'Ferrari Fridays': tales of excessive speed from a North Shore impound lot
'When a Ferrari comes in, you turn your head,' owner says
News that a white Ferrari was clocked going 210 km/h on the Lions Gate Bridge grabbed headlines Tuesday, but the owner of the towing company that brought in the car said it was just another example of a high-end vehicle caught speeding.
"When a Ferrari comes in, you turn your head, but it's not something we would get up out from our desks [for] at this point," said Mitchell Martin, owner of Mitchell's Towing in North Vancouver.
The 22-year-old driver of the 2015 Ferrari 458 was stopped by the same police officer for a similar offence in April and has been ticketed two other times for speeding in other jurisdictions, police said.
The car, valued at roughly $300,000, was impounded on Monday for a week.
On Wednesday, police said the province's Superintendent of Motor Vehicles reviewed the case and has extended the impound order to 60 days.
Police also said the superintendent is considering ordering a prohibition from driving against the man.
'Ferrari Fridays'
Martin, who has been in the towing industry for 14 years, said it's fairly common for the lot to be filled with two or more high-end vehicles like a Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati or Lamborghini.
"We've a running joke here. We call it, Ferrari Fridays — every Friday we would bring in a Ferrari," he said, adding that now that summer has arrived, he expects the term to make a comeback.
Just a few weeks ago, the company towed another Ferrari owned by a student, which had been impounded for excessive speeding.
"He was a young kid," he said, and when he came to get his Ferrari, "he showed up with a Lamborghini with a friend to pick it up."
Martin is full of stories like that. A few years ago, his company impounded a pack of eight Porsches that were speeding on the Sea to Sky highway.
Four years ago, he impounded a 7-series BMW on the highway. The male driver needed a ride, and his wife arrived to pick him up in another 7-series BMW of a different colour. The vehicles were worth roughly $100,000 apiece, he said.
Fines not a deterrent
For many of these high-end vehicle owners, a fine of a few hundred dollars isn't enough to deter them from excessive speeding, Martin said.
"When you consider a $400 fine for a gentleman that drives a Ferrari and has a Lamborghini as a back-up vehicle, the fee is quite miniscule in comparison to the cost of the cars," said Martin.
The average impound rate, he said is roughly $23.00 per day. He said in other parts of the country the rates range from $55 to $80 per day.
Martin said that if the fines don't deter drivers from speeding, they should at least think about the risks.
"If you've been on the other side where you see what the carnage is once it hits something, you'll understand pretty quickly that those speeds are very unacceptable," he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
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