Odd Cop cars on M4 this morning.

[Saabaholic]

Hi all,

0815 this morning. M4 J11 heading london bound.
Saw blue lights in my mirror a long way off, and could see people clearing the outside lane for a very fast Police car. Then all of a sudden a Mini Cooper S with hidden blues comes flying past at easily 120mph. I have never seen a Police car travelling so fast in real life. He was gone in just seconds. Then maybe 30seconds behind him comes a high top white dirty unmarked Merc Sprinter van (with hidden blues on) doing i would estimate approx 110mph. He was absolutely hauling ass. Had to have been tuned up to go that fast for a van.

Left me wondering what that was all about. Maybe some kind of training session ?.

[red_slr]

Was the mini green?

[patchb]

Saabaholic said:

He was absolutely hauling ass. .

What an odd thing for the police to carry about. Are you sure it wasn't the equivalent of a blood bike?

[eldar]

Saw something similar today, marked traffic car closely followed by black golf, 08 reg, with flashing lights inside the car. Both doing around 85-90mph on the busy M1 around Leicester. Traffic was busy, they were driving with a reasonable amount of aggression, as it were.

[Saabaholic]

red_slr said:

Was the mini green?

Honestly cannot remember. Was just shocked that it passed SO fast.
Given it was rush hr, that could have really gone Pete Tong if some muppet pulled out into the outside lane.

[AJRGM]

I like the idea of unusual unmarked police cars, I like when they give you a complete surprise like those.

Strangest I've seen is a Golf R unmarked. My only run in with an unmarked police car is going a bit too quick through a village in the TVR (following a Porsche) and some random silver BMW overtakes, narrowly missing an oncoming car, and flicks up a sign on the parcel shelf saying 'SLOW DOWN' followed by him pulling the Porsche over.

[hairyben]

Saabaholic said:

Then maybe 30seconds behind him comes a high top white dirty unmarked Merc Sprinter van (with hidden blues on) doing i would estimate approx 110mph. He was absolutely hauling ass. Had to have been tuned up to go that fast for a van.

Not necessarily, my vito does 125mph by the book I think and some of the higher spec sprinters have still more torque.

[Turn7]

Ive seen a few unmarked hidden blues vans on the M25....

[Yipper]

Wonder if some training exercises are going on. Saw a marked copcar near Heathrow M25 last night doing about ~120mph. Very unusual to see one moving so fast.

[Terminator X]

An un-marked BMW was crawling along the M23 this morning towards Gatwick on hard shoulder (rear flashers on though), totally gob-smacked that you simply could not peg it as a rozzers car it literally had nothing to suggest that at all. Take me now rozzers!

TX.

[jamei303]

I wouldn't have thought they'd train at that speed in a van.

Mind you they've been known to train at speed without blue lights and sirens before and ended up killing innocent people because of it, so who knows?

[Uppy89]

To be fair there are a lot of assumptions these were unmarked Police vehicles. There are a lot of other people/organisations that can also use them and several of these would likely be unmarked and could use vans.

•for police purposes (but not necessarily a police vehicle, e.g. search and rescue)
•for fire brigade purposes (but not necessarily a fire brigade vehicle)
•for ambulance purposes (but not necessarily an ambulance vehicle, e.g. cave rescue)
•as an ambulance for moving sick, injured or disabled people
•by a specialist company for fire salvage work
•by the Forestry Commission for fire fighting
•by local councils for fire fighting
•for bomb disposal
•for nuclear accidents
•by the RAF mountain rescue
•by the National Blood Service
•by HM Coastguard
•for mine rescue
•by the RNLI for launching lifeboats
•for moving around human organs
•by Revenue and Customs for serious crime
•for mountain rescue purposes
•by the military special forces (e.g. The SAS) for a national security emergency

[tuffer]

More likely to be "Security Services" than Police. Training or possibly a real Op. You often see such cars around the Silverstone/Milton Keynes area, popular training spot.

