Who would win in a car race?

A Ferrari is a straight-lane monster. NYC cop cars (both the Impalas and the newly introduced Chargers) are built for tight turns, as the landscape demands such – not to mention NYC traffic.

Cop car, all the way.

If you mean the one on top gear, that was the Ferrari FXX, which is a hardcore race version based on the Enzo. A pure track car. Superior Acceleration. Superior top speed. Superior cornering ability. The cop car does not stand a chance. It would not stand a chance against a standard Enzo either.

@ragingloli Grisaille has a point though. In Manhattan (it was CSI NY) unless he could weave through traffic at high speeds, I doubt he could outrun it. And nice name.

You can’t drive five blocks in Manhattan without hitting a red light, for starters.

As for traffic – because of the nature of the beast there are a huge amount of commercial vehicles on the road (freight trucks, flatbeds, delivery vans, etc) that crawl through the streets. Couple that with a million taxis, buses and regular commuter vehicles, there is no way that a any car can outrun the cops.

@Grisaille I think the point is the terrain. If any driver is good enough to outrun the cops weaving through the NYC streets, the car isn’t much of a factor.

No, you misunderstand. There is no “good enough driver to outrun the cops”.

It isn’t about you driving well or taking side streets – there literally isn’t a place to go when you’re boxed in traffic – which is ALL the time in NYC. You can’t go anywhere, regardless of how you’re able to handle the vehicle.

@fortris
According to wiki the most powerful version of the charger produces 424 hp.
The Standard Enzo produces 651 hp.
Which means the Enzo is more powerful.

The Charger weighs almost 2 tons.
The Enzo, due to his carbon fibre body, weighs 700kg less.

The Enzo has better brakes, which means it can break later and harder before a corner or evasion. The Enzo’s active aerodynamics that produce a lot of downforce also help with cornering.
The Charger is heavier and less aerodynamic, which means he has to take corners slower and has to break earlier, meaning the Charger loses time that the Enzo would use to play out its superior acceleration (3.14 s from naught to 60, the Charger needs 6 seconds, hello weak engine and heavy body) to pull away from the Charger and disappear between the traffic.

So as I see it, in conditions that allow a race (not a congestion where you stand still, like grisaille puts forth), the Enzo would win easily.
When the Enzo wants to evade a car in front of him, he has to break later and less hard (if it has to break at all) than the Charger, which would have to break much earlier. Also the Enzo is less prone to spinning out of control while doing it, due to its superior suspension.
Enzo pulls away.

When they come to a corner, again the Enzo is quicker around it, for the aforementioned reason.

In a straight, the Enzo quickly pulls away from the Charger.

It really is no competition. It is like comparing a Golf GTI to a Porsche 911.

And if it is the FXX: The FXX has 800hp and is even lighter than the normal Enzo.

The Dodge Viper, which is both lighter and more powerful and faster than the Charger, was ca. 9 seconds slower than the standard enzo on the Top Gear test track (which has some hard corners) and and 18 seconds slower than the FXX.

I don’t know why people think cop cars are made to outrun any other car. Truth is, they CAN’T outrun MANY sportscars and that’s a real, known problem in car chases.

I want to add that based on the Top Gear laptimes and the Chargers specs, that even a Golf GTI might be able to outrun the Charger.

Hmmmmm. What about the batmobile? Would that beat those pesky cops?

That is why I go Pegasus: only one horse power, but hit traffic…take to the sky!

@whatthefluther I like that

No one has ever made a vehicle that will outrun police band radio.

The Ferrari would blow the cop car away unless he was running from it. Cop cars have radios.

A little more information:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/downloads/brochures/2009/09PoliceIntercep_2.pdf

Basically, you’re looking at around 250 HP for any of the major fleet vehicles commonly used as police cars. The Dodge Charger police car is available with a 5.7L V8 that makes 355 HP. That’s the only serious contender in the bunch.

The Ford Crown Victoria is the most commonly used police vehicle in the U.S. It has 250 HP and 297 lb-ft. of torque. You don’t need a Ferrari to outrun one. These cars are not built for performance. They are built for rough service, which is why you see the same cars being used as taxicabs.

@IchtheosaurusRex
Wow. And I was being generous with 424 hp. How quaint.

@ragingloli , yeah, the SRT-8 engine isn’t available on the police model. Around here, the state cops use the Charger, but mostly with the 3.5L V6, which is a perfectly adequate engine if you’re not trying to chase down somebody who is really trying to outrun you. Cops have much better technology now then they did in the 1960s, when you had the souped up big-block V8s in patrol cars. There has also been some public outcry about the dangers involved in high-speed police chases. Better to back off than have two or more cars running at 160 MPH on the freeway.

There are many, many cars that can outrun police patrol cars. Here in Australia, the marked police cars are V8 or turbo 6 Ford Falcons (290kW/520Nm and 270kW/533Nm respectively) or V8 Holden Commodores (270kW/530Nm). Although these are great cars, anything from an Audi RS4, BMW M5 etc. to the world’s greatest hypercars would outrun these – until they ran into spikes.