A HIGH-performance car would not have been involved in a double fatal collision if it had been driven within the speed limit, a jury was told.

The Jaguar XJ8 driven by businesswoman Mary Butres was travelling at 111mph when she lost control on the A1 southbound carriageway at Great Ponton, between Grantham and Stamford.

A jury at Lincoln Crown Court has heard how Butres struck three people who had just emerged from a broken down Ford Fiesta abandoned on the central reservation.

All three were struck with such force they were thrown over the central barriers into the opposite carriageway.

Mark Crompton, 20, and his girlfriend Jodie Brown, 19, were killed and Jodie's brother, Nicholas Brown, was seriously injured.

Paul Whetstone, a collision investigator with the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, told the jury evidence found on a black box installed in the Jaguar showed it was being driven at 111mph just before the collision.

Prosecution barrister Christopher Donnellan QC told the jury other motorists slowed down because of the conditions.

He said Butres was driving far too fast for the conditions and the road when she lost control.

Butres, 48, of St Marys Street, Stamford, has admitted two charges of causing death by dangerous driving on May 21, 2007.

The car owner and front-seat passenger, John Nichols, 58, of Manor Road, Carlby, denies the same two charges.

The jury has heard the pair, who were business associates, were driving south after a day at Nottingham Races.

The trial continues.