Somewhere, our pal Mike Bumbeck is smiling, because Mitsubishi has produced yet another vehicle worthy of its classic "Super Potential" slogan. No, there's no new-fangled Starion, unfortunately, but there is now an i MiEV police car. Mitsubishi has supplied one of the teensy EVs to the Kanagawa Prefecture police, who will test it through March of next year. Sure, it's not particularly intimidating, but it is (ahem) arrestingly cute. As mentioned at AutoblogGreen, we'd have had that battery pack power a set of on-board tasers, too. Talk about missed opportunities...
It's a rather undignified process, being pulled over by the police. Next time you're sitting at the side of the road with the lights flashing in your rearview mirror, just think of this: at least you weren't pulled over by a VW Beetle. Unless you reside in Blount County, Tennessee, where Archie Garner, a 40-plus-year police veteran, nabbed this 1972 Beetle in a DUI case and summarily converted it into an Interceptor. Not that it does too much intercepting, being capable of only 70 miles per hour or so using the stock air-cooled 1600cc engine.
The "bug-erceptor", as it's affectionately referred to, just so happens to be car 53, wearing the same number as the lovable bug from the Herbie movie enterprise, and sees most of its duty in parades and on public relations missions. Wouldn't it be fun, though, to see your buddy pulled over in his souped-up Camaro by a Beetle? That's a story he'd never be able to live down.
Checker did it with taxi cabs a generation and a half ago, but since then, purpose-built working cars haven't been produced in mass quantities. Carbon Motors thinks it's about time the fuzz get their own purpose-built ride, instead of being forced to modify a civilian car. Law enforcement agencies have kept Ford's Panther platform alive long past its expiration date, but even that is winding down. Carbon's E7 looks to step in and fill the niche that the eventual phasing out of the Panther will provide (nevermind that there's been some adoption of the even tighter quarters of the Chrysler LX cars). Police need cars that are tough and economical to run and maintain. With those criteria, it's easy to see why the Crown Victoria is the Queen of fleet. They take a pounding, they're relatively cheap, and they're big enough to hold the constabulary essentials and leave room for perps, even if there's precious little elbow room for Officer Krupke.
Carbon's got to make a case for a niche application, limited production vehicle with some expensive hardware. A twin-turbo diesel inline six is not as cheap a power unit as Ford's long-serving and robust (let's not talk about valve guides and seals, please) modular V8. The aluminum spaceframe that Carbon designed as the basis of the E7 is also not cheap, but the tradeoff for the high cost componentry is a 250,000 mile durability spec. By the time Crown Vics reach that kind of mileage, they're no longer cruisers - usually having long been handed down to less demanding city departments. The car looks like vaporware currently, though there's plenty of CG eye candy at the Carbon Motors website for dreamers to feast upon. Hey, fire trucks are manufactured by niche producers that charge a bundle for vehicles that serve forever, and it could make sense for police departments, too. It all comes down to how durable the cars actually are, how expensive they are to run and maintain, and how much the initial cost is. You know, just a few minor numbers to run.
While Michigan cops are switching over from Crown Vics to Impalas, the UK police are holding fast with their police cruisers and have debuted the redesigned Volvo V70 in police spec with a new livery. Volvo touts the V70's interior space and increased payload capacity of 724kg (up from 539kg in a standard model) as reasons why bobbies in the UK favor the V70, telling us that these features "ensure that the vehicle can safely transport all the equipment necessary for modern policing, including heavy firearms when the situation demands." Boo-yah. So don't go approaching any V70s that look like this in the UK if you're itching for a fight. Chances are they're packing a lot of heat in their rear underfloor lockable storage area.
In Australia, the Victoria Police have acquired a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport powered by the available 2.8L CRD. The off-roader is essentially a special-use vehicle that will be used around Melbourne and other venues to help promote a snow safety campaign during the ski season. (Remember folks, it's winter down there now.) Now, after a long day of promoting snow safety to the masses, we wonder if the fuzz can suppress the urge to use the Jeep for some winter-weather hooning when no one's looking. You know, as research on what not to do.
