The Last Surviving Japanese Porsche 912 Police Car

UK police have had various types of Jaguar over the years; there was a period where the original Mark 2 Jag could outrun the police, so they had to buy some as well. The Mark 2 became ubiquitous in police procedural TV shows, usually driven by criminals, but also Inspector Morse.

For the present day: https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/news/article/most-powerfu... (fun use of FOIA)

https://policepathfinder.com/what-car-do-british-police-use/

Yeah, Swedish police had 20-something Porsches over the years, here's some pics from an article about one of them being up for sale https://carup.se/legendarisk-polis-porsche-saljs-pa-auktion/

In Italy the Carabinieri[0] used to have a Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 in the '60s. The car is still around[1] and is legally allowed to go around with the original "police colors" even tho it's now owned by a private collector.

There's plenty more modern sport cars these days, in various countries.

[0] one of the 4-5 police forces in Italy

[1] https://www.motori.it/ferrari-250-gte-22-in-vendita-la-stori...

Highway patrol back when the regular police drove Beetles.

the state of Austria usually buys its police cars from Porsche (the dealer not the carmaker) guess, that doesn't count. but Austria had Porsches (some of them 911) in the 60s

Germans? I mean, the company is local to them.

The police of the Netherlands had them, Amsterdam is only a city in the Netherlands.

Alpine is (was ?) a Renault brand, which is a French company, so it is a little less exotic than a Japanese police force buying a German car (Japan being such a massive car exporter themselves).

That's what happens to things when they become status symbols. They're chased for status. Not the case for Porsche but sometimes that object ends up losing all the core value, pushing away the original fans, and rides the status wave until there's nothing left to offer.

> can’t even pronounce it properly

There are things which pronunciation I've learned in childhood and it will never change no matter how good my foreign language skills get. "Tomb Raider" with comically butchered accent.

The article said Kanagawa so not Tokyo. Well, close enough.

Four seems like a reasonable number for a trial purchase.

Speedometer. Not sure why it's in a separate binnacle on its own. Perhaps that allows the passenger cop to also observe the speed and corroborate it in court later if necessary.

1/3 of the planets population drives on the left mate.

(Incidentally, if a country drives on the left then as a general rule of thumb, they also play cricket. I've no idea why this might be the case.)

Not wrong in Japan

I'm a car enthusiast, but I like brands like Porsche because of the engineering they have on their cars.

You don't have to appreciate it, but the engineering of these cars are not orthodox, yet they're daily driveable cars unlike the cars in their own class, e.g. Ferrari, Maserati, et. al.

The thinking out of the box, and evolution instead of revolution makes them extraordinary. Personally, I prefer the looks of Porsches to any other car.

However, would I go great lengths to own one? I'm not sure.

You can admire something without going crazy about it or define yourself via it.

If we're going to "shame" companies about doing things between 1930-1940, the list will be much longer and multi-national.

Ever buying a Fanta?