NEWARK — An admitted carjacker might have escaped if he'd had some time on a racetrack, or at least some experience with manual transmissions.

But now an 18-year-old man faces up to 15 years in prison after not being able to drive a 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo, a car that can go 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds.

Anthony Reynolds pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark today for the failed carjacking about 5:30 p.m. on March 14, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced.

Reynolds admitted he was in a stolen BMW driven by an accomplice as it pulled up behind the Porsche and waited for a car in front to turn onto Bloomfield Avenue from Highland Avenue, according to Fishman and court documents.

On foot and brandishing a .38-caliber handgun, Reynolds approached the Porsche and ordered the driver to get out, according to the complaint filed in court in March.

The driver of the Porsche ran from the car and flagged a passing police officer, telling him he had been carjacked at gunpoint.

The driver of the first stolen car, a 2006 3-series silver BMW, fled east on Bloomfield Avenue. But Reynolds, who couldn’t drive a manual transmission, stalled the 480-horsepower, six-speed engine, Fishman said.

With police approaching, and still unable to get the Porsche running, Reynolds bolted on foot, said Fishman. After a brief chase, he was caught.

The BMW was found abandoned a short time later. It had been stolen some 20 miles away in Mountain Lakes a few months earlier, the complaint read. The accomplice has not been caught.

Reynolds, who pleaded guilty to one count of theft of a motor vehicle by force, violence and intimidation, is to be sentenced in January 2013, Fishman said.

In addition to prison time, Reynolds faces a fine of $250,000, Fishman said.

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