Fame at last!!

Whilst our Dream Machines Lotus has been criss-crossing the county, we've tried to follow it's progress.

This week we were joined by the Daily Mail who reported:

"Police Sergeant Paul Masterson is looking pleased after getting his hands on Britain's fastest Panda car - a 140mph Lotus. The £35,000 Lotus Exige complete with Sussex Police livery can accelerate to 60mph in just 4.1 seconds - and was road tested by officers in Hastings.

The 220 brake horsepower motor has a top speed of just under 150 mph and is being used to tackle boy racers.

The Lotus, which is marked like a normal police car is only driven by police class 1 drivers who have gone through months of driver training courses.

Sergeant Masterson, who works on the force's casualty reduction team, said the Lotus was the fastest police car that he knew of though standard police cars can reach similar speeds.
"As far as I know it probably is the fastest quoted speed of any police car I know of - certainly in the South East region," he said.

"Its top speed is just shy of 150 mph which is what most of our patrol cars can do anyway."
Sergeant Masterson described the car as impressive but said that it sounded like a normal police car with a standard exhaust on it.

A self-confessed car enthusiast Sergeant Masterson said that he now drives a people carrier off-duty but used to have a taste for sporty Fords.

He added the car was not not an operational police car and unable to get involved in high speed chases: "The idea is that drivers will come to us and have a chat," he said.

"We generally turn up at events where youngsters hang out.

"With this vehicle they actually come over and want to talk to us. Then we introduce the road safety message."