Three-Wheeler Driver in High-Speed Police Chase

December 19, 2001 9:13 am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - The driver of a classic British three-wheeled car faces charges of dangerous driving after leading police in western England on a 35-minute high-speed chase involving a helicopter.

Two police cars were also involved in the pursuit of the 28-year-old theft suspect who cranked the infamously unstable Reliant Robin up to 90 miles per hour, police said on Tuesday.

"It's not the sort of thing you see every day," Wiltshire police spokesman David Taylor told Reuters. He said the officers involved in the chase Saturday were astounded.

"We reckon he reached a speed of up to 90 mph on the straight," he said. [British police reckon?]

He said the chase began when officers responding to a robbery report from a local fast food restaurant spotted the suspect leaving the scene in the 25-year-old vehicle -- itself reported stolen a week earlier -- and set off in pursuit.

The chase ended in a town in the neighboring county of Dorset where the suspect abandoned the car and was arrested as he tried to escape on foot.

[Always thought those cars were cute.]

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001