By Kurt McGuiness
There’s a new sheriff on the mean streets of LA, and no, it’s not another bandana-clad idiot played by Steven Seagal.
Criminals in La La Land could be met with some Aussie engineering when they have their faces mashed against the bonnets of some 20,000 Statesmans being supplied to LAPD, if a massive bid by Holden is successful.
The push to supply cars to US Police was launched some six months ago. The Yanks have already taken to Aussie muscle – VE Commodores sold well in the states as rebadged Pontiac G8s. That was, of course, before Pontiac went belly-up in the GFC’s wake.
Awesome cop cars from around the globe in our Hot Fuzz gallery
As part of the pitch by Holden, a prototype was built by Melbourne-based company, National Safety Agency, which featured a host of new-fangled tech upgrades. Based on the beloved left-hand-drive Pontiac G8, the prototype was a cop-shop on wheels, with fingerprint recognition, video surveillance and CCTV access, traffic info and access to the web, just in case the crooks are stupid enough to tip off the fuzz to their car-jacking plans on Facebook.
The LAPD cars would be V6 and V8 Statesmans, badged as Chevrolet Caprices, and are expected to replace the current fleet of Ford Crown Victoria sedans, which have gotten as old as the jokes in the Police Academy movies.
But our only question for today is, why do Yank cop cars looks so mean, when Aussie police cars look as soft as baby bunny rabbits?
Awesome cop cars from around the globe in our Hot Fuzz gallery
They can’t scare the fluff off a cappucino because they’re Holdens. Why don’t the cops get real and use Fords? The FPV F6 would make a stupendous cop car, albiet so scary-looking that not even the cops could approach them (maybe that’s why they chose Holdens?).
My Australian cop car of choice? Well, since other countries have Lotuses, Lamborghinis and Porsches, I’d love to see the Elfin Type-5 in cop car livery and out chasing goons in Commodores. It sounds so far out it might just work.
Also, did anyone notice that the piccy of the Toyota reversing onto the cop car was number 13? That’s where it should belong.
What, another Holden article TGA? Any chance someone could perhaps write an article around Mmm I don’t know…..
Oh yeah, how to get more fun out of your driving by using cars less for boring tasks and more for fun. Driving considerately towards others even, not driving at all and just tinkering and polishing your pride and joy. There’s so much more to Car Culture than the latest news about Holden…..
What about the city cops using smaller cars? The British police usually have Astra’s and Focus’s without any bother fitting in their Donuts and Coffee and perhaps a few traffic cones etc
Ah yeah, it’s about protecting Aussie jobs at Holden really isn’t it and the fact that even if the Cops wanted to they wouldn’t be allowed to given every car they buy / lease has to have at least 60% Aussie made content.
It’s the paint job they should make them look like that Deceptorcon of Transformers 1 that pretty awsome.
Cop cars should be big and heavy to with a spiked bull bar for extra ramming power if there too light they won’t have enough weight to pit monever baddies Elfin’s are to light.
Watching too much ‘Mad Max’ Speed Demon?
coldfusion, 2 things. 1: YOU SUCK. 2: HOLDEN MAKE ELFINS!!!!
brilliant!!
@ Earth Lover: i wonder if you’ve realised that we often get just blogs and blogs and blogs of ford news too, its just whoevers doing the most at the moment. so obviously ford isn’t doing anything exciting and Holden is…
or maybe TGA prefers Holdens…(:
Right back at ya, Dino. I don’t care if Holden make Elfins, I just want to see cars a bit more interesting than ho-hum crappydores chasing after people like you.
Or General Motors and Ford probably pay a lot of cash to advertise their products with TGA? Other things relevant to motoring and car culture happen in the world also, just would like a bit more of that please.
G’day aussie viewers.
Thanks for watching the show.
On latest adventure, James, Jeremy and I will be heading
to the South of France, driving big family cars.
The car I chose is the Porshe Cayenne Turbo S.
The car May chose is the Beamer X6 and the car Clarkson
chose is the Range Rover Vogue. But he doesn’t really like it!
Half way through the journey we left our cars at a garage to get a bite to eat. When we came back we found they had been replaced with cars that we would use for the rest of the journey. They were in the same price bracket as our others, but the only clue I can give you is that Jeremy goes from a Range Rover Vogue to a Land Rover Discovery – lucky him!
