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Toronto teen charged with stunt driving after running 240 km/h on local highway

May 6, 2014 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

The Ontario Provincial Police pulled over a black Nissan GT-R on Monday evening after recording it blasting across Toronto’s Highway 407 at a whopping 240 km/h. That works out to 150 mph for our American readers. The limit on that stretch of road is 100 km/h.

The driver was 18 year old Vince Lisi. The young man has been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, stunt driving and failure to surrender driver’s license. Under Ontario’s laws, the fines can up to $10,000. Lisi’s car (Dad’s car?) has been impounded and his license has been seized and suspended for a week.
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OPP vs MINI convoy part 2

April 27, 2010 by Gary Grant 12 Comments

Earlier this evening, I wrote about the convoy of MINIs that were herded off the road by the Ontario Provincial Police while on their way towards Ontario cottage country for a Spring cruise. In that post, I shared the viewpoint of one of the cruise’s organizers. I have a few thoughts of my own on the story.

Perhaps the fun stuff first: The road they call The Rattler, is in fact Muskoka County road #13. Muskoka 13 is quite possibly the best driving road in Ontario. During the winter. During the Spring, Fall, Summer it is a beautiful, twisty road that is heavily populated by cottagers and motorcyclists. It is quite narrow in places and is horribly bumpy. One of our writers here in The Garage, and not yours truly, used to test a rally car on this road. He will remain nameless at this point. I however did encounter this road way back in about 1993 during the Ontario Winter Rally. 3 am, -34C and sheer ice. That is absolutely the best time to visit Muskoka 13.

Warning: Do not attempt this at home unless you have experience, the proper tires and proper safety gear. Like a roll cage!

Secondly, the OPP has been involved with organized driving events for many, many years. In fact, when organizing a navigational rally, an organizing club must inform the local police which is usually the OPP. By law, route speeds must be calculated to within a certain percentage of the legal limit. On occasion, a driver who is behind schedule might exceed the limit somewhat. It has been 17 years since I’ve entered a navi, but even then the occasional speeding ticket was not unheard of. It was rare to have more than one in any event. The officers usually got bored sitting around an empty gravel road waiting for an errant driver and went on to better hunting grounds.

Now the not so fun stuff.
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Ontario Provincial Police collars MINI convoy part 1

April 27, 2010 by Gary Grant 41 Comments

The automotive enthusiast community in Southern Ontario has been in a bit of a tizzy over the past 24 hours about the story of a convoy of MINI drivers that was pulled over on Sunday afternoon north of Toronto.

This is a story of driving, questionable journalism and even more questionable policing. It affects each and every driving enthusiast in Ontario.

Late last night I received an e-mail from Leighton Irwin asking if I had heard anything about how the OPP had “nailed a whole convoy of Minis on #11 North of Barrie on the weeekend. From the footage shown there were several cruisers pulling out and pulling over a lot of the convoy of Minis (new version) Supposedly nailed several for 50 over and seized cars etc. Also apparently 11 cars (not sure if they were all Minis) had children in them and the OPP are involving the Childrens Aid Society.”

I found and watched the news report on A Channel, which were there for the event. As I listened carefully, I was astonished to find that the news coverage had been scripted in such a manner that it sounded like the car siezures, 50 overs and CAS involvement had applied to the convoy of MINIs. I decided a bit of digging was in order.

The news report with the offending verbiage was removed from the A Channel web site at some point earlier today. So much for the accountability of traditional media vs. new media, but that is another topic. Sort of. Another time perhaps.

Through the power of the interwebs, I have been speaking with one of the MINI drive event organizers. He has done such a great job outlining the day’s events that I have no choice but to respect his request for anonymity:

The “Rattler Cruise” Background:

We hold a cruise up in the Muskoka area in the Spring and the Fall called the Rattler (My wife and I came up with the name because of the effect that the run has on both your body and cars and the fact that Torrance Barrens is one of the last strongholds of the Massasauga Rattle snake). The cruises are designed as family friendly days out and pretty much mark the beginning and end of the ‘cruising’ season. This is the 5th running of the spring event which started out with only 20 or so Minis. The spring and fall cruises now attract some 40 and 60 plus Minis respectively.
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