Mopar police car history

[kevm14]

https://www.allpar.com/squads/history.html

A few quotes:

The New York State Police were given a special 1968 Plymouth Fury I that had a 426 Hemi engine in it, dual carbs and all. It allegedly reached reached 155 mph speeds in straight line testing on the I-81 Northway. The SP rejected it due to the dual carb set up, poor mileage, and high cost of the engine option, as I recall.

The Ford 429 was fast, but a good 440 would easily whip the 429, 428, and probably run close to the full bore 427. Most police units were equipped with the 390. A 383 would eat them for lunch, out drag them and run them out top end. I don't know why. GM and Chrysler always had more "pop" in stock form than the police edition Fords.

Ford never did well, not so much as to the engines or speeds, but for their poor braking performance. Some testing agencies rejected Ford out of hand due to their brake deficiencies. Once speed is achieved, it is a matter of stopping, and I know from experience that Fords were shunned by patrolmen, given choices of other vehicles.

In 1974, there were 15 police engines, including a four-barrel 360. On top was the 275 hp 440 and a 250 hp 400, available in both full sized and intermediates. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Office found the 440 to beat the Matador 401 and Montego 460; the 360-equipped, 200 hp Dodge Dart squad outran a 350 cid Nova, running from 0 to 60 in 8.1 seconds.

That's right, the Bluesmobile had 275hp. So I'd say it was probably LT1 B-body speed.

[kevm14]

Interesting.

In 1968, Plymouth became the most sold police vehicle in the world; USA, Mexico, and Canada. By 1970, when you asked for police assistance, the officers arrived in a MoPar 85% of the time. From then, MoPar never looked back until the end of their rear wheel drive cars came in 1989.

So these are the legendary ones:

1969 was the year of the ultimate squad; for a quarter century afterwards, nothing could match its performance capability — the 1969 Polara Pursuit. The 1969 Polara Pursuit, with its 375 bhp 440, sleek new "fuselage" bodystyle, and standard 3.23 axle, could do 0-60 in 6.3 seconds, the quarter mile in 14.3 seconds (at over 99 mph), and run out to a top speed of (or, by some accounts, above) 147 mph.

It took a 25 years, a Corvette engine, and a four-speed transmission for any other police cruiser to come close to those figures. In LAPD use, the 383-engined Belvedere Pursuit was extremely successful and well-liked, gaining the (accurate) nickname “four-door Roadrunner.”

Corvette engine? Whatever car could that possibly be? Anyway, low 14s @ 99mph is like LT1 F-body performance, nevermind B-bodies. That's pretty quick.

For decades, it held the record on the Chrysler test track in Chelsea, MI for highest top end achieved by a factory-built four door sedan (149.6 mph).
CHP and LAPD were prized enough customers that Chrysler made specific parts for each department. CHP even had its own cam grind.

This was the era of actual "cop motors" I guess. Though everything else I'm reading about seems just at the high end of what was available to everyone.

[kevm14]

Mike Sealey added: “About 1976, Seattle’s police department obtained a Chevy Nova with the 350 and 9C1 police package for testing, and Chrysler loaned them a 360 Volare with the A38 package. The F-body won, and the 1977-79 fleet was all Aspens.”

There's also a picture with the caption:

The last police cars to break 130 mph until the 1994 Caprice: 1978 Monaco and 1978 Fury (440).

If I recall correctly, the 93 Caprice broke 130 and the 91 or 92 may also have. I need to check my MSP database. Before that, yeah, no sedan broke 130 because none of them were aerodynamic enough with the modest power of the 80s.

[kevm14]

From here: https://www.allpar.com/squads/h1980-2000.html

GM and Ford, 1990-94 [by Curtis Redgap]: The older Chevrolet Caprice dominated the Michigan State Police Tests for several years, at one point, topping every category. The Caprice was a solid seller with 200,000 units every year. When they restyled the car in 1991, it was met with derision. Suddenly, pundits labeled it “whale,” and worse. Sales fell dramatically. Sales went into decline, by half. Adding the SS in 1994 did not help. Chevrolet resurrected the 1969 Dodge Polara for the police, by making the 260 hp LT-1 Corvette engine an option; for three years, it simply out did everything, and was extremely popular, but GM could not keep the car going on fleet sales alone. Meanwhile, Ford, using its 1979 “Panther” platform still, responded with its rounded Ford Crown Victoria in 1992, using a new V-8 with overhead cams making 215 horsepower. It was not a barn burner in any way; the old chassis was numb, and the “Interceptor” version couldn't make 110 mph (GM was up to 130 mph before the LT-1 engine, and with the Corvette powerplant, was able to put the Mustang SSP into its grave with a 140 mph top speed at the Michigan tests). Utilizing a rather primitive experimental kind of EECV-III chip from that era, Ford managed, by 1994, to work their “Interceptor” up to 130 miles an hour. But, for three model years, the 1994-96 Chevrolet Caprice still “Polara’d” the Fords, and police kept them as long as they could.

So they credited the L05 cars at 130mph at least. The Caprice remained competitive with the best the P71 could offer, even with TBI.

[kevm14]

Getcher' Mopar engine specs here: https://www.allpar.com/squads/engines.html

The net/gross split in 1971 tells an interesting tale. Look at the E63 and E85 engine. The E85 was rated at 335 hp gross but 220 or 250. The difference was the dual exhaust on the 250hp version. Exhaust is not used in gross ratings so this makes sense.

[Fast_Ed]

A bunch of those pictures say "2008 Aquidneck Island Police Parade."

Interesting...

[Fast_Ed]

In related news, Project Hell Garage took on this topic recently as well:

http://autoweek.com/article/project-car ... e-or-blues