Poll: Should high performance cars be banned from the roads?

Gerard McManus told MPs high-powered cars have 'no place on our roads' and accused motor manufacturers of 'sticking two fingers up at the law'.

His daughter Rebecca McManus, from Oldbury, was killed after a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driven by Sukvinder Mannan slammed into her as she waited at a bus stop on Hagley Road West, Bearwood, in May 2014 with childhood friend Harriet Barnsley. Mannan was driving at 101mph in a 40mph zone.

The promising student, who studied A-levels at King Edward VI College in Stourbridge, had just completed a three-year degree in English.

Car garage manager Mannan, from Halesowen, was jailed for eight years at Wolverhampton Crown Court after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

The driver he had been racing, Inderjit Singh, of Cranbourne Avenue, Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, was given a one-year jail term after pleading guilty to dangerous driving. He had pulled out of the race seconds before impact.

The court heard the race was reminiscent of scenes from Hollywood blockbuster The Fast and the Furious.

Mr McManus urged MPs to act in a written submission to a House of Commons inquiry into road traffic laws. He said the Mitsubishi Evolution was advertised as a 'sports' car.

He wrote: "As Mitsubishi clearly state the Evo has been developed through decades of competing successfully at the highest level of international rallying. Why is it on the road?"

Mr McManus said it was natural that owners of cars capable of reaching high speeds would want to test them to their limits and that the only place they could do that was on public roads.

He wrote: "More and more cars are being produced with a racing specification, they will never go anywhere near a race track, I find that a bit puzzling because surely the driver of these powerful cars will want to test the vehicle, but where? Well on our roads obviously. Thirty mph speed limit, 40mph speed limit? It will not matter, and myself like so many road users will watch in horror as cars are driven at speed, or raced with others with no consideration for others or the consequences at any time of day, and, those behind the wheel are so often totally immature."

Mr McManus called for changes to the law surrounding high-performance vehicles, including marketing not being able to refer to performance or speed and people wishing to drive them having a special category on their licence which allows them to drive off road or on a racetrack early.

Following the court case in December, the family of Miss McManus released an emotional statement in which they said they were utterly devastated had been sentenced to a lifetime of pain and grief.