A Lamborghini involved in a street racing incident in Vancouver, B.C. was sold off by the British Columbia government’s Civil Forfeiture Office.
The sale was made with “mutual consent” of the owner, according to The National Post. 13 vehicles, among them an Audi R8, Mercedes SLS, three Nissan GT-Rs, various Lamborghinis and a Ferrari 599 were seized by police after the vehicles were caught street racing on Highway 99 outside of Vancouver. All of the drivers were under 21 and six of them still had their novice licenses, which in B.C. requires a visible “N” sticker placed on the car.
The drivers allegedly blocked traffic with their vehicles so that other drivers could race one other. Not surprisingly, the comment sections of various blogs and news sites were filled with vitriol against the “foreign” students (read: part of Vancouver’s large Chinese community, made up of wealthy mainland Chinese or Hong Kong expats), their wealthy upbringings and other low-grade ad hominem attacks. Clearly, these aren’t the sorts of Gen Y members who are scraping by. The rich kids of Vancouver are a special breed, who make even the most spoiled “My Super Sweet 16” participants look like Dickensian orphans.
El – oh – el!!
What else is there to do with a Lamborghini besides illegaly street race?
“The drivers allegedly blocked traffic with their vehicles so that other drivers would race.”
*Slow clap*
Thanks for catching that.
“The drivers allegedly blocked traffic with their vehicles so that other drivers could race one other.”
one other vehicle?
I wonder if the confiscated cars were finaced or leased. If so, could daddy file a lawsuit to have the local government pay off the note or lease since he doesn’t have use of the car. Sounds crazy, but just could work in the US. If I were on a jury for this kind of case, I would vote for the plaintiff just to keep the local government honest.
Knowing some of the money that exists in that town (where no one seems to work, but prices are exorbitant), I’d have to say it was probably paid in cash.
Can you even lease a Lamborghini?
They offered Gallardo lease deals in Toronto in 2009. Not sure about Van City.
Outside of the insanity that is Vancouver, most rich people finance their super cars because the wait lists are long and it’s not productive to have the whole lump of money tied up.
“The rich kids of Vancouver are a special breed, who make even the most spoiled “My Super Sweet 16″ participants look like Dickensian orphans.”
Magnificent!
There’s a reason we call the place VanKong.
I prefer Hongcouver
In particular, “Lichmond”
It’s a sea of ‘Yota.
I don’t know if this is still the case, but when I was in college kids would buy cars like these and drive them for 2 years and they were then allowed to export them back to Asia as used cars – and not pay the 100% or 200% tax on new luxury cars.
I had a friend with an M3 that was 60k in the US and 180k in Taiwan so he basically paid for college by flipping the car.
Cool, that puts a different spin on the “foreign college kids driving hot cars” thing.
Say what you will about rich kids, but traffic safety enforcement, or any law enforcement for that matter, should not be allowed to become a profit center for the enforcers. At least not in civilized countries. If Vancouverors feel threatened by these sweet 16s in Lambos, they should themselves pay for the protection against them. Not seek out politically unpopular minorities for looting.
Otherwise, at least have the decency to invite the kids to race the local constabulary for pink slips?
Being a profit center isn’t problematic. Fining people can be an effective means of enforcement.
It’s only when profit is the motive, rather than safety. That’s when you see things like a city reducing yellow light times, thereby diminishing safety, and then installing a red light camera. Now people are running red lights much more, and are at much greater risk of T boning oncoming traffic.
“If Vancouverors feel threatened by these sweet 16s in Lambos, they should themselves pay for the protection against them. ”
So if I use the local boulevard as my personal shooting range, everyone should start driving bulletproof S Classes. And I won’t have to pay for that rupture to your spleen. Sweet, time to lock and load.
Uh, no. Street racing means endangering drivers, pedestrians and infrastructure in the immediate vicinity. It’s not the common man who should be paying for some kid’s hijinks.
If they were doing 10 over in a 25 mph zone then the punishment would be something like a $100 fine. The punishment for street racing is probably something really punitive like a $100k fine or a 5 year suspension.
