Car chases seem to be an increasing part of law enforcement activity.

Conventional cars appear poorly adapted for such pursuits.

BorgCo are developing a specialist vehicle for such situations.

The car is rear engined and air cooled. Thus the powerplant is not vulnerable to incoming fire, and there is no coolant to leak. The transmission is four wheel drive. Speeds comparable to those of high-end passenger vehicles are achievable.

The wheels and tyres are protected by armoured "spats".

The front of the vehicle has a layer of sloped composite armour capable of withstanding small-arms fire. This is continued by a sloped armour-glass windscreen in front of the driver, with sloped glass armour to the sides as well.

The gunner sits in the passenger position, set back from the driver but with a 120 degree field of fire. Armour glass again provides protection for their head, below which is a swivelling casemate/barbette through which weapons can be fired.

Thus the vehicle can approach a fleeing car closely, and deliver high-volume accurate fire, without risk to the officers from return fire, rapidly ending the pursuit.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 06 2016

M3 Lee tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_Lee
A design with possibilities. [8th of 7, Jun 06 2016]

If the body of the vehicle is armored, then why is the engine not protected such that it can be water-cooled? Are you not aware there is a significant lesser maximum horsepower rating for an air-cooled engine vs a water- cooled engine? I don't see how, with the engine you propose, this car can keep up with a high-speed thiefmobile.
-- Vernon, Jun 06 2016


// If the body of the vehicle is armored, then why is the engine not protected such that it can be water-cooled? //

The engine will be fairly well protected as is, so yes, liquid cooling is possible; but radiators are always a vulnerable spot.

// Are you not aware there is a significant lesser maximum horsepower rating for an air-cooled engine vs a water- cooled engine? //

For the same capacity, yes ... but a flat-4 300HP Lycoming unit fits in ther same engine bearers as a 180HP unit, and it doesn't weight much more. Just throw in a turbocharger or a supercharger.

// I don't see how, with the engine you propose, this car can keep up with a high-speed thiefmobile. //

Modern engines can be arbitrarily powerful. The tradeoff is fuel consumption, reliability, and service life. The taxpayer's footing the fuel bill, so that doesn't matter. Frequent servicing is a given. So as long as it's reliable in service, i.e. doesn't die in the middle of a pursuit, the rest is irrelevant.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 06 2016


OK, but what you basically have here is a batmobile.

//The engine will be fairly well protected as is, so yes, liquid cooling is possible; but radiators are always a vulnerable spot.//

Perhaps Vernon was thinking of water-cooling as in the Vickers gun.
-- Loris, Jun 07 2016


// Vicker's gun //

Sp. "Vickers gun", manufactured by Vickers, Sons and Maxim Ltd.

For discomforting the Ungodly, we would prefer an L4A9, which is accurate for single shots yet can put a respectable amount of lead in the air in a fairly short time.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 07 2016


I think in your combined excitement at correcting my typo (now fixed) and the mention of weaponary you've missed the point, because as far as I can see the L4A9 was not water-cooled.
I was merely suggesting that rather than using a radiator, one could vent off steam.
-- Loris, Jun 08 2016


//what you basically have here is a batmobile//

That's rather what I was thinking, [Loris], although I suspect Batman would eschew the gun. Perhaps a batmobile after customisation by Deadpool would approach this idea more closely.
-- pertinax, Jun 08 2016


// after customisation by Deadpool //

... or Judge Dredd.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 08 2016



random, halfbakery