were impounded.

"The vehicles that we're dealing with here were Lamborghinis, high-end Mercedes, Maseratis, Aston Martins, high-end Nissan sports cars," said RCMP Insp. Bryon Massie.

"The majority of them had personalized plates as well and were souped-up, so they're fairly distinguished and the witnesses had no problem in providing us with the descriptors that were tracked back to the vehicles."

The drivers have each been fined $196 and will have to pay for the cost of impounding and storing their vehicles for seven days.

However, RCMP Supt. Norm Gaumont said police are looking at tougher measures.

"So we've asked our team to be looking at the possibility of criminal charges and ... if we have enough evidence to lay a charge of dangerous driving. We're also going to be looking at seizing the vehicles for good," Gaumont said.

The names of the drivers have not been released, and Massie said it's not clear where they are from.

"The drivers of the vehicles are all in around the age of 20 years old. They're all new drivers. The majority of them do not have their full driver's licence status — they're still in the 'N' new category," Massie said, referring to B.C.'s graduated licensing program, which puts restrictions on new drivers and requires them to put an 'L' or 'N' decal on their car to alert other drivers of their novice status.

The registered owner of the Lamborghini, Massie said, is only 18 years old.

He said it appears the group was getting together to celebrate one of their colleagues leaving the area.

Massie said the incident highlights an important message to drivers: "Speed is fairly unforgiving. Whenever you're involved in a motor vehicle accident where there's any speed at all, it's unforgiving ... Slow down, be responsible and understand that speed limits are there for a reason."