Saturday 15th May 2004

Traffic police patrolling motorways in southern Italy unveiled the force’s first Lamborghini Gallardo in all its blue and white glory, topped with a blue flashing light and marked with the word “Polizia”. With a top speed of 192 mph (309km/h), it had the edge in any chase on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway. Other traffic police forces which cannot boast a Lamborghini resort to devices of their own against speeders: in Russia, for example, officers have been known to shoot out the tyres of offenders with machine-guns.