Seeing as ‘The sale was made with “mutual consent” of the owner’ I’m guessing they chose to forfeit their cars to pay the fine and keep their license so they could run straight down to the nearest Lambo dealer to pick up a new set of wheels.
The reason we have such a harsh punishment for street racing here is because of the damage caused by street racers. People walking on the sidewalk have been killed.
Many lamp posts, street signs, bus shelters, and fire hydrants have been mowed down. People have even driven into barriers at the end of streets; a few years ago street racers playing chicken were regularly ending up in the Fraser River while racing on a road that ends at the river.
I don’t care who they are, or how much money they have. You’re not allowed to trash the city just so you can have fun.
I live in Vancouver, and whilst it is really quite satisfying to see some of these entitled, never-worked-a-day-in-their-lives rich kids get their comeuppance, it still does not sit well with me that the government can confiscate your property for such an offence. My understanding of the ‘civil forfeiture’ laws was that they were put in place to screw convicted drug dealers and gangsters of their ill-gotten gains, not go after Johnny motorist, no matter how rich and stupid they are. Fine them, ban them from driving for X number of years. At least that way the little turds will (hopefully) be a little older and wiser before they get their next set of ultra-expensive wheels.
I don’t understand the resentment towards rich kids. If mommy and daddy worked real hard to make money so their kids wouldn’t have to, then why resent the kids? The people you should be direct your hostiliy towards are the parents.
“…were filled with vitriol against the “foreign” students (read: part of Vancouver’s large Chinese community, made up of wealthy mainland Chinese or Hong Kong expats), their wealthy upbringings and other low-grade ad hominem attacks.”
Wow. Here I thought Canada was above this.
Generally Canada is above all this. The problem with Vancouver (and it’s surrounding cities) is that so much foreign (read Chinese) money has poured into the city lately that housing has become completely unaffordable to even above average income earners. You also tend to find that whilst many of the financial immigrants actually live in and around Vancouver, they earn their money abroad, pay little to no tax (bar property tax) and still use all the services that ordinary tax paying Canadians (of all colors and creeds) use. Then you have scandals where some rich immigrants are buying their driving licenses… the list goes on.
When you combine all these issues with the OTT flaunting of wealth and opulence in a city which up to 20 years ago was a glorified lumber town, it builds tension and resentment.
To be honest, there is no ‘one’ Chinese community. HK, Taiwanese, Mainlanders, it’s like Americans, British and Australians. However, it is a Chinese problem, and one that the local Chinese community hasn’t faced up to. In the late 80’s the first wave of immigration came, and it was an abnormally high number of Mercedes. With the current wave, the stakes are higher, the cars are faster and the kids are younger and more stupid.
We also have drug trafficking problems in this part of the world, and even though the gangsters are very multi-ethnic here (both amongst gangs and inside gangs), there was a bit of a turn-around when the South Asian community embraced it as a community problem. There has been no such epiphany in the Chinese community.
If you’re really interested, google the name “Irene Thorpe” and her story should give you a pretty good idea of why immigrants using our streets as racetracks creates such anger in us otherwise tolerant Canucks. It’s not just the Chinese community either, and our gutless legal system doesn’t help. If you lived here you’d understand.
I say let ’em keep the cars, which they can take back to wherever they hail from after they are deported. If that’s vitriolic, so be it.
The law is crookeder than anything outside the law. Citations: it is illegal to have ‘secret compartments’ in your car- you might smuggle drugs in them, even if you don’t. You must show ID if you ‘look’ under 40- even though the age to buy tobacco is 18 and alcohol is 21. Certain shapes of beakers are illegal to possess because they may be used to manufacture drugs, even if you don’t.
If you are found to be carrying too much cash- you could be arrested for ‘money laundering’- even if you were merely going to buy a car. The list goes on and on.
The vast majority of laws are sensible and contribute to an environment of personal and economic safety. It’s not exactly news that a small number of laws designed to catch bad guys sometimes ensnare normal folks who have no ill intent.
Just out of curiosity are you really that concerned about your “right” to build secret compartments in your car so you can carry large quantities of scientific glassware and legitimately earned cash? Who are you, Walter White?
Also, I think you need to recognize that the examples you’ve presented are a mish-mash of law and convenience store signage. Just sayin’