Richard
its not the cars,its the cops,iv been to lot of countrys and oz has to have the most nancy boy cops in the world,most of them are uni grads with arts degrees now.i honestly think the army has to be brought in to control the crime in australia,because in most countrys i think 50% of people will be victims of crime,here in oz its 100% .the jails are full and crims walk the streets because there is no room in the prisons,and the goverment wants to send women to the front line to fight in wars.
is that really you hampster.
Fusion is right – the fpv6 blows that caprice away in every way.
Ill bet its because holden have done them a supa deal!!
(see gmh fans id didnt use the word cheap!)
We have a black fpv6 highway patrol car terrorising the m/way at the moment
Not that im bias – BUT DAMN IT LOOKS GOOD.
G/day Richard
-(doesnt like hampster)
I Dont believe its you!
But just in case!,
Is there anything comeing up on the latest Bolwell?
Also what about the Can Am spyder!?
I can see a good race with jezza on one!!
GM needs to be propped up in the US. Holden has GM as thier parent company. The deal is worth 60million to Holden of which you can bet GM will get a big chunk. The yanks will take the Holden because it will help out one of thier big manufacturers that is in strife. That and the amount of technology in that Holden is unreal, fingerprint recognition, internet access, blah, blah, blah. For a cop that stuff is like a god send. I’m not saying it’s the best car for the job or the worst, just why I reckon the yanks will buy them.
Now you really won’t hear from me for a week or so. I get the designated driver roll in the morning so I better get to sleep. I’m not drunk like this lot who all got to sleep nice and easy. Reckon I might dye the Ford fans hair with food dye while he’s passed out then shave a holden lion in it. Boy would he be spewing. I’d be dead but it would be nearly be worth it. He’s going to try to meet D. Johnson tommorow.
I like the idea of being driven to prison in a nice Caprice. But then it will be a shame when it gets messy and torn, they’re not into cleaning cars in the US.
I’d like not to go to prison at all if i can help it myself if thats you Richard welcome to Australia you really need to try doing a challenge in Australia to spice things up a bit also it will give you a chance to catch with Aussie Top Gear Enthusiust maybe UK Vs Aus top gear host’s.
I just got one question, why is that “most” Police cars still using steel rims over the much more lighter and tougher alloys?, if they could afford all those hi-tech surveillance devices why not pay extra for some good looking set of wheels?
Q- A lot of the h/patrol cars ie ss and xr have them ,cause they are std issue , on the hwy there is not mucjh chance of the rim shattering — but in the city chasing bad guys they often hop curbs and gutters!!etc an alloy just wont take that and may shatter later at 100k on the m/way
thats my take on it !!
Over here in NZ we used to have Traffic Cops (under control from the Ministry of Transport, not the Ministry of Police). They were always trigger happy with their speeding tickets and were feared because of this. (Oh, and respected as well). The Kingswoods and (occasionally) Falcons that they drove were painted in the Black & White colour scheme, and boy! – did those cars look menacing !!!
Q, have you SEEN one of the new Camry patrol cars, let alone an XR8 or Commodore cop car? The average copper is not a small unit, by any measure. Add all their lights, radios, bash-up sticks and God knows how much other equipment a patrol car carries.
Now you try belting that thing over kerbs at speed. See why they choose steel rims now?
I want to know why Holden are offering the U, S and A Statesman cars and not Commodores? Space for extra donuts perhaps?
J-Dav of ‘over here in NZ’, not the Kingswood! I just polished the dipstick!
They want the long wheelbase1-the inside will be all cop special.
Iv seen a few camry patrol cars in town-At the moment the h/way patrol have a new set of xr6s and f6s in different colours.”supposed to be less frightening as your getting nicked!!
They also have a”sleeper” black ss como ute-that sneaks around!!
‘beware’ if you use the bruce hwy between brissy and the suuny coast!!
Oh look, black dog, the Bruce Highway has finally come up on the pollies radar. It is the single most dangerous piece of infrastructure in the country at the moment. And until it is re-engineered and rebuilt, it will be the new police whip boy.
And what can they do to make it better? Remove the Mobil gassy bacon n’eggs for $7.99 specials? Make it half as long? Outlaw rain?
It is a dodgy road, and it ain’t gonna be two lane, dual carriageway, possibly ever.
Doesn’t the Bruce only start at Gympie though?
Lil bits-The bruce hwy starts at The pine bridge (petrie) and goes at least tt gympie.