Click above for small high-res gallery of Barricade
Saleen is still celebrating its high-profile involvement with the summer blockbuster Transformers movie, the highlight of which for us was seeing the Decepticon Barricade, a Saleen S281 Extreme, throw down with Bumblebee, a Chevy Camaro Concept. As cool as the S281 Extreme is, its all spark will be snuffed out soon to make way for a new model from Saleen bearing the code name S302 Extreme. The S302 Extreme is so named for its 302 cubic-inch motor with which we originally made our acquaintance in the Saleen Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Mustang. In the S302 Extreme, however, the PJ mill gains a supercharger, which Saleen claims will increase horsepower to well over 600. It doesn't appear Saleen's most powerful Mustang will transform in any other ways for the 2008 model year, so while it may look exactly like the S281 Extreme it's replacing, in this case, there really is more to the 2008 S302 Extreme than meets the eye.
We'll get you more details as they come, but for now, you can check out the Barricade gallery below and read the whole press release after the jump.
The Commodores are now in full swing, hitting police departments across Australia. We refer not to the classic funk band, of course, but to GM Holden's sweet, V8-powered, soon-to-be-a-Pontiac (maybe) sedan. Our man Dane Muldoon said it's quite the fun machine after spending a week with one in the Autoblog Garage, and we're willing to bet the constabulary won't be averse to laying down the law (and long, black strips of rubber) with their garishly-colored new toys.
The latest place to receive the new VE Commodore cruisers is Victoria. The locals call them SMART cars, but the name has nothing to do with DCX's dinky little city cruiser. It's an acronym for Special Mobile Anti- Road Toll, and they're meant to form a highly visible presence that promotes safe driving. That sounds like fancy bureaucratese to us. We'll translate it into plain English: it's a fleet of Commodore SS muscle sedans whose cop livery makes them look like V8 Supercars with light bars. And if you don't follow the rules of the road, they're gonna chase you down and bust you.
Visitors to the 2007 International Security Convention West show (ISC West) in Las Vegas had a chance to get up close and personal with the future of police patrol vehicles. On display was the new three-wheeled chariot from T3 Motion. Sort of a Segway with sirens, the T3 Series security model boasts a top speed of 18-25 mph. That should be good enough to catch a fleeing suspect, but the T3 will most likely show its benefit in keeping officers fresh for when they have to dismount and really start a pursuit.
Powered by two rechargeable batteries, it will cost about $8,000 but offers a much lower per-mile cost than just about anything this side of a bicycle. Extra batteries can be carried and swapped in as necessary for a longer range and recharge times are 4-6 hours when you get back to the station. It's a bit beefier and more authoritative looking than a Segway, and with a front wheel, a little more stable, as well. And it's green to boot. The zero-emission vehicle even uses LED lighting to minimize battery usage. T3 motion offers a range of similar vehicles customized for military, personal security and law enforcement applications.
Even the cops in Australia have it over us. While we wait (impatiently) for the Pontiac G8 to start rolling off transport ships originating from the island continent sometime next year, the new VE Commodore is now entering fleet duty as a police interceptor. Holden released a trio of shots showing full-dress VE Commodore SSes ready for duty on the undoubtedly long stretches of road running through the Outback in Australia's Northern Territory. Boy, we would burn through a lot of gas if we were Australian police officers on patrol out there with one of these as the "company car."
Note to criminals: if you're planning to be the lead car in a high-speed pursuit, your odds of getting away just got ever so slightly better. Ford Motor Company has decided to conduct a voluntary recall of its Crown Victoria police package Interceptor model (2003 model shown) because of small cracks that could form in the car's steel wheels during high speed pursuits. These cracks could cause "rapid air loss," or what the street folk call a blow-out, effectively allowing the no-goodnicks to get away and obviously putting the officer behind the wheel in a signifcant amount of danger.
About 109,664 examples of the 2003 to 2005 model will be recalled, though it's suspected that a very small percentage of active duty cop cars actually are rolling on defective wheels. Only two crashes have been attributed to the issue and no officers were injured. Nevertheless, Ford has been down the recall road with the Interceptor before, issuing a different wheel recall in 2003, as well as being forced to address potentially faulty gas tanks that could explode after a crash. Neither helped the automaker's relations with this country's law enforcement community, which doesn't bode well for the ancient Interceptor that's now facing stiff competition from the new hotness in police-issue whips, the Dodge Charger.
At the moment this new recall is a voluntary move by Ford, which has already notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of its actions. The recall will be targeted to owners of Interceptors with specific wheels that could be affected, who will be notified and told to visit nearby dealerships where the wheels and spares can be replaced.
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