Whenever you watch those 'Police! Smash! Wallop!' type programmes, there's always some German cop doing 200mph in a Porsche or an American sheriff going sideways in his Crown Vic, and something inevitably crashes or explodes or does a jump.
Then they come to footage of a British car chase and what do we offer? A wheel-shuffling Bobby in a diesel Astra failing to catch crims because he daren't drive up a kerb or down an alley in case he scratches the paintwork.
As a result, Britain is a laughing stock on the world stage of Cop! Action! Kill! television.
Top Gear decided it was time to do something about it. Plainly the problem here is that UK police pay too much for their cars and then can't afford to repair them if they get bumped.
So why not start with cheaper cars? Then they could bash them up without a care, looking groovy and stylish on camera while doing so, and if they got broken, they could simply throw them away and get another one.
Jeremy, Richard and James set out to prove this point by each buying what they believed to be an appropriate basis for a cop cruiser for less than £1,000, doing it up to look the part, and then meeting up to test its ability to bring law and order to a morally bankrupt wasteland. Well, our track, actually.
The new series of Top Gear kicks off at 8pm on Sunday June 22 on BBC Two.
Three days to go: Top Gear v the Germans
Four days to go: Nissan GT-R v Bullet Train
Five days to go: Audi RS6 v skier
Six days to go: the Alfa Romeo Challenge
Read Andy Wilman's series preview blog: Part One
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