For the past six years, drivers on Czech highways have been encountering a car known as the “Phantom.” Since 2019, this Formula-style race car has been flying up and down major motorways without lights, a license plate, or any other sort of equipment to make it road legal.
Somehow, the driver has managed to evade capture by police, escaping before they could find him, despite numerous sightings and countless video recordings from roadside onlookers and other motorists… until now. The Czech Republic police force said on Monday morning that it had finally captured the alleged driver.
The police said on X that officers followed the car to the town of Buk, a small village about 90 miles south of the capital city of Prague. And judging by the response, they weren’t messing around. From The Telegraph:
The police response was heavy: along with several patrol cars, a helicopter was also dispatched to the house where the man, a 51-year-old, emerged from the car in a helmet and full race gear, but refused to cooperate.
[…]
The driver’s son, identified as Lukáš, complained that police presence was disproportionate to what he called a “traffic violation” and denied being connected to the car that was seen speeding earlier Sunday morning.He and his father have been posting videos of the racing car on TrackZone, their YouTube channel, as a hobby.
Looking through that channel’s videos, it seems as if the driver and his son have been posting clips of the car driving on the road for the past year. How the police weren’t able to put those two things together remains a mystery. The channel even published footage of the police encounter on Sunday, showing the driver putting his hands up and being escorted into the back of a squad car, still in full racing gear. You can even see the helicopter in the sky:
While the car in question wears a Ferrari badge on the nose, it’s not actually a Formula 1 car. According to Road & Track, it’s a Dallara GP2/08 made to look like a prancing horse, wearing a bright red paint job along with Shell and Marlboro branding. With a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 revving to 10,500 RPM, I’d argue it’s a bit more interesting than today’s F1 cars, at least sound-wise.
According to the driver’s son, the car never truly stretched its legs while out on its extra-legal adventures. From The Telegraph:
“The events have always gone without any problems. Everyone knows very well that Formula One has been running on the highway in the Czech Republic since 2019 and people will have to get used to it,” he told Czech news site Idnes.cz.
[…]
Racing cars are not road legal as they do not have licence plates, lights, blinkers or safety equipment. But Lukáš denied the car ever exceeded 200 kmh (124 mph). The top speed limit in the Czech Republic is 130 kmh (81 mph).
“It always drove at a maximum of 180 to 200 kmh and did not endanger anyone. It just drove and did not make dangerous manoeuvres. Other people drive much more dangerously today,” he said.
“If you had a car like that at home, you wouldn’t just want to look at it. For me, just because a car isn’t built for the highway doesn’t mean it can’t be driven on it. Not by a long shot. Drivers who drive at 30 mph on country roads are far more dangerous.”
Fair point, but there’s also a reason why all of those laws exist. Letting one person break them by driving a literal race car, with no safety equipment or lights, on the road with normal, unsuspecting drivers just can’t fly (as cool as the act itself may be).
In another post on X, Czech police said the driver refused to comment on the situation. The agency says he’ll face “a fine in the order of several thousand crowns and a driving ban.” At the time of this writing, 1 Czech Crown is equal to around $0.05 USD.
While we’re sad to see the mystery of a legendary internet legend exposed, it’s probably best police shut down the “Phantom’s” behavior. Sooner or later, it would’ve ended badly. If he ever gets his license back, we suggest the driver buy something like a BAC Mono. This way, he can get that same sort of race car feeling, but with the added freedom of legality.
Top graphic images: TrackZone / YouTube
“I’d buy that for a Dollara!”
There are some details to the story, that may escape your attention: when the driver argue with the police, one of the policemen says something to the effect of “We know each other, Mr Driver, why don’t you cooperate”. There are some rumors that he is retired czech law enforcement officer, and judging by the comments on YouTube the guy is known locally as not-very-honest businessman.
Well, he was running with some pretty exotic metal around him. At parts of the clip, I wasn’t quite sure which one was making the exotic noises.
I hope he gets off easy. Ish.
Cue up “Ain’t hurtin’ nobody” by John Prine.
Reading the article, the whole time I was hoping to read that the car was actually based on an Ariel Atom chassis or something else that was indeed road legal and that it simply was made to look like an F1 car. Would have been a lot funnier to see the cops come to arrest the guy, but the car was legally allowed on the road the whole time.
Wrong livery. He should have had Subway emblazoned on it.
He’s the traffic equivalent of a hat-snatcher-from-a-kid-at-a-tennis-match-by-an-entitled-polish-CEO.
Just another inbred Sovereign Citizen. Police spend way too much time listening to these losers prattle on and on.
Hey! Leave my Czechoslovakian Velorex 435 out of this! Do you think reaching 30 mph is easy?
Maybe the Czech Republic is the Florida of Europe.
If you consider Prague as Czechia’s Disney World.
You’re thinking of Albania.
Czech is an exceptionally literate, sophisticated culture, even by European standards.
And they embrace democracy and human rights without reservation.
I’ve never been to the Czech Republic. However, I’m old enough to have visited Czechoslovakia.
A strange forced marriage.
Too much money and too much speed. I hope he car he’ll be driving when he gets his license back is his Favorit.
Honest to god the shocking part is they managed to drive this thing on the road for several years without it breaking – I don’t think I could make it around the block on the roads near my house with that little ground clearance without leaving half the car at the first pothole. How are Czech roads that good, and how are American roads this bad?
We pay way more tax in Europe, that’s how we get great roads. And 1.80€/l gasoline.
but I’ve been assured that if I pay a nickel more in taxes Gorbachev is going to come back from the grave and steal my barbecue
When last years race car really was dirt cheap, the Lovette brothers were driving Canam cars on the street.
Although built to street legal standards, they were still such pure race cars, they simply could not stand the stress of being driven on American roads on a steady basis.
They began building Canam replicas not to save money, but to have a surviveable version.
But what about the F40?!
Pretty sure that’s a painted Honda.
I mean the driving ban stinks for sure, but a fine of I guess less than $500? ($1000) seems tame.
Literally the definition of Fun Police. Illegal? Sure. But also makes life better to see something like this on a random road.
If I won the lottery I wouldn’t say anything, but there would be signs.
Mr. Lamborghini said he never got a driving license.
He said it’s just one more thing they can take away from you!
Sorry, but there is not a single word in that deluded rant that is a “Fair point”
Right? The TLDR of this is “the rules don’t apply to me”
No doubt. I was hoping for a more charming story here but, no, it’s just another clout-chasing dick. Driving ban seems not inappropriate.
If he had proper clout, he wouldn’t have even been arrested.
There definitely wouldn’t be coverage.
Come drive on my rural roads.
Blind hills and curves with people going 60 mph in trucks.
I am relieved when I reach the main highway with traffic and semis.
Our country roads are far from the worst out there too.