Some of my favorite headlines are cops catching supercar drivers at incredible speeds on their radars. One, the audacity to drive that fast is just crazy. Two, they’re driving that fast!? Damn.
Someone in a Chevrolet Corvette C8 recently proved it’s just as capable of being ignorant as any supercar. On July 14, a St. Johns County deputy clocked a Corvette doing 130 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone in Florida. That’s 85 over the limit, on a two-lane road.
The driver was arrested on the spot and transported to the county jail. And like, yeah, as he should be.
But damn.
The bodycam footage is a whole mood
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office posted the deputy’s body camera video to its Facebook page on July 24, and the deputy’s reaction says everything.
“What the hell are we doing?” he asks, walking up to the car on County Road 13 North near Joe Ashton Road.
The driver, who has not been publicly identified, tries offering his proof of insurance. The deputy declines and tells him to step out instead. Because at nearly triple the posted limit, paperwork is no longer the issue.
Then, once the guy is cuffed in the back of the cruiser: “130 on a 45 mile an hour road? Ridiculous.”
Florida stopped writing tickets for this
Here’s the part a lot of drivers still haven’t absorbed. Florida’s Dangerous Excessive Speeding law, better known as the “super speeder” law, took effect on July 1, 2025, and it turns extreme speeding into a criminal charge instead of a citation.
You trigger it two ways: exceed the limit by 50 mph or more, or drive over 100 mph in a way that threatens people or property. Our Corvette friend managed both simultaneously, which is impressive in the worst possible way.
A first conviction gets you up to 30 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both. Do it again and it climbs to 90 days and $1,000. Rack up two convictions within five years and your license is revoked for at least 180 days.
California and other states have been tightening their own rules on extreme speeding too. The era of talking your way down to a lesser ticket is quietly ending.
The C8 Corvette can hit 200 mph, but should you?
The C8 Corvette, even the base Stingray, is a different kind of animal. It has absolutely earned the title “Supercar Killer.” Some would argue it’s a supercar in its own right, but I disagree. That’s for a different story (if you ever want to hear me randomly rant about the definition of a supercar, let me know).
Until recently, the base car topped out at 194 mph. Then on June 30, National Corvette Day, Chevrolet announced the 2027 Stingray had been validated at exactly 200 mph by a professional driver on a closed course.
The reason isn’t aero trickery, it’s displacement. Chevy retired the 6.2-liter LT2 V8 and dropped in a new 6.7-liter LS6 making 535 horsepower and 520 lb-ft, gains of 45 hp and 55 lb-ft. It runs a 13.0:1 compression ratio, the highest of any production Corvette. Zero to 60 takes 2.8 seconds.
Starting price: $73,495 for the coupe. That makes it the cheapest new car on the market capable of 200 mph, full stop. The convertible is $80,495. Worth remembering the C8 launched in 2020 at $59,995, so the bargain has gotten noticeably less bargain-y.
Corvette keeps upping its game and I truly don’t know where it goes from here. Maybe 201 mph for $73,500? Like, c’mon. And note that not even this raging moron got close to 200 while blasting past a deputy.
One wrinkle: the 200-mph run was done in a narrow-body 1LT without the Z51 package. Tick that $5,000 box and the front splitter and rear spoiler add enough drag to keep you out of the 200 club. Z51 is a track package built for downforce, not for top-speed bragging rights.
Florida keeps collecting these guys
This Corvette driver has plenty of company, and the excuses are the best part.
A driver in Clay County got stopped at 111 mph in another 45 zone and told deputies he thought he was going 60. In Flagler County, a 57-year-old man was arrested doing 107 mph in a C8 Stingray convertible, and when asked why, explained he had an appointment with his barber. He then added that the car is kinda cool to drive, which, respect for the honesty.
My favorite detail in all of this: the Florida Highway Patrol actually runs a seized C8 Stingray as a patrol car, picked up through a DEA operation. Its top speed is 194 mph. So in Florida, the Corvette outrunning you might be the one with lights on it.
If you’re gonna get in huge trouble, why not just hit 200 mph that one time?
Just kidding. Don’t speed, alright?
