A Lexus IS F police car?!?!?!
The United Kingdom's venerable Autocar magazine has been on something of a roll lately when it comes to Lexus-centric news. Just a few days after two Lexus hybrid stories that were the focus of <A HREF="http://my.is/forums/f42/autocar-smaller-lexus-hybrids-394499/">our previous Front Page story</A> comes word that England's Humberside Police Force, which throughout this decade has developed an on-again, off-again reputation as the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humberside_Police">Blunderside Police Farce</A> has decided to replace at least one of its aging Roads Crime Section (RCS) Subaru Impreza STis with a Lexus IS F.
<A HREF="http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Lexus-IS/241857/">The Autocar story</A> quotes Sergeant Mike Peck as saying, “The purchase of the vehicle was far from an easy decision and involved research and advice from the force fleet manager, financial managers and a vehicle dynamics expert. The Lexus was tested during a 12-month period, along with similar vehicles, and proved itself to be ideally suited in providing a dynamically safe high-performance chassis along with an electronically stable platform for the computer equipment. In the past this equipment has placed huge demands on vehicles, but the Lexus IS-F easily met with our requirements." Meeting their requirements also involved adding £30,000 worth (US$49,489) of on-board computers and communications equipment for use by the police, an eye-popping figure that almost equals the IS F's selling price in the U.S.
This is certainly one Lexus IS F you don't want to see looming in your rearview mirror...
Our thanks to sister site my.IS member wlk20 for bringing this story to our attention in <A HREF="http://my.is/forums/f136/police-force-buys-lexus-f-394597/#post5943456">a thread in their IS F Forum.</A>
