piefed.nullspaceIf I was in the market for a good used car, which car would be the best to outrun the cops?
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White Ford Bronco. What can I say, I’m a traditionalist and I prefer my police chases to be conducted at a safe and comfortable speed.
Really strange that Goldust tried to outrun Rowdy Roddy Piper in that thing.
A motorcycle. You can’t outrun the radio.
Yep. Can get a 600cc sport bike for not much. Of course, you also have, like, a 50% chance of death if you try to outrun the cops on it.
Otoh, iirc the cops in my area just have a standing order to not chase bikes that run. Too much chance of someone getting dead, which is more paperwork and bad pr than they want to deal with.
And two bags of fuel so you can refuel on your way to Mexico!
Trash bag full of gaseoline - the WORKING MAN’S fuel transport!
I remember that one:
Not always true, but outrunning the helicopter is damn close to not doable.
Still agree with the motorcycle.
Outrunning the chopper is more about endurance. Or its a lotus carlton and it just.. leaves the chopper behind and disappears into the night.
40RA was one of the most prolific getaway cars in britain.
This is the way.
Agreed. Depending on the offence you committed and where you are, the cops might give up the chase rather than risk you killing innocent bystanders or yourself, because it’s not worth the risk.
There’s nothing faster than Motorola.
dirtbike
In Finland we have a saying that someone has “Vatasen jalat, mutta omat kädet” which translates to “Vatanen’s feet but their own hands.”
Ari Vatanen is a Finnish rally legend.
So in other words: it’s not the car, it’s the driver. Anyone can drive fast but that doesn’t matter if you can’t keep the car on the road.
Is it common in Finnish for proper name spelling to be altered like that? “Vatasen"/Vatanen
Finnish is probably my favourite foreign (to me) language. The Finnish accent in English just captures my attention for some reason. Also love how unique it is on paper. Just super cool. There’s a lot to admire about Finns and Finland in general. I’d really like to take a trip out to Oulu and jist ride a bike everywhere.
Ari Vatanen was a badass too. I wish my country had rally heritage like that.
Yeah perfectly normal. Vatasen = Vatanen’s, Vataselle = to Vatanen, Vataselta = from Vatanen, Vatasessa = in Vatanen, and so on. You can do that with any word pretty much.
It’s a flexible language. I don’t envy the ones trying to learn it.
Wow, I had no idea. That’s so interesting. Thanks for sharing!
For the curious
Look for the most common model in your area, and get one in the most common color.
Then forget about running, focus on evasion instead.
Bonus points for repeating in paint that will wash off. Then you get double evasion.
Reminder: only run if what you’re doing is already a felony. Running itself is a felony.
Just eat the misdemeanor unless you’re 100% certain you’ll get away.
Assuming we are in the US with this question. We will also have to assume that the driver is skilled and not a clot with two ham fists.
You probably should consider what a police chase will entail and the tactics they will use to stop you to get to a good answer.
Many police chases are stopped with the pursuit vehicle catches up and can PIT the fleeing car. Also, the police can use stop sticks to destroy/flatten tires of a runner. They have radio and multiple units, they will eventually bring a helicopter in if available.
Given that, you have a few requirements. You could go for straight speed. If you go fast enough, they won’t be able to catch up to PIT you. However, you cannot count on having clear room to run. Traffic, pedestrians, obstacles will be in your path at every point, so your car of choice should be fast enough to get away, but it should not be the only means of escape.
Most police cars in the US are Ford Explorers, some Dodge Chargers (though fewer and fewer), and a scatter of other things. You have to anticipate that they will be able to pursue quickly and sustain damage of their own as they will have things like push bars to absorb some impact. Your defense against a PIT is twofold: first, you do everything in your power to stay away using tactics like brake checking to foil their positioning for a push, constant movement and leverage other cars to act as obstacles. The other portion can be weight and suspension. If a cop were to get behind a Corvette and push, the hard suspension would flex little and the rear would be easily pushed given the relative light weight of the car. If you were in something like a lifted 4x4, now you go too far the other way. A push would upset the tall suspension and high center of gravity and could well end in a rollover even if not a successful PIT. You need the middle ground; something like a non-lifted full sized truck or SUV. Think Silverado or Tahoe. Enough weigh that the cop would have to go really hard at you to get the weight shifted, enough suspension travel that it would lean into a push, but not tip over as easily as something tall.
The big dogs won’t be able to move quite as fast as something zippier, but there is a practical limit to how much speed you really need. Rapid acceleration won’t really solve a lot of problems, your pursuers will eventually catch up once you hit a traffic tangle or obstacle. Being able to go around a corner fast is good, but is it enough to get you away? Being small also means more vulnerable and also a smaller fuel carrying capacity. You don’t want to run out of gas, that would be embarrassing. A full sized truck/suv will also blend in better if you were able to escape the sightline and that really is going to be important.
If you think you’re going to run and run, you’re eventually just going to get more units looking out for you, more pursuers and worst of all, a helicopter that you will not be outrunning. Your objective with the chosen vehicle would be to escape line of sight and then hide in plain sight. Take your truck/suv and park at a Home Depot or Lowes. If you are really wily, find something that’s reasonably similar and swap license plates with it. Go in, buy some lumber, throw it in and leave like you’re in no hurry.
The other option is to find a parking garage, dip in and leave. Assuming the vehicle is not registered to you or traceable back to you, you’re golden. In fact, put a small motorcycle in the back of the truck. Park in garage, leave on motorcycle or scooter at a modest pace.
Beautiful answer
whatever is common in your area.
you’re not going to outrun the cops. your better off trying to play coy.
Killdozer
It wasn’t designed to outrun the police and it didn’t. It got stuck and the driver killed himself. They did manage to destroy half of the town though.
Dildozer
Buy two of something. Bridge and switch
You can get an old cop Charger fairly cheap at action…
It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas.
Fix the cigarette lighter
these days, they do stick a governor that tunes down the performance curve back into the thing. a good shop can fix that for you, though.
Minivan full of children.
Nah, they’ll just shoot them all and charge you with “felony murder”
That’s a funny joke, but also very accurate. Once a felony is on the table, all related deaths are on the suspect(s). It has a very long case history. People actually get additional charges for the fact that cops shot someone else while pursuing them for a felony crime.
Absolutely lawless country lmao
During the chase, drop one every two minutes to keep the followers busy
No littering!
But, if you are very sure that they pick it all up ? 😉
Technically correct would be a tank, because the police won’t have the means to stop you. However, this will only work until you run out of gas.
Like that killdozer where some dude (farmer? Can’t remember) bought a bulldozer and fortified it and welded himself inside. He didn’t go on a killing rampage, he had beef with the city and squashed loads of buildings.
As you said it came to an end when he couldn’t move it. I think he got it stuck rather than running out of gas.
Tanks aren’t fast and they don’t hide well.
They can’t stop you. They just have to follow you until you run out of fuel, as you said.
Yes all that but you can also go into heavy off-road terrain.
So the question would be if there’s an obstacle they can’t pass then you would by definition outrun them.
Also define slow. It depends on the tank (or car) and the terrain.
Get a hellcat, live in an area with a long straight section of interstate (i10 in Texas works well) , only commit one crime with the car.
Most police choppers have a max speed of 140mph. The hellcat can sustain 180.
Hasn’t this actually happened a few times in LA? The hellcats outrunning the helicopters, I mean.
Shit, that experience might be worth the jail time.
At 180mph you only have to encounter one panicked bystander to cause a few deaths, including your own.
Even the best driver in the world shares the road with everyone else.
This reminds me of my parents explaning to me as a kid that even if you are the best driver in the world, everyone else is not and they cannot read your mind. So it would still be dangerous.
Pick a top professional motorsport like F1, NHRA, MotoGP. They have the best vehicles and drivers in the world. Mostly competing on closed courses with unidirectional flow. Still regularly have equipment failure and misjudgment lead to collisions. On a race course everyone agrees to the heightened level of risk.
I meant driving in ordinary traffic.
There are police videos of it happening all over YouTube. I first saw a guy running from the law eastbound from Houston. The helicopter couldn’t go fast enough.
That seems like the kind of problem that a radio and a spike belt were designed to solve.
Modified Subarus have done this. Really anything that can hold 200+ but range becomes an issue at those speeds. You would need to plan routes and do math or add a tank and be a driving phenomenon
1977 or 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
For OP or for us that are watching and saying “goddamn, they tried”?
I had a 1987 Chevy Caprice Classic 5.0L V8. The thing was a tank.
Go ahead and try to pit me, I dare you.
I too owned a 1987 Caprice Classic. It was my first car but it was already probably 15 years old when I got it. Not sure if they offered it with different engine options, but it was indeed a tank. We called it the boat.
E: I just looked back, and I had a 1990 Caprice Classic, not the 87. Still, a tank.
Ah, then you had one with a working transmission! Chevy evidently tried something new for their 1986-1988 V8 engines and it wasn’t good.
I replaced the transmission in my behemoth twice before giving up on it.
Bugatti Veyron.
The ‘68 Bullit Mustang. It’s cool AF. Steve McQueen kind of cool.
Drug running gangs in France steal Audis and Mini Cooper Sports to drive to the netherlands with the strategy of “outrun them if they catch on” and they seem pretty successful so something like that?
An ex-police car.
Old school Subaru Forester XT. Will outrun most police vehicles And can go nuts off road.
Alpine White 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T. Watch the film Vanishing Point for reasons.
Renault Clio with diesel engine, you wouldn’t outrun anyone but you will create big smoke and poof dissapear like magician.
A prius with a minigun integrated with the roof. No need to outrun cars and choppers if you just make them inoperable. Can do 60 mpg easily when not evading at 70 mph, 40 when you need to go faster at a steady ~90 mph. And if you need top speed, it can do like 125, though of course economy plummets. Conservatively, at 10 gallons, you could do double the range of any other average car, so once you are free and clear, you can make lots of distance in not a ton of time. Get to the switch point, disassemble and take the minigun, destroy the car, and use car #2 for blending back into boring suburbia - anything will do.
No I will not answer any questions on how I got this data.
Audis https://youtu.be/1eI2PxB2G3E