[hairyben]

Uppy89 said:

To be fair there are a lot of assumptions these were unmarked Police vehicles. There are a lot of other people/organisations that can also use them and several of these would likely be unmarked and could use vans.

•for police purposes (but not necessarily a police vehicle, e.g. search and rescue)
•for fire brigade purposes (but not necessarily a fire brigade vehicle)
•for ambulance purposes (but not necessarily an ambulance vehicle, e.g. cave rescue)
•as an ambulance for moving sick, injured or disabled people
•by a specialist company for fire salvage work
•by the Forestry Commission for fire fighting
•by local councils for fire fighting
•for bomb disposal
•for nuclear accidents
•by the RAF mountain rescue
•by the National Blood Service
•by HM Coastguard
•for mine rescue
•by the RNLI for launching lifeboats
•for moving around human organs
•by Revenue and Customs for serious crime
•for mountain rescue purposes
•by the military special forces (e.g. The SAS) for a national security emergency

Why would any of those bar the last utilise an unmarked response vehicle in preference over something blinged up to stand out and be seen on an emergency run?

[Bluetoo]

not overly fast for a Sprinter Van, the more powerful version has 190bhp V6 diesel and In standard guise, they can get to 120mph, but the acceleration above 90 is glacial as simple physics of aerodynamics takes effect, not much fun to try to stop one safely from these speeds though.

As others said, more likely to be non Police of some sort (been a few 'investigations' in and around Hounslow and the thing on the M1 on Tuesday too.

[Saabaholic]

Uppy89 said:

To be fair there are a lot of assumptions these were unmarked Police vehicles. There are a lot of other people/organisations that can also use them and several of these would likely be unmarked and could use vans.

•for police purposes (but not necessarily a police vehicle, e.g. search and rescue)
•for fire brigade purposes (but not necessarily a fire brigade vehicle)
•for ambulance purposes (but not necessarily an ambulance vehicle, e.g. cave rescue)
•as an ambulance for moving sick, injured or disabled people
•by a specialist company for fire salvage work
•by the Forestry Commission for fire fighting
•by local councils for fire fighting
•for bomb disposal
•for nuclear accidents
•by the RAF mountain rescue
•by the National Blood Service
•by HM Coastguard
•for mine rescue
•by the RNLI for launching lifeboats
•for moving around human organs
•by Revenue and Customs for serious crime
•for mountain rescue purposes
•by the military special forces (e.g. The SAS) for a national security emergency

I could be wrong. But i thought it was only the Police, and Ambulance service that are allowed to break the speed limit. ?.

[Uppy89]

hairyben said:

Why would any of those bar the last utilise an unmarked response vehicle in preference over something blinged up to stand out and be seen on an emergency run?

A lot of these organisations have management people who drive their personal cars with blue lights fitted to get to the scene of major incidents where their crews are working. There was a programme on about the London Fire Brigade not too long ago and there was a senior fire officer driving to incidents in his Evoque on blues.

Although granted, it doesn't explain the Sprinter following behind if they were travelling together (seems too much of a coincidence if they weren't though.)

[Marcellus]

West of london, strange police activity, this week...... Mmmmmm can't think why?

Nope not a clue....... Where's Parsons Green, Sunbury, Newport, Reading (spot the connection)

I suspect the anti terrorism guys use unmarked vehicles of all sorts.

[Toyoda]

Uppy89 said:

A lot of these organisations have management people who drive their personal cars with blue lights fitted to get to the scene of major incidents where their crews are working. There was a programme on about the London Fire Brigade not too long ago and there was a senior fire officer driving to incidents in his Evoque on blues.

Yep, these were my thoughts exactly. Linked to the fire service. Whether they're allowed to break speed limits is another matter, but it explains a Mini with blue lights going full chat.

[insideline]

Didn't the police arrest another suspect for Parsons Green yesterday in Newport, S.Wales? Could this have been said suspect being taken back to London for a chat?