Police cop Ford Focus RS 25 | 11 | 2016
THE OPPORTUNITY IS open for Police Scotland to join other UK police services who have already tested the world’s most exclusive ‘police-car’ Ford Focus RS. (Related: Roadtest — Ford Focus RS)
While a number of forces across the UK have already tested the car, based on the multi-award-winning Ford Focus RS, Police Scotland has yet to say ‘yes’.
This special version of the Focus RS — on trial exactly 30 years after a Ford RS200 (pictured below) police car was put to the test — could be voted a ‘stunning hit’ by expert traffic policemen lucky enough to get behind the wheel, and is sure to intimidate would-be speeders.
The £31,250, four-wheel-drive, front-engined hyper hatch reaches 60mph from a standing start in under five seconds.
Powered by a 2.3-litre turbocharged, 16-valve, four-cylinder Ford EcoBoost engine, the Focus RS develops 345bhp in standard road-going form; meaning that even the fastest Ford RS models of 30 years ago are no match for the Ford RS police cars of today.
Law-breakers will be relieved to learn that, due to limited production numbers, Ford does not expect many police forces to offer a patrol car capable of catching anything on the road. “But until they have tried it we won’t know whether it meets any specialist need”, said Terry Adams, Ford’s police sales manager.
Most forces will continue to rely on the standard Ford Focus and Ford’s biggest-selling police vehicle, the Transit Custom, for patrol duties. Ford supplies more than 1500 vehicles to Britain’s police forces across the country, including the Ford Kuga and Ford Ranger in rural areas.
Unlike the RS200, the Focus RS includes most practicalities expected of a police patrol car, including rear doors for suspected criminal accommodation and a boot large enough for traffic cones.
As for Police Scotland testing the Focus RS ‘patrol car’, a Ford spokesman said: “if Police Scotland request a trial of the Focus RS patrol car, we will definitely support the test.”
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Jim McGill