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!

Lancia Stratos – building a winner

On his own, and later with his wife Suzie, Craig Tickle has built and raced many rally cars. Starting in 1988, Craig went half shares in a Mk1 Escort and took it rallying. Apart from a few years in the US studying how to be a nuclear engineer, he has always had a rally car in the garage. When he is not playing with cars, he works as an engineer for his design consulting company.
Naturally, anybody interested in rallying has heard of the Lancia Stratos, the poster child and winner of the World Rally circuit in 1974, ’75, and ’76. Just as the Lamborghini Countach rebranded the world of supercars, so, too, did the Lancia Stratos when it came to getting down and dirty in the rally world.

This could be good news for restoring cars and bikes – but we must be quick!

Our parliament is currently considering a member’s Bill, drawn by ballot, called the ‘Right to Repair’ Bill.
It’s due to go a Select Committee for consideration, and we can make submissions ie say what we think of it, before 3 April this year. It’s important because it will make spare parts and information for doing repairs far more readily available and this should slow the rate at which appliances, toys and so on get sent to landfill.