It was to be an adrenaline-filled, top-speed, thrills-and-spills, luxury-hotels journey by sports car across half of Europe -- until two drivers were stopped dead in their tracks by police on the A26 just outside Calais.
Now, the black Porsche 911, clocked at 248kph, as well as the ?100,000 (US$184,000) Ferrari Spider, clocked at 256kph, are property of the French state and, for the two drivers, this year's "Cannonball Run" was ruined.
The Cannonball Run is an annual event in which high-powered cars cross Europe -- often at breakneck speeds. Named after the 1981 film of the same name featuring Roger Moore, Burt Reynolds and Farah Fawcett and once secret, it now boasts a Web site and a ?4,500 entry fee.
Family event?
Organizers claim it is a family event but their publicity boasts that more than 700 entrants have enjoyed "the madness and the mayhem" in the past four years.
Now French authorities are cracking down on the "crazies behind the wheel."
"We simply cannot accept what they are doing. They are a menace and a danger," said Louis Wallon, the public prosecutor in the northern town of Bethune where the two men, Gerald Harrison, 27, of Glasgow, Scotland, and Marc Sharifi, 47, of Ongar, Essex in southern England, were convicted of dangerous driving.
"The motorway was really busy and driving at that speed is totally irresponsible," he said.
Both were described in the French press as "super-rich" estate agents. In addition to the seizure of their cars, they received a three-month suspended prison sentence and a 1,000 euro (US$1,260) fine. Neither was available for comment on the weekend.
Tip-off
The race started at noon on July 9 in a hotel car park in Kent, England, with the Italian port of Rimini as a first destination. From there, racers would head to Rome, Lyon and finally to Brussels on Friday.
Patrick Nelson, who is the organizer of this year's event, said that the line-up included several Porsches, two Ferraris, two Bentleys, a Lamborghini, a Mercedes SLR McLaren and an owner-built Ultima.
Police in Kent tipped off the French that 30 vehicles were heading across the Channel, allowing a speed trap to be set up 40km outside Calais. According to French prosecutors, Sharifi and Harrison were stopped at 9:30pm, leading the pack.
"The first was stopped at a very high speed, the second had time to brake a little and all the others took their foot off the accelerator in time," Wallon said.
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