It’s confirmed: UK Police have the coolest cars. We’re not talking about the “we have unlimited money so we’ll just buy the fastest Lamborghini”-cool, but more of a “we actually have good taste in car”-cool, because they’ve just added a Lotus Evora into their police fleet.
This Lotus Evora GT410 is the latest member of the Devon & Cornwall Police fleet, in the south-west of the UK. It’ll serve on loan there for a year, and is being used mainly for community engagements by attending shows and motoring events, where the police can discuss road safety with different audiences.
Since it’s a police car, it’s of course dressed for the occasion; the Lotus Evora GT410 patrol car features a full blue and yellow reflective police livery, and it even comes with a full police blue light rig.
It’s far from a slouch, either. The GT410 packs a 3.5-litre supercharged engine underneath the sheet metal that’s good for 410 hp and 420 Nm of torque. With an automatic gearbox, 0 to 100 km/h takes just 3.9 seconds, onward to a top speed of 305 km/h – so baddies, be warned!
Devon and Cornwall Police Roads Casualty Reduction Officer, Sgt Owen Messenger said, “It’s popular with younger drivers because of its striking sports car looks, while the Lotus badge resonates with many people across the generations. It helps us talk to those audiences who are not always keen to engage with the police.
He explained that a fatal accident on the road will cost the emergency services around £2.2 million, and that’s not even including the losses its local economy could suffer from closing a major road. “If we save one life or prevent one accident because this vehicle is helping us talk to people, then that is excellent.”
The all-new Emira could be Lotus’ final ICE-powered car. Read more about it here!
Lotus Cars Managing Director, Matt Windle added: “We are delighted to be able to provide this Lotus Evora to Devon and Cornwall Police and Dorset Police to help them with vital road safety programmes. We support any initiative that encourages all drivers to drive to the road conditions, to drive safely and with consideration to others.”
This wasn’t the first time Lotus has supplied their cars as police chariots. They’ve worked with the Norfolk Police in the UK many times over the years, especially since its headquarters in Hethel is located within the county, and they’ve also supplied cars to traffic teams in Australia, USA, Romania and Italy.
