Normally the only police car that I think about is the one in my rear view mirror but today I am writing about a purpose built police car.
Carbon Motors Corporation has developed this car from scratch to be a police car, the only one of its kind. What a great idea, it is called the Carbon E7. Everything about this car is designed to make police officers safer and give them the ability to do their jobs better while saving money for the organizations that pay for police cars (meaning all of us tax payers).
I had the pleasure to meet much of the management team of Carbon Motors, including CEO & Chairman William Santana Li, above, at Club Auto Sport earlier this week. I also was able to sit in this terrific vehicle and I had a personal demonstration from Stacy Dean Stephens, co-founder and Director of Marketing Communications and Chief Brand Officer of Carbon Motors.
A serious looking, purposeful car.
The engine is a forced induction diesel that uses ultra-low sulfur (ULS) fuel producing more than 250 bhp and 400 lb-ft of torque. The transmission is an automatic, the front brakes are 14" vented discs and the rear brakes are 13" vented discs. It will go from zero to 60 MPH in 6.5 seconds, top speed is more than 150 MPH and it will brake from 60 MPH to zero in 125 feet which is important for a police car.
This purpose built car is designed to last much longer and have lower maintenance costs than a standard police car which today, in the US, is likely to be a Ford Crown Victoria that is coming to the end of its production life this year.
The Carbon E7 has a cockpit with fully integrated factory fitted law enforcement equipment, integrated emergency lights, spot lights, take down lights, and directional stick.
The rear doors are rear-hinged and are designed for safer suspect ingress and egress and the back seat, below, is designed for officer and suspect safety and easy maintenance.
The car has an automatic license plate recognition system built in, which is a fantastic capability to put at the fingertips of every police officer. It has too many other amazing features to list here but you can read more about the Carbon E7 on the Carbon Motors web site.
Carbon Motors solicited ideas from more than 3,500 police officers across the US to help specify the ultimate police car, that specification was used to design the Carbon E7 and the result is like nothing anyone has ever seen before.
I predict we all will be seeing a lot of Carbon E7s on the road in the near future. I just hope the built in lights are not flashing in my rear view mirror.
Click on the images for a larger view.
Great article. I wonder if they work with the Project 54 people at the University of New Hampshire:slina
ReplyDeletehttp://project54.unh.edu/
Good question, I will ask Carbon Motors.
ReplyDeleteI have had an email from an executive at Carbon Motors. While they are aware of the work at the University of New Hampshire, Carbon is not working with them.
ReplyDelete