Police Interceptor for Ford Pick-ups

[Kentb of SWMO]

Does Ford Possible offer a Police Interceptor package for Pick-up's. Why I ask is the Sheriff Department here in Polk County MO Has started using F-150 Pickup Crew Cabs since you can no longer get the Crown Victoria in rear wheel drive.

Kent

 

[John A]

Kent, If you know any MO State Troopers or Sheriff Dept boys or Mechanics ask them about the chip It is a different chip that makes the 4.6 into a monster! Dual exhaust is a must! There are places that wreck out the older cop cars visit with them about it too, See what they say.
I know some boys that bought then chipped up an old 2000 or 2001 RegCab F350 4X4 long bed repainted it in their own colors then added a "Police Interceptor" badge on the tail gate just for kicks it gets lots of attention when they up cork that 7.3!! Some kind of HOT!!!!!!!!!!
Hope this helps
Later,
John A.

 

[ericlb]

they use those as well as suvs here too, these days the high performance is down the list for law enforcement, there are enough cops around that they usually do a chase with their radio in other words no mater if you can outrun the cop behind you, you cant outrun the 4 that are up ahead waiting on you to get there, most of the selection is due to their needing a 4 door unit so the suspect can be confined seperate from the officer, it needs to be a powerful robust unit which leaves out 99% of the cars built today,and it needs to be able to also carry the officers gear too, those old crown vic's trucks were often crammed full, also most dept's state that the vehicle must be american made with local support from dealers

 

[Anonymous-0]

I don't think so, but it might be a great idea.

At least some police agencies liked the Crown Victorias so well because they held together so well. And with a full frame, they were more repairable than the unibody cars that seem to be what is offered now. Some agencies bought extra Crown Vics this last year so they could have them for another year.

The Crown Victoria Police Interceptor of the last 20 years was not a particularly fast car--the Dodge Chargers and Chevy Caprices were much faster and quicker. But the Crown Vics were nearly indestructible and often were still working well at 160K miles. They also had very decent and predictable handling and were about the right size to carry all the stuff a police car needs to carry, as well as being large enough to stuff 3 or 4 bad guys in the back seat with a good shield to protect the driver and possibly a front seat passenger.

Most cops have been trained to do emergency vehicle driving with a rear wheel drive vehicle. Front drive vehicles and all wheel drive vehicles handle quite differently than the rear wheel drive ones. It will be interesting to see how the new Taurus police cars work out, as from what I have read, they are all wheel drive. With the engine from the SHO, they should be way faster than the Crown Vics, but I wonder if there will be lots of wrecks with the high powered, different handling new cars.

Real "police package" cars started to be marketed by the auto makers in the early 60's. Some of them had high powered engines, but most of them had many changes to improve their durability in police service, including big brakes, heavy duty suspension and even heavier frames. Most of the police packages were built with lowest cost bodies and often they were very spartan.

But by the 80's, the formula had changed somewhat, and police cars got more user friendly, with air conditioning and other "luxury" features to deal with officers wearing body armor and widely different sized officers using the same cars. It also became less important for a vehicle to be able to go extremely fast. And fuel economy really became an important consideration.

In my opinion, Ford got it right when they brought out the Crown Victoria police car in about 1992. Although there were some running changes, the car stayed substantially the same until production quit. Ford sold a lot of police cars, and now lots of those old police cars are in taxi service, for who knows how long.

I suspect that Ford made a bunch of money building basically the same car for nearly 20 years, and having a near monopoly on the police and taxi market. It would not surprise me if some manufacturer could do something similar for the next 20 or more years if they tooled up to build a car that was the right size and with the durability and repairability that the Crown Vic had. That market has not, and will not go away.

Maybe something based on a light pickup chassis could do the job well without total retooling.

 

[ShadetreeRet]

Over the years my son has made friends with police officers and hwy patrolmen in several different towns where he has lived, as well as conversed with revenue dept. employees. He has seen some unusual power plants in their cars. (Mostly Fords) When asked, he received basically the same answer from all, "If you are law enforcement, you can order just about anything you want."