Police Investigating Whether Top Gear Hit 150 MPH on Public Roads in Norway

The cops reportedly told the BBC crew they could break the speed limit…just not by that much.

byWill Sabel Courtney|
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Update, 3:30pm: The BBC has reached out to us with a statement; we've updated the story accordingly.

The cast may change, but the hijinks remains the same. BBC's Top Gear has landed itself in hot water in Norway for possibly blasting along at close to 150 miles per hour on public roads this week, prompting local authorities to pull the production's license to speed. 

The Top Gear crew had obtained permission from authorities to close down a stretch of road for filming for 12 minutes at a time, according to Norway's TV 2; during those stretches, the crew had permission to hit speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph). However, when representatives of the Public Roads Administration went back and examined the data from magnetic loop speed sensors embedded in the road, they found two instances of vehicles blasting along at much higher speeds during the time Top Gear was filming: one instance of a car doing between 170 and 180 km/h (105–112 mph), and a second instance of a vehicle doing 244 km/h (151 mph) in a tunnel. 

After discovering the instance of speeding, the Public Roads Administration contacted the police, who suspended Top Gear's permission to break the speed limits while they investigated the matter, according to Møre og Romsdal police inspector Anne Berit Lian.

"It is natural to investigate whether these speed overruns have been committed in the period when the road has been closed and has been used for filming," she told TV 2.

The Top Gear crew, for their part, say they're working with the cops regarding the issue. "The local police in North West Norway have approached us about an alleged traffic infringement that occurred last Wednesday afternoon in the Atlantic Road Tunnel," a BBC representative said in a statement to The Drive. "As Top Gear was filming on sections of roads closed-off in that area on the same afternoon, we are fully cooperating with the police investigation into the matter. Neither Matt LeBlanc nor Chris Harris were with production, or in the area, at the time of this alleged infringement.”

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