Clarkson Gears up top cop car (mini spoiler)

[robybobey]

July 2nd

[Laba]

More about the police car thingy at http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2971/

Series 11 countdown: reinventing the police car

Whenever you watch those 'Police! Smash! Wallop!' type programmes, there's always some German cop doing 200mph in a Porsche or an American sheriff going sideways in his Crown Vic, and something inevitably crashes or explodes or does a jump.

Then they come to footage of a British car chase and what do we offer? A wheel-shuffling Bobby in a diesel Astra failing to catch crims because he daren't drive up a kerb or down an alley in case he scratches the paintwork.

As a result, Britain is a laughing stock on the world stage of Cop! Action! Kill! television.

Top Gear decided it was time to do something about it. Plainly the problem here is that UK police pay too much for their cars and then can't afford to repair them if they get bumped.

So why not start with cheaper cars? Then they could bash them up without a care, looking groovy and stylish on camera while doing so, and if they got broken, they could simply throw them away and get another one.

Jeremy, Richard and James set out to prove this point by each buying what they believed to be an appropriate basis for a cop cruiser for less than £1,000, doing it up to look the part, and then meeting up to test its ability to bring law and order to a morally bankrupt wasteland. Well, our track, actually.

The new series of Top Gear kicks off at 8pm on Sunday June 22 on BBC Two.

[dragonboy3000]

On the top gear website we finally have a pic of the cars that will be used in the top gear 'Cheap Police Cars Challenge' For those of you havent seen it, here it is: http://www.topgear.com/content/news/...2971/images/2/
For the first time ever, two of the guys have bought the same car while the other has bought something different. Im not exactly sure what they are though. The two same ones are volvo but i dont know what model and the other one i dont recognise. Anyone?

[stiggie]

They are newer than what I was expecting.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by dragonboy3000

On the top gear website we finally have a pic of the cars that will be used in the top gear 'Cheap Police Cars Challenge' For those of you havent seen it, here it is: http://www.topgear.com/content/news/...2971/images/2/
For the first time ever, two of the guys have bought the same car while the other has bought something different. Im not exactly sure what they are though. The two same ones are volvo but i dont know what model and the other one i dont recognise. Anyone?

Umm, I think those are real cop cars. Note the antennas, professional stickers, etc.

Oh, and I merged your thread into this existing one.

[timbuktu]

I think the car in the back is an E32 7-series BMW. I'm guessing that the V80s are actual police vehicles brought in ala the Datsun B210 and the British Leyland piece. And the pic of James May driving isn't the interior of either an S80/V80 or an E32.

The V80 was introduced in 2000, I think you'd be hard pressed to acquire one for a 1000 pounds.

On the other hand, those might also be S60/V70s. But, the interior pick *still* doesn't look right. In fact, it looks like a mid-90s Toyota or Honda given the door trim insert, wiper stalk, cruise control stalk, and plastics.

Or I might be completely daft...

[CrazyRussian540]

Originally Posted by timbuktu

I think the car in the back is an E32 7-series BMW.

Looks more like an E34 5er. If I'm not mistaken I saw the E34 BMW in some other spoiler picture from the track somewhere.

[Mineworksfine]

Originally Posted by dragonboy3000

On the top gear website we finally have a pic of the cars that will be used in the top gear 'Cheap Police Cars Challenge' For those of you havent seen it, here it is: http://www.topgear.com/content/news/...2971/images/2/
For the first time ever, two of the guys have bought the same car while the other has bought something different. Im not exactly sure what they are though. The two same ones are volvo but i dont know what model and the other one i dont recognise. Anyone?

Beg to differ. The cars they are using for this challenge are a Fiat Coupe, a lexus LS400 and a Suzuki Vitara, at least according to the pic in the magazine attached to this piece. Those are real UK spec Volvo V70 pursuit cars in the picture. I suspect the Beemer is the villains' car they will have to chase in their cheap cop cars.

[Frederic]

The Volvo's are just for testing. The presenters have a Fiat Coupe, a lexus LS400 and a Suzuki Vitara, as miniworksfine did say!