Man who drove 220km/h with kids, partner in car released from jail

The 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allowed to return home to his children on Tuesday after the five-month prison term handed to him in the Local Court in June was extended to eight months, then wholly suspended, on account of his need to provide around-the-clock care to one of the sons who was chronically ill.

The court heard the man first came to the attention of police about 7.20pm on the evening of January 14 when the tyres on his Holden Commodore SS spun as he turned from Lawrence Hargrave Drive onto Bulli Pass.

Highway patrol officers travelling in the opposite direction did a U-turn and followed the car, which accelerated to a speed of between 80km/h and 100km/h up the pass before overtaking a Ford Falcon ute on double unbroken white lines at the crest.

The car continued north onto the Princes Highway, speeding up to an estimated 200 to 220km/h in the signposted 110km/h zone.

As officers tried to catch the car, they saw it weave in and out of traffic and overtake several other vehicles doing the speed limit.

Eventually the man slowed to avoid colliding with another police car in the area on an unrelated matter, and pulled his vehicle over to the kerb.

A woman and the two children immediately got out of the car, the young boys screaming and crying in distress.

When asked about his speed, the man told police the car was new and he "wanted to see how well it performed".

In court on Tuesday, Judge Paul Conlon said he considered the man's "lunatic" driving fell just below the "worst case category" for similar offences.

"It's very difficult for the court to even contemplate what was in the mind of the appellant to put at risk not just the lives of other road users, but also the lives of his partner and children," Judge Conlon said.

"I'd say it was an absolute absence of grey matter between [his] ears."