I felt a bit guilty watching channel 5 reality show, as most of it seems to be making entertainment out of travellers and people on benefits. This instance was police interceptors, and got huge thrill watching three unmarked BMWs stop a Vauxhall MPV. It was a bit of a let down when I realised what they were chasing. The lead character was a black M140i. It was doing 160, and seemed rock stable. I got the impression it was speed limited. Are the speed limiters left on the police cars? I always thought they were specially tuned, and not stock. The rest of the cast turned up; I think M3s, but not sure.
I thought were unlimited, same as I believe they can change gear without needing to come to a complete stop i believe? at least in manual cars anyway ? Kev
I watched the same one. The 140i unmarked cars looks perfect for the job, and probably surprise a number of people who wouldn't suspect such a car to be an unmarked unit. Years ago I had a Saab 9-5 Aero, previously owned by Surrey Police as an unmarked car. I can confirm that it wasn't stock..... When I had an Alfa remapped by Angel Maps, the bloke who came out and did the job spoke about how the Police (West Mids) have petty much all their cars mapped/delimited before they go into circulation. He was even talking about the standard patrol cars as well as the motorway units.
Do you know if they change the ECU map only, or mod the hardware as well? I still can’t get over how relaxed that M140i looked at 160mph. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The Aero has stock brakes, suspension etc, was just mapped. Mad in a straight line. The Angel guy said they simply mapped their cars, even the likes of a Pug 308, as was at the time.
Having driven the things for 30 years 1) they were bog standard engine wise, even with standard Rev limiters 2) some had uprated suspension for all the Kit...armed response etc. All are now fitted with a black box recorder, which is routinely downloaded, drive badly thrash the engine, drive at inappropriate speeds etc you will have some awkward questions to anseer
agree totally with your comments from my experience as well the only cars that I know of that were not 'bog standard' were the diesel Volvos when Police forces went back to them after most used BMW, these engines had a mild re-map but that brought its own issues in that components were evidently at about the limits to start with and virtually all of them required some form of engine re-build during their life, there were other differences from the apparently same car you could buy from the dealer in that the brakes and suspension were uprated this still didn't mean the car was very fast, ours would top out (eventually) in the low/mid 140's where as the standard BMW's I occasionally maxed out at the standard 155 limiter and that is bloody fast on a public road this is the only time I know of that Police cars were majorly different from that which the public could buy other than as you say suspension tweeks to cater for the equipment
Amazing the limits social distancing and google has https://www.bmw-special-sales.com/c...vehicles_brochure.pdf.asset.1438266562667.pdf
Interesting feedback from those in the know as it were. I can only comment on what the Angel chap told me and my own experience. The Saab I had was supposedly 240bhp from the factory, it had only been owned by Surrey police before me, I had it on a rolling road at a club meet and it produced a very healthy 264bhp at the flywheel.
Agree with blackrat but tbh we had a lot of shall we say tuned cars going back to the days of Granadas some armoured some not used in NI on CP even the road rats cars where not set up the same and a good mix ford volvo rover vauxhall dangerous times but fun
