Australia's Victoria Police Highway Patrol has added a brand new BMW M3 Competition to its fleet, at least temporarily as part of the vehicle assessment and appraisal process.
The M3 Competition has a white exterior with yellow and blue road patrol motifs, special livery and blue/red lights that set it apart from the civilian M3.
Under the hood, it's powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine that produces 503 hp (375 kW/510 hp) and 479 lb-ft (650 Nm) of torque in the Competitive Edition, matching the eight-speed M Steptronic automatic transmission. That kind of power sounds more than enough for a road patrol car, although the RWD model accelerates from 3.9 seconds to 100 kilometers, which is slightly slower than the AWD model equipped with the M xDrive system.
Regardless, we're sure the M3's large nostril grille isn't what Australian drivers would like to see in their rearview mirrors, especially when they get caught speeding. According to the Victorian Police Highway Patrol, the vehicle is already on professional duty in the hands of police officers across Victoria.
Naturally, this is not the first high-performance sedan in Australia to act as a police car. In fact, victoria police road patrols have used the BMW M5 Competition in 2019 and the Mercedes-AMG E43 in 2018. Australian police are not limited to fuel-powered cars, as early as 2019, they used the Tesla Model X, also for road patrol tasks.