Carbon Motors reports 10,000 preorders for diesel-powered E7 police car

As it turns out, there's quite a bit of pent up demand for a purpose-built police car. Who knew that law enforcement officers were so fed up with their current fleet of Crown Vics, Chargers and Impalas? Apparently, that would be Carbon Motors, which is now reporting an impressive 10,000 preorders for its diesel-powered E7 cruiser despite the fact that production isn't schedule to start until 2012.

We can understand the interest. Each E7 will boast an impressive lise of features like 360-degree built-in police-duty LED lights, suicide rear doors with hose-out rear passenger compartment and a separate front compartment with high-tech touches like radar, LoJack, an automatic license plate recognition system, radiation and biological threat detectors and Carbon's exclusive On-board Rapid Command Architecture (ORCA), which features a large touch-screen display plus keyboard.

Perhaps the best bit of all is the aluminum-intensive space frame construction with composite body panels, which keeps weight down low enough that the 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine with 300 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque can propel the E7 to 60 in just 6.5 seconds and up to a top speed of 155 miles per hour. Fuel economy is pegged at 28-30 miles per gallon, which is well above what any current police vehicles are likely to achieve.

[Source: Carbon Motors via Straightline]