Driver Of Banned Skyline Leads Police On 176mph Chase Until Engine Blows

An early morning traffic stop turned into a high speed chase near Williamsburg, Kansas this week. The driver, Robert Bell, was clocked going 176mph (282kmh) on I-35 by Highway Patrol. Officers tried to pull him over, but he wouldn’t back down, leading them on a chase through three counties. The entire ordeal was over in less than an hour, when Bell’s motor blew with officers from four different departments behind him.

Bell was arrested by the Franklin County Sheriff’s office with a bail of $100,000. He has been charged with fleeing or attempting to elude police officer, speeding 176mph in a 75mph zone, reckless driving, expired tag, impeding traffic normal flow, and unsafe lane change; fail to signal.

Highway Patrol in Kansas said they were already on high alert for people like Bell because of last weekend’s Import Face-Off event in Wichita. The event draws thousands of heavily modded imports, and not all are street legal. In Bell’s case, his Nissan Skyline was far from street legal. The US has a 25 year ban on the motor’s highway use, meaning that only those from production years before 1990 are legal.

So, how did he get this beast on the road in the first place? Easy. It’s illegal to import a Skyline less than 25 years old, but it’s not illegal to buy parts. In fact, anyone in the US can buy an RB-anything off eBay right now. The law only says it can not be used on the road. Using it on the track is a different story. Since the import fee and cost of transportation is so high to buy a car that passes the 25 year mark, most people opt to piece it together themselves.

Why should the US even care about banning these cars? Well, if you ask a government official, they’ll tell you that it all has to do with emissions, or safety or some other load of rubbish. The real story goes like this: Once upon a time, people in the US paid good money on import taxes to bring over better vehicles which they enjoyed driving. The US auto industry started crying to lawmakers because the imports were hurting its income. Lawmakers came up with some great-sounding reasons on why these vehicles should not be allowed, and they lived happily ever after. Okay, there’s a bit more to it than that, but you get the gist.

Obviously we don’t condone running from the authorities, but you can understand why Bell was so keen to get away. All that hard work would just have been destroyed. Still, he knew what he was letting himself in for by driving on the road, and would’ve known the risk, so you can’t be too sympathetic. It really is about time US lawmakers revisited the laws on imports.