The teenager appeared in court this week and was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined for the exploits which took place in September. Miss Dudfield who has since learned her lesson had a warning for other people considering flashing to car drivers, “Don’t be me, don’t be stupid, don’t get drunk and stand in the middle of the road and flash anyone because it hurts when you get hit.”

Picture couresty of Takuta

Talking about the incident, Mr Turina said: “If I could go that fast I’d enter my bike in the MotoGP world championships. Valentino Rossi would not stand a chance. What did they think they were clocking – a jet fighter?”

Adding that, “If the court rules the fine will stand then I’m going to send it to the Guinness Book of Records – after all if the court says its true then I should get the credit for this remarkable feat.”

The police have stated that the speed camera was not at fault, but suspect that it was an error by staff on Mr Turina’s paperwork. The court has yet to decide on the case.

Police officers found the underage driver after investigating why the vehicle was parked in the middle of the road in San Anselmo. Police Sgt. Rod Schneider said that the boy got behind the wheel of the Land Rover and after a short drive became frustrated and stopped the car.

Heather Choulos, 32 and her boyfriend San Rafael, 29, have both had convictions for drink driving it was later revealed by police. Heather Choulos has been charged with endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, while Mr Rafael was also arrested but not charged.

The team have already unofficially beat the record during testing last week and are confident that the car, called Inspiration, can achieve speeds of up to 170mph (274kmh). To enter the FIA record books, the car must do 2, two-mile runs in opposite directions, which are then averaged out giving the official speed.

The car, which weighs over 3 tonnes and is 25 foot long has been dubbed the ‘fastest kettle in the world’ and has taken over 10 years to complete.

Project manager Matt Candy admits that it has not all been clear sailing, he said, “We’ve had overheating electrical components, so we’ve started using an awful lot of dry ice every day to cool those,”

Adding that: “We’ve also had a lot of gas pressure problems, due to the temperature causing the liquid propane to vaporise further up the car than it normally does”.

An American called Fred Marriot holds the steam car speed record, which he set in 1906 with his car dubbed ‘the rocket’; the record took place on Ormond Beach, now known as Daytona Beach in Florida.

The chassis of a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta was combined with an aging Citroen 2CV Fourgonnette bread-van, and now churns out a staggering 400bhp and has a 0 to 60mph time of less than 5 seconds. The Citroen 2CV has also been given a new paint job, Ferrari red.

The project was completed by Nicolo Lamberti and Milko Dalla Costa, who run the Italian Nimik rally team. Nicolo said that they found the Ferrari at a price they couldn’t turn down, stating: “We decided to purchase the Ferrari even though we didn’t know what we were going to do with it. But because of our crazy minds we were confident that an idea would soon come to us.”

Adding that: “Then we saw the 2CV and Milko, who is a Citroen collector, had the idea of combining its body shell with the Ferrari. The 2CV hardly cost anything because it was in such bad condition. It had no engine and all that was left was the body shell.”

Mr Hyde, 18 said, “’As soon as the examiner opened the passenger door he said: ‘I can’t take you out in this’.”

The 18 year old said that there were a few crumbs on the passenger seat and a dog biscuit in the footwell and that he had been cleaning the car the morning of the test.

Jack added: “He could have at least given us five minutes to clean it, but there was just no negotiation”.

It is the third time that My Hyde has had his test cancelled, the first was in March when heavy rain called it off and he was ill with the flu on the second occasion. Mr Hyde has lodged a complaint with the Driving Standard Agency and awaits a reply.