A former racing driver was caught speeding along one of the north’s busiest roads at 127mph in his bright yellow Porsche.
Owen Mildenhall had been on his way to the Highland capital when he was snared on a 60mph stretch of the A96.
Police heard the howl of his powerful 911 Carrera S model approaching before he roared past them at more than twice the speed limit.
They chased him and eventually stopped him by switching on their flashing blue lights.
Last night, road safety campaigners said his behaviour could have caused a fatality.
Mildenhall appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted driving dangerously on a single carriageway stretch of the A96 at Tornagrain, near Inverness.
The 41-year-old had been travelling north from his home at Edenbridge in Kent to put a new BMW through its paces.
Mildenhall has competed on most of Europe’s top circuits – but his new career as a road tester for motoring magazine Auto Express has been cut short by yesterday’s conviction.
The court heard the offence happened at 12.45am on July 10.
Mildenhall told the officers who stopped him: “I was just accelerating out of the roundabout. I was testing the vehicle’s acceleration through the gears. I know it is not an excuse.”
The car he was driving – an £85,000, 3.8 litre, 400bhp machine fitted with a paddle-shift gearbox – is capable of 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds and has a top speed of 187mph
His agent, solicitor Joe MacPherson, told Sheriff David Sutherland that his client had the skills and capability to drive at such speed.
He said: “He is a motoring journalist and held a racing licence for 10 years. He was in a high performance vehicle, travelling north from London to Inverness, via Aberdeen.
“He was scheduled to test a new BMW for the magazine he works for. But as a result of this conviction he has lost his job.
“He did something of great foolishness, although he is a highly-trained driver who travels 80,000 miles a year as a road tester for the magazine.
“He has no points on his licence and has never had an accident.”
Sheriff Sutherland told Mildenhall: “You drove at excessive speed and at over twice the speed limit on that road.
“Although you have the experience, and the traffic was light, you can’t account for the unforeseen things other drivers can do on a country road.”
The sheriff fined Mildenhall £2,000, disqualified him from driving for 15 months and ordered him to pass the extended driving test at the end of his ban before he can get behind the wheel again.
Margaret Dekker, secretary of Scotland’s Campaign Against Irresponsible Driving, said: “I find it incredible that anyone should even consider driving at twice the recommended limit on any public road.
“A man in a professional position like that should be setting an example, not acting like this.
“It leaves me speechless, it really does.
“Driving at those kinds of speeds puts all road users in danger. He could quite easily have killed someone completely innocent, or himself.
“It just beggars belief really.”
Mildnehall has competed in various race series, including the 2012 British GT Championship GT 4, the Trofeo Maserati World Series and the Porsche Carrera Cup.