PAST IMPERFECT:Around the world, police forces have customised cars, designed for speed, for the thrill of the chase, writes BOB MONTGOMERY.
WHILE OUR own Garda has a mixture of different makes of patrol cars, police forces around the world have a variety of “hot” cars designed for the chase.
In the UK the popular choice is the Volvo V70, with a top speed of 155mph. And there are a handful of rally-replica Subaru Imprezas with a top speed of 158mph. Then there’s the Vauxhall Vectra GSi, one of which was clocked at 159mph being driven by one PC Mark Milton on the M54 in December 2003. PC Milton wound up in court and excused himself by saying he was “familiarising himself” with his new vehicle.
In the good old US it’s the Dodge Charger. It’s proven to be very popular, on account of its top speed of 155mph and 0-60mph time of under 6 seconds, all thanks to its 5.7-litre Hemi engine that puts out a healthy 340bhp. In California, the Highway Patrol – perhaps more style-conscious – has opted for the Porsche Boxter.
Porsche products are also chosen by the German Federal Traffic Ministry for its Autobahn patrols. As we all know, speeds are high on the German Autobahns and, not satisfied with the standard 911, the police there turned to tuning company TechArt to create a police-specification Carerra S. This special TechArt 911 has 370bhp with a 0-60mph time of 4.5.seconds and a top speed of 186mph.
Of course, Germany wasn’t the first European country to use a supercar on motorway patrol. In 1962 the Italian police famously took delivery of a black Ferrari that became famous throughout the country. Its drivers even trained at the Ferrari factory. In 2004 this was followed up with a Lamborghini Gallardo. Top speed – 197mph.
Not every police department has a budget that stretches to this sort of supercar. In the Ukraine dozens of life-size cut-outs of police cars are carefully sited where speeding motorists will be fooled into thinking they’re the real thing.
Probably the mother and father of all car chases – and one of the most bizarre – was the 1994 chase of OJ Simpson, who had failed to come forward for questioning after the murder of his wife and her friend. Simpson’s white Ford Bronco was spotted going north on Interstate 405 by a patrolman. The driver, a friend of Simpson’s, said Simpson had a gun to his head. A slow pursuit ensued, watched live on TV by some 95 million people in the US alone. Also in pursuit were up to a dozen news helicopters as the Bronco was driven around LA before an eventual surrender.
Perhaps the longest pursuit of recent times took place when two Ukrainian thieves held up a bank in Wrestedt in northern Germany and escaped with around €200,000 and two female hostages. Jumping into their Seat Ibiza getaway car, they set off in a chase that lasted two days and took them and their pursuers across Poland, Germany and the Ukraine, covering no less than 600 miles.
Up to 20 police cars and several police helicopters were involved at any one time. The chase finally ended at Rivne in western Ukraine and the hostages were released, unharmed.
Despite all of the above, the days of the police chase may be numbered as some police forces are testing an unmanned aircraft that chases the target vehicle while transmitting high-definition video images to the police controller on the ground. It’s a fair cop!