The Booth Babe Chronicles: Outrun This

The Booth Babe
by The Booth Babe

Happy Hangover Tuesday! I trust you’re all in good spirits despite possibly imbibing too many good spirits over the holiday weekend. Nothing a nice nap in the county lockup won’t cure.

Yup, chances are at least one or two of you were given an introduction to the ins and outs of traffic, DUI or public drunkenness laws this weekend. Hopefully you didn’t try to outrun the cops before they caught you.

There’s always lots of cool things to see besides the new model year vehicles at the auto show, and one display I always enjoy is the one showing off the latest and greatest police cars. I especially love the ones they’ve confiscated from drug busts and tricked out to take care of law enforcement business. Good luck outrunning those.

Believe it or not I’ve never been arrested (shocking, I know) and I hope you haven’t either. However, taking a trip in one of these sweet rides is almost worth it. Just make sure you have a friend willing to bail you out of jail so you can get back to celebrating your independence.

Here are my favorite hotrod cop cars, one or two of which I’ve actually seen on the streets during my various travels. I hope you get the thrill of seeing them one day too, without accessorizing your American Gladiator Fourth of July outfit with silver bracelets. You know the cops are hoping you’ll run so they can open these babies up.

Cop Lamborghini Murcielago

This beauty was on display at the 2008 Abu Dhabi International Motorshow. I keep hearing about this Lamborghini Diablo that the Iowa State Patrol has, but I can’t find any pictures of it. If anyone has a shot of it, could you share it with us?

Cop Porsche 911

This German police cruiser comes in handy when trying to pull over Michael Schumacher wheeling a taxi through Bavarian streets. Again …

Porsches have a long tradition on the (partially) no speed limit Autobahn. In 1966, the 100,000th Porsche, a 912 Targa outfitted for the police, was delivered to the Baden-Wurttemberg state police. A later press release noted ”40 police cars, mainly 912 Targas and some six-cylinder Coupés were delivered in 1967 alone.”

Cop Chevy Corvette C5

This one I have seen on the road, and luckily not bearing down on me from behind (that’s what she said). Not sure where they put the perps, though. In the trunk?

Cop Camaro

Multiple police departments across the US use Camaros as chase vehicles. Like the Corvette, the cops have to call another car to pick your sorry butt up and take you to jail because there’s no room for you in the back. After all that hassle you won’t even get to ride in it.

Cop Dodge Charger

There are entire fleets of this menacing-looking beast running the highways of the USA. I’ve heard that the 2011 police models will offer a 390 hp 5.7 liter HEMI. Hey, if the Charger is good enough for Leroy Jethro Gibbs, it’s good enough for me.

Just don’t come to me for that bail money.

The Booth Babe is an anonymous auto show model who dishes about what really goes on behind the scenes. Read her blog at http://doyoucomewiththecar.blogspot.com. And if you treat her nicely, read her each Sunday at Thetruthaboutcars.com


The Booth Babe
The Booth Babe

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  • Shortthrowsixspeed Shortthrowsixspeed on Jul 06, 2010

    In Hawaii, lots of cops get to use their own cars for police duty. They just clamp on a blue roof light and go. It makes for interesting cop cars, though i'm sure there must be a list of "approved" vehicles. I've seen Camrys, G35s, and 4Runners along with the chargers, camaros, and mustangs doing "double duty" for home and "office" use. btw, the use of their own vehicles makes it really hard to tell when a cop is behind you (esp in the dark), so i'd think more speeders get tagged by the unusual makes.

  • The Booth Babe The Booth Babe on Jul 11, 2010

    Wanted to add: This week I had a conversation with a cop whose squad car is a Crown Vic. I asked him if his gas tank had been retrofitted with a bladder and he didn't know. I told him to up his life insurance.

  • Theflyersfan OK, I'm going to stretch the words "positive change" to the breaking point here, but there might be some positive change going on with the beaver grille here. This picture was at Car and Driver. You'll notice that the grille now dives into a larger lower air intake instead of really standing out in a sea of plastic. In darker colors like this blue, it somewhat conceals the absolute obscene amount of real estate this unneeded monstrosity of a failed styling attempt takes up. The Euro front plate might be hiding some sins as well. You be the judge.
  • Theflyersfan I know given the body style they'll sell dozens, but for those of us who grew up wanting a nice Prelude Si with 4WS but our student budgets said no way, it'd be interesting to see if Honda can persuade GenX-ers to open their wallets for one. Civic Type-R powertrain in a coupe body style? Mild hybrid if they have to? The holy grail will still be if Honda gives the ultimate middle finger towards all things EV and hybrid, hides a few engineers in the basement away from spy cameras and leaks, comes up with a limited run of 9,000 rpm engines and gives us the last gasp of the S2000 once again. A send off to remind us of when once they screamed before everything sounds like a whirring appliance.
  • Jeff Nice concept car. One can only dream.
  • Funky D The problem is not exclusively the cost of the vehicle. The problem is that there are too few use cases for BEVs that couldn't be done by a plug-in hybrid, with the latter having the ability to do long-range trips without requiring lengthy recharging and being better able to function in really cold climates.In our particular case, a plug-in hybrid would run in all electric mode for the vast majority of the miles we would drive on a regular basis. It would also charge faster and the battery replacement should be less expensive than its BEV counterpart.So the answer for me is a polite, but firm NO.
  • 3SpeedAutomatic 2012 Ford Escape V6 FWD at 147k miles:Just went thru a heavy maintenance cycle: full brake job with rotors and drums, replace top & bottom radiator hoses, radiator flush, transmission flush, replace valve cover gaskets (still leaks oil, but not as bad as before), & fan belt. Also, #4 fuel injector locked up. About $4.5k spread over 19 months. Sole means of transportation, so don't mind spending the money for reliability. Was going to replace prior to the above maintenance cycle, but COVID screwed up the market ( $4k markup over sticker including $400 for nitrogen in the tires), so bit the bullet. Now serious about replacing, but waiting for used and/or new car prices to fall a bit more. Have my eye on a particular SUV. Last I checked, had a $2.5k discount with great interest rate (better than my CU) for financing. Will keep on driving Escape as long as A/C works. 🚗🚗🚗
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