Just because major portions of the German Autobahn have no speed limit doesn’t mean you can drive as fast as you want anywhere in Europe. In fact the German government has already place speed limit in certain areas of the Autobahn, due to outcry from ‘environmentalists’. Where there are posted restrictions, most European countries take speeding very seriously and smack hefty fines and your shiny metal butt. The latest ‘innocent’ victim is a 37-year-old Swedish man who was clocked at 290 kilometres per hour (180 miles per hour) on a motorway between Bern and Lausanne in Switzerland.

Unfortunately for this driver of the latest gullwing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Switzerland doesn’t have fixed fines for speeding. Instead they use a formula parallel to that in Finland where the fine is calculated based on the vehicle’s speed and the driver’s income. A rather smart speeding fine formula. Back in 2002, Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki had to wage a fine of $103,600 for going 75 kph (47 mph) in a 50 kph (31 mph) zone.

In this latest instance, the driver faces a fine of just over $1 million for traveling at the highest speed ever recorded on a public road in Switzerland. Yes, you’ve seen it correct, $1 million! Apparently the SLS escaped being clocked by several older cameras that are limited to 200kph (125 mph) before finally being recorded by a new camera with a higher radar speed range. His excuse: The speedometer was faulty. Wow, what a lame excuse… Should he relay this error to the Silver Arrows so that they pay for the fine due to their ‘error’? That would be totally funny.

As far as we know, this is the most expensive speeding ticket ever issued, though there are reports of a kid who last April was caught speeding in his dad’s Bugatti Veyron, the penalty for which was permanent seizure of the vehicle. Ouch!

Via [Telegraph UK]