POLICE are promising a crackdown on Britain’s first toll motorway after reports that it has become a racetrack with drivers reaching speeds of nearly 120 mph. An investigation by a motoring magazine found average speeds of nearly 80 mph on the 27-mile stretch of the M6 toll, which opened a year ago.

As drivers took advantage of long stretches of clear road late at night, the average rose closer to 90 mph, and many cars were going even faster.

Local car dealers have even recommended the toll road to customers who want to test powerful new cars. In October JayJay Okocha, the Bolton Wanderers footballer, was fined £500 and given a 30-day ban for driving his Ferrari at 116 mph on the road.

Earlier this year Steve Thomas, the Assistant Chief Constable who heads traffic policing in the Greater Manchester area, was fined £450 and given six points after being recorded at 104 mph. He said that he was part of a group all doing the same speed.

The urge by drivers to put their foot down on the toll road mirrors life on Britain’s first motorway, the M1, after it opened in 1959. Drivers could not resist driving too fast and at one stage racing car manufacturers were reported to be testing their new products on the road.

On the M6 toll, journalists from Auto Express used a laser speed gun to monitor the average speed of traffic between junctions T4 and T3 near Weeford, Staffordshire. They measured the speed of every fifth southbound car during a 20-minute period covering each of the three lanes in turn.

They repeated the tests at three different times of day, covering the morning rush hour, noon and midnight. The Government says that the average speed of cars on motorways is 71 mph but Auto Express found the average was 8 mph more on the toll road, both in the morning and at midday.

At midnight the average speed of the cars monitored was 88 mph. Half of the vehicles using the road were clocked at 90 mph or more and one in seven exceeded 100 mph. The fastest speed recorded was 117 mph. When Auto Express repeated the study the next night on the normal M6, the average speed was 75 mph and just 23 per cent of cars were exceeding 80 mph.

Fewer than one in ten was travelling over 90 mph, even though the road was clear. Only one vehicle was doing more than 100 mph and was pursued by a police car.

The magazine also spoke to a dozen local car dealers and found that one in three recommended using the road for a high-speed test drive because it was jam-free and infrequently patrolled by police.

A spokesman for the Central Motorway Police Group, a collaboration between Midlands police forces, acknowledged that the toll road has a speeding problem. Police have mounted operations using laser equipment and unmarked cars.

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