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April 11, 2009 2:35pm by David Farrar

Police pursuits

policecar

These would make police pursuits much more fun. These Italian police cars can hit 192 m/hr which is 307 km/hr.

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Comments (12)

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slijmbal

In the 80s in Holland the police used open top porsches, white with fluoro striped colours no matter the weather. They looked remarkably like Biggles with the capes, helmet and goggles to cope with the weather. Mind you, when you saw one in the rear view mirror catching you like you were standing still it was a site to behold. This is at a time that most did 130km/hr on the motorway but the police cars were so much faster. They couldn’t hit 300 but were 200 something from memory.

I see as always the Italians show better style though
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April 11, 2009 3:11pm
peterwn

Except the quality and quantity of traffic enforcement is not very good. One sees a standard of driving on Italian roads which would not be tolerated in NZ – hair-raising to those not used to it. Seems the cops goof off because there is poor management. Perhaps they need ticket quotas.
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April 11, 2009 3:55pm
davidp

Plenty of traffic in Italy is traveling over 200km/hr. At, say, 220km/hr you’re doing a kilometer every 17 or 18 seconds. By the time the police work out you’ve gone past them, measured your speed, pulled on to the motorway, and accelerated to match your speed you’ll be 3 or 4 kilometers ahead and they’ll never catch you. Regardless of what they’re driving. And possibly not even with a helicopter if it has to chase you from behind.

But this car is only for show. Sort of like the Italian riot police armed with rifles, rather than shields or batons. Or the Italian police SWAT teams that you see in action on the news. If raiding a building really requires submachine guns and flak jackets, then it probably isn’t safe to have a camera crew following 5m behind. Which explains why these raids never seemed to result in encounters with any criminals.
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April 11, 2009 4:26pm
Rex Widerstrom

Well considering the Italians entrust their populace to drive at 130 km/h on motorways (110 km/h on dual carriageways) the police need fast pursuit cars.

The speed the NZ Police and their roadside cash registers enforce on us on pain of penury mean they need only be issued with scooters to catch us, yet they insist on V6s and V8s as ego boosters.

Interestingly, Italy also mandates that you must slow down in the wet (110/90 in the examples above), thus acknowledging in law that different conditions require different speeds. Not so in NZ, where the laws are written by politicians and police who assume we’re all slack-jawed myopic imbeciles driving jalopies with bald tyres in the pouring rain.

Then instead of actually removing slack-jawed myopic imbeciles and jalopies with bald tyres from the roads so the rest of us can do 130km/h, they sit by the side of the road and hand out tickets.
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April 11, 2009 4:28pm
burt

Hurry hurry or I’ll miss the rugby… Not a problem, you won’t even notice we are speeding.
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April 11, 2009 5:28pm
rolla_fxgt

Italian Police even get the latest and greatest Lambo when the release a newer better model, even the limited edition ones.

Almost all UK police districts have a hot version of a Subaru WRX as a pursuit/urgent duties car. Even some of the aussie police forces do too. Seems where the only country behind the 8 ball in our land whale Commodores and Falcons.

I think we should be like some countries (including the US), where the police use seized cars as pursuit cars, would make a better use of the seized really quick boy racer cars, and the odd Porsche or Ferrari that the rich owner gets a little to excited in.
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April 11, 2009 5:47pm
Camryn

I think the Italians do use seized cars too.
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April 11, 2009 6:10pm
Andrew W

If the NZ police go hold of that sort of car the carnage they’d cause would be unbelievable.
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April 11, 2009 6:40pm
sbk

“Interestingly, Italy also mandates that you must slow down in the wet “…no kidding !..man i want one..
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April 11, 2009 7:10pm
Glutaemus Maximus

Trip from Leipzig to Strasbourg on Autobahn. Great in the old GDR, and average in the Bundesrepublic. Speed limits in built up areas, or inclement weather with those big Matrix signs deployed. Sighted one police Traffic car

Strasbourg to the Pas de Calais, fabulous Autoroute system and maximum speeds 130 k average, but no unlimited speed areas, and inclement weather speed reductions, again by Matrix. Sighted one Marked Police car

Ferry

Dover to The Lake District 28 Marked Police cars sighted. They use a lot of Q cars as well.
70 mph limit, matrix shows a lower limit in bad weather, but generally cars scoot along at just under 90 mph on the Motorways without too much reaction from the Coppers. They collect their money on cameras on the A roads, and averaging cameras near road works where the limit is a strict 50 mph or lower.

And the point, in Northern Europe the driving is quite disciplined. Anyone wanting to be very scared try Naples, or Seville.

The British have more Police Cars because the traffic is a lot more congested. No Payage, or tolls of any sort.

However the driving here in NZ, especially from the Asians is about as bad as I have seen anywhere in the World, apart from the cities mentioned previously.
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April 11, 2009 7:58pm
burt

Like a lot of people I’ve driven in a few different places. What strikes me about NZ drivers are two things;

– That’s my gap. Nobody likes anybody changing lanes, it’s like so weird thing where anybody wanting to change lanes must be blocked at all costs.

– Passing lanes. You follow someone at 85kph for ages then a passing lane comes along and they are doing 130, yes you guessed it – as soon as the passing lane is over back to 85kph.

Why ?
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April 11, 2009 11:27pm
Paul Marsden

This Lambo was donated by the manufacturers, to the Italiian police as a promo and publicity stunt. Interesting comment about NZ police using confiscated vehicles. I often wonder why members of the PCA (Police Complaints Authority) drive around in late model Audis/BMW’s and the like???
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April 12, 2009 10:01am

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