So, in trying to get our minds off Trabants, and tiny cars, and ancient, broken-down beasts, we turned to another growing obsession: cop cars, and found Mancunian blogger Deputy Dog's best emergency services vehicles ever made.

There's the absurd use of the Porsche Cayenne as an ambulance in Germany (top).  We don't know how this sick woman will ever fit in the back, but if she does, we have no doubt she'll live.   (See our own test drive of the Cayenne under unusual circumstances here.

We love that the Italians used the Ferrari 250 GTE (at right) to chase the bad guys in 1962 but there's something opera buffa about the lone blue light on top.  The blue and yellow checkered Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 (below) used in the UK -- which must come across like God himself pulling you over -- is probably more effective. Here's a video of it in action.

(We found Deputy Dog via the great design site Core77 (which got it from our all-time favorite Design Observer) while admiring their links to our slideshow of Woodies by photographer Bill Owens.)