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Thursday, 16 October 2008

Carbon Motors E7 has its first official images revealed

We have already presented you renderings of the first purpose-built police car of the world, the so far called Carbon Motors E7 (policemen will choose a new name very soon for it). Now that its avant-première has taken place in Chicago, we can also show you the pictures of the car. I could have them protected with MotorTips logo, but won't do so in order to favour our readers so, if you would like to reproduce them, please give MotorTips the credit for them (an active link would be great, too!). Here they go!



E7 will be powered by a turbodiesel 3-litre engine (possibly an inline six-cylindre) that provides 300 bhp and 356 Nm of torque, a low figure for such a big turbodiesel engine. It must be bigger and the 420 lb-ft maybe, in fact, Nm. We'll get in touch with Carbon Motors to make that sure.

If performance is a concern, you are allowed to think again. The company says the car can reach 96 km/h from 0 in 6.5 s, a top speed of 250 km/h and a fuel economy of about 13 km/l in a combined cycle.

E7, or whatever they decide to name it, is a 5.08 m long, 1.98 m wide and 1.63 m tall sedan (wheelbase reaches 3.10 m). Although it has a aluminum spaceframe body structure, it still weighs a lot: about 1,800 kg. Weight distribution is said to be 50%/50% between front and rear axles, what will make it a really interesting machine to drive, euphemistically speaking.

This may be due to the fact it is loaded with police equipment, such as integrated surveillance capabilities, radar, LoJack, automatic license plate recognition system, radiation and biological threat detectors, 360º built-in LED emergency lighting, on-board Rapid Command Architecture™ (ORCA™) with a large touch-screen main display and a separate touch screen keyboard providing world-class data communication and human-machine interface. You can see most of these things on the dashboard pictures. Take a good look.

Armoring can be NIJ Level III-A or better, but only for front doors and dash panel. This is something else we have got to confirm, since partial armorings are said to be highly deficient. Carbon Motors must have forgotten to mention bullet-proof windows and front and rear seats partition.

Among other interesting features, E7 presents coach rear doors, for easier access for suspects and 120 km/h rear impact crash capability. This is clearly a precaution, since some state that Ford Crown Victoria, one of North American police officers' favourites, fire up when hit on the back.

Prices will only be revealed in some months, but Carbon Motors claims it will be similar to regular modified vehicles. The production site is also to be defined, but it is nice to see the car is real. And that it works.

















Source: Carbon Motors

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