A mate of mine told me how after the A610 bypass was opened from the M1 about eight miles past Eastwood in Nottinghamshire a friend of his and a mate took out his custom Vauxhall Calibra turbo (or some such) at 3am to see how fast it would go.

He was doing over 140mph when he passed a police car who had stopped for a fag-break, and they took off after him and flagged him down.

The policemen (both car aficianados, which is probably compulsory) walked around the car admiringly, had a look under the bonnet, and then one took out his notebook.

"Right lads. Nice burn, we clocked 144 - let's call it 85 shall we?"

3 points on the licence, small fine.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson