Oh FFS ITV, get real

[MrRegieRitmo]

Reg, the previous series of Traffic Cops deffo featured Hampshire Constab. I know this, 'cos the PC with the restored Volvo 244 Hampshire patrol car was on it quite a bit. It's only in the last year or so they've focussed on Humberside.

Which was the Thames Valley Police one then?

I haven't caught the "Interceptors" show on C5 much, mainly because I am usually out when it is on on a Friday night. The one episode I saw seemed pretty interesting tho.

C5 eh, I just guessed because I normally catch it when it's on whilst I'm round my girlfriend's on a Friday night & as they have Sky & they usually watch whatever's on Sky 1 like the Simpsons I just assumed it was probably on that channel. I can obviously back up the fact it's on a Friday night though, so singing from the same hymn sheet there at least!

[r.welfare]

Reg, Road Wars is the Thames Valley one, interspersed with random other constabulary content (including quality US footage - particularly liked the US 4x4 last night not seeing a cop car parked in it's lane until the last minute, hitting it and falling on it's side).Interceptors is (I believe) on tomorrow @ 8 on C5, saw it appear on the old Freeview planner thingy the other night though, so assume it is repeated during the week, like Ice Road Truckers was.Mk2_Craig - yeh, Gsy has telly. Everyone I knew had Sky, mind, 'cos the pubs don't open on Sundays and therefore you had to have something to do...enjoying your avatar, by the way. Like looking in the mirror for me.

[mk2_craig]

Crikey, you'll be telling me they have mobile phones over there next.

[r.welfare]

Yeah, they do, but when I was over there you couldn't text on 'em. Seriously.

[MrRegieRitmo]

enjoying your avatar, by the way. Like looking in the mirror for me.

With that permanent fixed expression?

[MrRegieRitmo]

Is the Satria Lotus-powered? I thought they just re-hashed the suspension on the GTi or something.

You're probably right! Wouldn't it have made much more of an impact though if it had been Lotus engined? Surely it doesn't deserve to be badged Lotus if it's just the handling that's been tweaked?Does that go for all specially branded Lotus non Lotus vehicles like the Cortina & the Carlton, do they all have non Lotus engines with uprated Lotus mechanical bits? It doesn't give the cars quite the same threat in my eyes as it would if they were Lotus engined, although they're probably more reliable due to that fact!

[Richard]

The Cortina and Escort Twin Cam had a Lotus engine that was originally derived from a Ford unit. The Sunbeam Lotus had the 2174cc Lotus engine before any Lotus car did. That engine was derived from the 1800/2300 Vauxhall engine. I don't know what the Carlton had.Handling was traditionally the Lotus strength, probably more so than the engines.

[r.welfare]

The Carlton had a 3.6-litre stretch of the standard 24v 3-litre in the GSI and Senators. Then they lobbed two turbos on it. German tuners (Irmscher and Steinmetz, IIRC) had been taking the 3-litre out to 3.6 for a number of years (without the turbos, mind), so I don't know if Lotus started with that, or did it their own way.Either way, it's an awesome machine. Surprisingly I understand that a fair few are becoming rustier than fisherman's buckets underneath the Darth Vader fiberglass bodykit.

[ayd]

quote]I got stopped just outside Oamaru for having no brake lights on my old Sunny (turned out to be water ingress into the fuse box, the only thing that happened to it in 17000 kms) and the cop just said to drive it back to where we were staying with a foot resting on the brake pedal and get it fixed in the morning! That scenario + UK Plod = 3 points for sure.not always, I had a Escort Cabriolet (dont laugh) many years ago and the same happened, no tail lights due to a faulty stalk on the column, told me the same, drive home with your foot on the brakes....so not all UK plod are mean

[MrRegieRitmo]

How do you drive home with your foot on the brake?

[Volksy]

You'll find reg that that the brake lights generally come on even by resting your foot on the brake pedal, without enough pressure to actually apply the brakes, unless that is your in a VW were they have a pressure switch to actvate the brake lights.

[r.welfare]

SLowly Now then, it seems that a lack of brake lights happens quite frequently on newer shite ('specially VAG kit, it's the design of brake light switch apparently) and also I see more and more motors with the brake lights permanently on. Someone told me if you go into the back of 'em, it's still your fault - yet if you drive with any other obvious defect (bald tyres etc) then the Beak generally throws a wobbler. So why this would be treated any differently is beyond me - is this right? What a crazy mixed-up world we live in.

[gtd2000]

quote]....so not all UK plod are mean

You do get a lot of plod plonkers unfortunately that spoil it for the occasionally decent police officer that decides to have a word in your ear.I was never stopped in my car for 6 years due to driving two rather bland cars - an '85 Bluebird and an '86 Pony. As soon as I got my Corolla AE86 I was being stopped almost as soon as a cop spotted me!The second time I was stopped,I was on route to a pals house around midnight and after the usual round of inane questions I asked the policewoman for the reason that she stopped me. The answer was that it was "suspicious" to see a car driving at that time on a Saturday night :roll:I only ever got pulled by the police once during my time in the USA and it is a very different experience to the UK.Imagine the spaceship from Close Encounters of the First Kind pulls up behind you and you have a gun pointed at you and you are trying to talk to the officer standing at the 7 o'clock position behind you with both hands on the wheel and trying to answer his questions Once they realise that you are not some crazed lunatic then they seem to calm down a notch or two. I was going 85 in a 55 at 4am and I suspect that he thought I was drink driving. When he realised I wasn't drunk and didn't give him any lip (you should hear Americans when they get stopped by the law!!) and heard my accent he changed his tune and advised me that I was looking at a $180 ticket....but he'd let me off as long as I drove within the speed limit on the way home.Now that's a real policeman! Hooray! I drove at the limit like Mary Poppins for weeks after that ;)I was stopped for drink driving in the UK in the aforementioned AE86 - the reason the stopped me was that they knew I was coming from the pub - accompanied by a rather good looking, tall blonde girlfriend of mine that used to do modelling. As soon as we got in the car and set off they came after us and followed us to within 100' of my friends house...then they pulled me over.Usual inane questions and then "we have reason to believe you have been driving under the influence of alchol etc..." I said yes I have been drinking as a matter of fact! The look of glee in their faces could not be consealed at all - and the breathalyser was out in a jiffy. (I was in a Jiffy later as well but that's another story altogether). I blew into the device and they were trying to get me to crap myself with all the warnings of going down the station - oh the device turned orange..."You've been drinking sir!!!" I explained that I'd already admitted that to them and it wasn't a surprise - more threats of losing my license and coming down the station, the other cop starts trying to chat up the GF..lolFor the next 15 minutes they keep trying to wind me up about being over the limit and I keep saying I have nothing to worry about to them - they keep hoping that it will change to red - of course it doesn't or at least it shouldn't when the only alcholic drink you had all night were two half n half lager shandies In the end they give up and tell me that I was very lucky indeed - I explain that I have a car, bike and HGV 1 license and if they thought I would throw all of that away to drive a mile up the road they needed their heads looked at - especially after 2 pints of shandy....look on their faces...Priceless