It is 4 and 6 lanes now to caboolture then 4 to the sunny coast.
the bit that is killing people is between pomona and gympie.
Dual lanes now almost to gympie,its a fast rd now hence the cop presence!!
I think its been a while since you were up this way!
Mobi dicks still has cheap all day brekkys!!
I’ve seen the cop’s tear off down the road light’s flashing and all this is at night when my mate drove past the place of intrest you can probly guess they were in a hurry to some hamburger restrant so that bacon sandwich thing isn’t so far from the truth they probly didn’t want to miss the speacial it’s more funny because it’s true it takes them 3 hours to get to a house robbery but when it comes to fried bacon there there in 2 minutes.
Black dog, sorry I couldn’t be bothered getting my map out last night. I haven’t been up the Bruce since April, when I was in Gympie. The Bruce goes all the way to Cairns though. Drove the whole way from Sydney a couple of years ago.
Is it just the bit near Gympie that has all the accidents? I believe you if you say that section is two lanes.
The section from pomona to just out of gympie is still a mixture if 2 and single lanes – thats the death zone-i go along that at least every 2 weeks, its a crap rd ,i think most of the fatalitys are people trying to pass.
And in the rain the rd seems to be very slippery,i reckon it was a mayjor stuff up when they re/surfaced it years ago!!
o black dog, you live on the SUnshine Coast? Lucky boy!
I hope these do okay but there’s a car company in the US that has designed a purpose built cop cruiser from scratch – it’s called Carbon Motors – the specs are very interesting – so whilst I’d love to see Aussie cars doing well overseas I’d rather the contract go to the company that’s been developing a very specialist car get the gong than waste 10-15 years of development.
Just incidentally, the Pontiac G8 did not sell well in the states at all. It was certainly admired by all the journalists over there, who have a very high regard for commodore derived products, but they only sold around 30,000. That might be good by Australian standards, but the new car market is at least 10 times bigger than ours. I don’t doubt GM’s troubles and the GFC hitting didn’t help, but they did put in a hefty and amusing marketing campaign behind the car, and it underperformed in sales.
One last point. The whole ford vs holden arguments on this site submitted by 1 braincell idiots who can only see one colour – blue or red – make it a chore to read most comments on this site. I’ve driven both marques cars in different guises and there’s very little in it in terms of quality or dynamics – both commodore and falcon are acceptable, capable designs, which don’t feel wholly different to drive. The same goes to people who’ll only extol the virtues of cars from a certain country; ie: Aussie cars are crap, BMWs are 100% better etc. Perhaps they are; but until the European brands can supply an enjoyable to drive, spacious and stylish, powerful V6 or V8 large car to Australian showrooms in the 35-55k price bracket, with low servicing costs to boot, then any such argument is a moot point. But please feel obliged to try – competition if anything only improves the breed.
Festivali – Us so called one brain cell idiots make up a rather large portion of the population. You must not know what loyalty is all about. I’m not being insulting to you, just stating a simple point, so don’t go getting your knickers in a knot. I’d like to see the euros put out something like you mentioned to but it just won’t happen. They produce notoriously unreliable cars that are always going to be more difficult to work on & more expensive for parts. In short though if you don’t like the Ford vs Holden argument, then just don’t read those parts. Problem solved.
GOM, just because the majority follow the heard, doesn’t mean the heard is going in the right direction. Though I have to agree with you. Had a Saab 9/3 and it was utter rubbish. Should have known better I suppose!
Baa, Baaa.
You know if they ever make the movie THE CAR again they should use a Chevy Impala and call it a Im pale ah i can’t spell very well so that will have to do i still say a good bull bar maybe paint the front of the car with Human blood then we might start striking fear into people prehap’s even a Human skull or paint a Human skull on the car use the basic’s of fear first a splash of death here a bit of mutalation there it’s always a good start.
Stop it with the sheep noises GOM, I’m getting excited!
La laa la bumba spageti and meat balls and a fing great big banana la la bumba.
POST36 ,IN THE INTREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY MR S DEMON,WHAT DO YOU REALY MEAN?A COPY HAS BEEN SENT TO A.S.I.O AND FBI ,IS IT A CODE PERHAPS?
ha ha i was just off in my own little world would you prefre laa coo coo racha.
It will be interesting how those ruddy American’s will handles Aussie fury. Good luck cops. You’ll need it.