Dubai police flex it: world’s fastest cop cars

14 February, 2015

In the first world, you’re probably thinking of Dubai as a Middle Eastern Las Vegas — all bright lights, brand-new skyscrapers, and a lot of money floating around. The city whose huge annual gross domestic product (GDP) is made up primarily from the construction, trading, financial, and tourism sectors is a globally recognizable hub of activity.

Despite Dubai now possessing a large foreign debt burden, thanks primarily to the global economic recession of 2008, Dubai’s police force has managed to acquire an enviable garage of pursuit vehicles. They’ve even made a short film showcasing the fleet and though they’re likely promotional items to boost tourism, rather than actual pursuit vehicles, it’s still interesting watching.

Looking like a Need for Speed, or Middle Eastern Fast and the Furious trailer, we spied some mighty impressive vehicles in there — the star-studded line-up includes a Bugatti Veyron, Nissan R35 GTR, McLaren MP4-12C, Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes SLS AMG, Brabus-fettled Mercedes G-wagen, Audi R8, and a BMW M6 Gran Coupe.

Even though these things are probably there more for show than go, it’s still entertaining to watch, and a bit of food for thought for the speedsters among us — imagine if Kiwi cops’ cars were faster than ours!

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.