Scottish Gangs Audi becomes a Cop Car

[Mulski]

A £40,000 car which once belonged to criminals in Glasgow is now being used by the police in the fight against serious crime.
The black A7 TDI Quattro S-Line was seized by officers from Strathclyde police during an operation against a criminal gang in the north of the city.
The 4x4 car has now been emblazoned with the force's livery and will be used by the Gangs Task Force.

Bet you won't see many of these floating about - not exactly low profile (except the tyres)!




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/8555079.stm
Cheers

[S5Lass]

The Q7 was what I used to have. I find it hard to believe they could seriously want to use this in law enforcement. It's so huge and distinctive - and the TDi is ok but it's it's not going to be any good in pursuit situations.

[doubledoom]

I find it hard to believe they could seriously want to use this in law enforcement. It's so huge and distinctive

The stickers sort of give it away as well

[shmee150]

I saw that last night, it amuses me, but seriously they should be selling it and using the funds to buy 2 other cars, it would be a much better use of money.

Also if it's a "black AS7 TDI Quattro S-Line" surely it's worth more than that? I can't tell from the photo if it's a normal Q7 or an ABT AS7.

Tim

[S5Lass]

Originally Posted by doubledoom

The stickers sort of give it away as well

What stickers? Lol.
Those alloys are cool though better than the ones I had on mine.

[shmee150]

Originally Posted by S5Lass

What stickers? Lol.
Those alloys are cool though better than the ones I had on mine.

They are the ones my S5 is going to have "RS4 Style".

Look good, definitely look better on an S5 though :P

[Highrisedrifter]

It won't be used in pursuit driving unless there are no other alternatives. Each force has a series of pursuit vehicles with specially trained pursuit drivers. Your average copper tootling around in his panda car isn't actually allowed to engage in pursuit until trained and qualified.

The exams are pretty difficult and require quite a high level of training before you can use the blues and twos at speed.

Most 4x4's in the police forces are used on motorways and other long drags rather than round town at high speeds as large 4x4's are impractical for that.

Oh, this isn't conjecture by the way, this is first hand experience (although I will concede that most forces do differ slightly).

Expect that vehicle to get targeted. I certainly wouldn't want to be one of the coppers in it.

[Chris_B]

Originally Posted by S5Lass

and the TDi is ok but it's it's not going to be any good in pursuit situations.

It's not a 4.2 TDI is it? That would make it a bit handier for hammering along a motorway chasing crooks. I reckon if the Beeb are calling it a £40k motor, it could be a V8 TDI then? I'll admit I havent; read the link, so I'm just guessing here.

As an aside, I drove a 4.2 V8 petrol Q7 in Dubai around the time of the launch, and we were clocking close to 280Km/h across an arrow-straight and flat desert road. Surreal. Then after some offroading in the sand, the next morning we hammered a 3.0 TDI about through some fast lane changes and braking lane changes at the Dubai Autodrome to see how it handled. Very surreal, but very impressive. I'd give one a good chance against most cars in a crowded city where a huge thing with blues 'n' twos would get civvies out of the way in a hurry.

[Rab88]

It's being used by the same task force who seized it. So it's not going to be used for persuits.

It's there to make a statement. And it's certainly done so. Strathclyde plan on selling it at some point as they do have to recover funds under proceeds of crime.

RE: highrisedrifter. Strathclyde are useing a number of BMW X5's as traffic vehicles, whilst armed response are using shoguns. Their car of choice thought is the BMW 530D... there are a good few of them kicking about, both marked and unmarked. They've also got at least 1 mitsubishi Evo X, which was on loan. I'm not sure if it's here permanently now as last time I seen it it didn't have strathclyde's livery on it.