Tycoon is slammed by road chiefs for driving £2.5m Bugatti at 257mph on speed-limit free autobahn 

A tycoon who reached a speed of 257.2mph on a German motorway in his £2.5million Bugatti was condemned by road chiefs yesterday.

Radim Passer, 58, posted a video online of himself racing down the A2 between Berlin and Hanover. Like many sections of autobahn there was no speed limit.

Mr Passer said the stunt in the Bugatti – which can do 0-124mph in 6.5 seconds – was undertaken last year on a six-mile, three-lane strip of road with ‘visibility along the whole stretch’.

‘Safety was a priority, so the circumstances had to be safe to go,’ he claimed.

But his car can be seen passing other vehicles in the blink of an eye and the light in the video suggests it was taken at twilight. 

In a statement, the transport ministry in Berlin said that it ‘rejects any behaviour in road traffic that leads or can lead to endangering road users’.

‘All road users must abide by the rules of the road traffic regulations,’ it added, citing the first clause of the legislation, which states that ‘anyone participating in traffic must behave in such a way that no other person is harmed, endangered or obstructed or inconvenienced more than is unavoidable under the circumstances’. 

Noting that the video shows the Czech businessman taking his hands off the steering wheel to celebrate as the car slows down, the ministry said the law also required drivers to ‘only drive so fast that the vehicle is constantly under control’.

Mr Passer, who according to Forbes is the Czech Republic’s 33rd-richest individual with a wealth of £226million, suggested beneath the video that he placed his faith in more than just his driving skills.

‘We thank God for the safety and good circumstances, as we were able to reach the speed,’ he wrote. 

Despite his boast, the investment chief set only the third fastest speed down the autobahn.

The record was set in 1938 when racing driver Rudolf Caracciola hit 268.8mph in a specially-modified Mercedes Benz.  

Mr Passer said the stunt in the Bugatti (pictured) – which can do 0-124mph in 6.5 seconds – was undertaken last year on a six-mile, three-lane strip of road with ‘visibility along the whole stretch’

He clocked just half-a-mile an hour quicker than rival Bernd Rosemeyer, driving an Auto Union, the firm that would become Audi. 

The pair had had the motorway shut down.

The Green Party, now a junior partner in Germany’s coalition government, called for an 80mph speed limit across the autobahn network in last year’s election campaign, as part of efforts to cut the carbon dioxide emissions. 

But that idea was ditched during talks to form the new government.

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo owns the same model of Chiron, which has an electronically limited top speed of 261mph.