Spring brings another spate of fast and furious driving in B.C.

Hormonally overloaded boys testing their limits is a rite of passage as old as time. But really rich young men driving really expensive cars really fast seems to have become a particular West Coast ritual.

The fast and the well-heeled are at it again this spring. The RCMP on Monday impounded two pricy Italian sports cars – a 2014 Maserati and a 2012 Ferrari – for racing up the Sea-to-Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler.

The cars, each worth more than $100,000, were clocked going more than 140 km/h in a section of the winding highway where the speed is only 70 km/h, RCMP told CTV News.

The drivers, both repeat offenders in their mid-20s, were seen following each other closely and swerving in and out of the fast lane to warm up their cars' high-performance tires.

"It was like they were on a racetrack," Cpl. Robert McDonald said. "It's just like how racers zigzag on the track to lubricate the tires to give them more traction for racing."

[ Related: Saanich police lay charges in 300 km/h motorcycle video ]

They slammed on their brakes as soon as they spotted the Mounties but were ticketed for excessive speed, which covers anything over 40 kilometres above the limit and can draw fines of up to $483 plus three demerit points. The cars were also impounded for 15 days, police told CTV News.

This follows an April 19 incident when a 49-year-old man (old but stupid) was spotted doing 181 km/h in an 80 zone in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey in his 2005 Ferrari sports car.

The Mounties say this guy had a young child in the car with him, and he was pulled over at an intersection where six people died in a collision last year.

Asked why he was driving so fast, McDonald said the driver replied he was "just testing the car," CBC News reported. He lost his testing privileges for a week as the Ferrari was trucked to the impound lot.

Of course you don't have to drive an Italian exotic to catch Smokey's attention.

A 17-year-old from Abbotsford, east of Vancouver, was pulled over for driving 133 km/h in a 60 zone in the family Chrysler 300 sedan last Sunday evening and lost the car to impound – for the second time in a month.

The same lad was caught street racing with five other cars, said Global News. That group included a Mustang, a Mercedes, an Audi and two Infinitis, said CKNW News.

One of the drivers in the group told CTV News they weren't driving recklessly but were victimized by other drivers who, envious of their cool rides, called 911 to report them.

"We were actually driving responsibly," Vivek Sharma said. "But I think people got jealous, you know. There's a lot of haters out there."

Police this time have referred the 17-year-old's file to the B.C. Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, which could pull his driver's licence.

[ Related: Fast, furious and busted: Mounties impound 13 street-racing supercars near Vancouver ]

One of the most notorious street-racing incidents happened in August 2011, when 13 cars worth a total of $2 million were caught racing at speeds of up to 200 km/h along Highway 99 south of Vancouver. The cars involved included Ferraris, Maseratis, Mercedes, Audis, an Aston Martin and a Nissan GT-R.

The drivers, all under 21 and half of whom had "new driver" stickers on their vehicles, had their licences suspended for up to 20 months, the Vancouver Province reported at the time.

The government also sought to seize some of the cars under civil-forfeiture legislation. CTV News reported one of them – a $250,000 Lamborghini Gallardo – was sold in 2012.

One of the drivers involved in that case, Xiao Qiang Zhang, was caught speeding again last year – 160 km/h in a 100 km/h zone on the Trans-Canada Highway between Abbotsford and Chilliwack – in his Audi R8 just two days after getting his licence back, according to CTV News.

Perhaps the most famous B.C. speeding case of all ended up with the alleged offender getting off scott free.

Randy George Scott, 25, of Victoria was charged after a YouTube video in 2012 was posted showing a motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic on a Vancouver Island highway at speeds up to 300 km/h.

However a judge last year acquitted him of dangerous driving, saying the helmeted rider could not be identified beyond a reasonable doubt even though police had traced the Yamaha bike to him and his mother, who was the registered owner, The Canadian Press reported in October.

The motorcycle itself was seized because police did prove it had been used illegally, CP said.

The Vancouver Province reported this week that the number of speeding tickets issued by police in B.C. last year spiked to almost 29,000, compared with more than 18,000 in 2012. Police attribute the rise to increasing driver frustration with traffic congestion, more enforcement and the rising number of high-horsepower vehicles.