Monday, November 20, 2006

In Hot Pursuit


It was probably a good idea at the time but sadly the day of the Porsche Police Pursuit Special seems to have passed. The police in Germany had started using Porsche 911's as their pursuit vehicles several years ago and although they helped in getting officers to and from crime scenes quickly, it just wasn't practical to have such a car as this for police work. I guess the Autobahn won't be the same. But looking at the situation I suppose it makes perfect sense. Anyone who has seen a Porsche 911 or at least seen pictures of the car will know that other than the two front passengers there isn't a whole lot of room for anyone or anything else. As a pure pursuit cruiser I'm sure it fit the job like a glove. But there's more to police work in Germany than merely driving fast. No really!

Well let's say for the sake of argument that an officer is in hot pursuit of a speeder on the Autobahn. Errr... let's make that a reckless driver since that makes more sense than speeders. So the Police catch the criminal thanks to their turbo and hot wheels; subsequently they realize that the driver is a repeat offender. Uh oh... off to prison with you! So why wait for transport or a paddy wagon when you've got a perfectly good (and fast) transport standing by? Just take that criminal, fold the seats forward and stuff that ne'er-do-well in the back "seat." To me that is a perfect crime deterrent. I mean you stuff anyone over the height of four feet in that back seat long enough and even those with no history of clausterphobia will go nuts! Don't think it's possible for such a thing to occur? Why don't you drop by your friendly neighborhood Porsche dealer and test it out for yourself and then tell me what you think then!

Okay, so as a criminal detterent it works, but what about for other things? Again, I grant you that it isn't the most practical vehicle out there for transporting things. Being the proud owner of a Porsche Boxster I know that I'm fortunate to have two trunks. The deep trunk in the front is perfect for larger bags and suitcases and the rear trunk is perfect for transporting a decent set of golf clubs or in my case, my Gumdo equipment.

But what about the German Police? Well, the 911 only has the deep front trunk and from my understanding, even that isn't enough to carry all of the gear that police often have. Don't count on the backseat because you'll occasionally need to have it occupied by a prison-bound prisoner. I have attempted to carry items such as my snowboard in the car and even with my two trunks I don't have enough capacity to carry it anyplace other than the passenger seat. I gues that means that the next time I go snowboarding I will have to choose between taking a friend along or my board. Oh well, I think I'd prefer the company of a good friend along rather than my board.

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