Police car myths

[TheProfessor]

the following is in reference to the 1990+ cop cars
now everyone ive met has always thought or said something about cop cars being suped up in one way or another
some people say the engines are moded some say that the transmissions are geared different
i have done research on the following.....caprice, lumina, impala, and crown vic and have found nothing other than proof that they were all the same as civilian equivelant as far as the motors when they leave the factory
ive even known a few cops and they say they that the cars are all stock
now im sure that some individual departments do mod a few them but have never been able to quite crack this myth
does anyone know anything i dont

[quantum110]

RE: Police car myths

They are for the most part OEM Fleet Cars...
The Caprices and Impala's have larger radiators and Heavy duty fans, and the Caprice had a reprogramed tranny.

http://www.9c1.com/brochures/index.html

[Anonymous]

Having ridden in, on many occasions, the Colorado Springs Police's Impalas, Crown vics, and a Z28, they are all stock. All the Police Interceptor package adds is the biggest available motor, sport suspension, automatic tranny, and the performance tire group. From there, they go to a private company that copatizes them. They add heavy duty undercarriage bracing/protection/skid plates, heavy duty radiator/fan, and in some cases aftermarket wheels/tires. Other than that, CSPD leaves the engine/tranny all stock.

The Z28 was quick, but relatively slow compared to all the otehr Z28s I've been in. The Crown Vic, 4.6L V8, was quicker than the 3800 Impala, but barely. They get driven REALLY hard, I would never advise anyone buy a car formerly owned by a police department. We hopped a curb going 15mph in the Z28...

[dbtk2]

Is anybody else curious as to why Aaron has ridden in the police cars on numerous occasions?

But yes, for the most part, they are stock. The 3.8 Impalas have tranny coolers, and taller gearing (from what I've read) than the normal ones (like 3:08 instead of 3.29). So, usually, due to all of the extra weight, the cop cars are slower than the regular ones.

Shawn

[Anonymous]

There is a cop who lives up the street from me and I ride along with him about once a month.

[Cannonball]

The modern squads are pretty much stock vehicles but the older ones had some additions that the moderns don't. The old boxy style Caprices for example, had a heavier guage frame than a regular one, HO 350 (190 HP in the t-body injected cars of 89 & 90), heavy duty alternator (140 amp), heavy duty brakes, heavy duty cooling system, and oil cooler. None of that was available on the regular Caprice of the 89 -90 model years.
I believe that the earlier Caprices also had similar things but not so sure about those. I owned a 90 as a daily driver and did some research into them. Little book called 'Modern Police Cars' is interesting to read. Doesn't have much to it but there is some interesting stuff. There's also a guy close by me that sells emergency equipment for people who like to make these cars like they were when they were in use as a hobby. There's a suprising ammount of people into this kind of thing. There's even clubs from what I understand.
Some cars did become available with what was called the police package from dealers but this didn't include everything the actual squads did usually. On a modern Crwon Vic, for example, you usually get dual exhaust and maybe a performance axle or better brakes but you don't get the big alternator, silicon hoses or etc.
There's also the infamous 'government chips' that are supposedly added to some of these cars that usually takes away the speed governor and adds some performance but i'm not sure whether that's a rumor or not either. You usually see this mentioned when someone is selling or talking about a pursuit mustang.
Lots of weird stuff came on these things and I could write a lot here but i'm sure you'd get pretty bored. lol Kinda makes me miss that old boxy thing. It was suprisingly quick and embarassed a lot of people. Also handled well, had good brakes, and never had any problems. I priced replacing the brakes once and about died when I found out how much it was though.
Now they don't do as much to them anymore because it costs to much to make special vehicles for such a small niche buy so manufacturers just don't go through as much to make the squads anymore.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention that the CSPD ones also have the high output aftermarket alternators

[TheProfessor]

cannonball you mentioned the pursuit mustang
i looked it up and the LT1 caprice was actually faster
THE fastest ever cept for the LS1 camaros ofcoarse

[Cannonball]

cannonball you mentioned the pursuit mustang
i looked it up and the LT1 caprice was actually faster
THE fastest ever cept for the LS1 camaros ofcoarse

That's certainly possible since the Stangs were usually equipped with an auto trans for police use since the cops need to have at least one hand free for the radio and other gear. Anyone that's ever driven one of those AOD stangs will tell you it's significantly slower than the manual ones.
BTW ford cop cars had 130 amp alternators. GM even beats them in cop alternator output. :P
BTW the alternators were not aftermarket Aaron. The high out put alternators are from GM, Ford, and Dodge used to make them too when they had the old Diplomats. Expensive for any of them and they're huge bulky things. Aftermarket high output alternators tend to put out a lot of amps once the car is moving but can actually put out less at idle than a normal alternator. The cop versions that came from the factory are designed to put out everywhere especially idle since a squad spends a lot of time idling. Example; you can get a high out alternator from JC Whitney that's well over 100 amps but, at idle, it's only putting out something like 76 amps or less. That wouldn't work in a squad where there's lights, radios, lightbar, and etc running while it's just sitting there. Lot of people buy those things for stereos and are disapointed too.
Now, because of all the add on creature comfort crap that cars come with, getting a bigger alternator from the factory is pretty easy (usually Caddy has big ones).

[Cannonball]

Yep, like I said above, they just don't do anything special to them anymore because of the cost vs profit. All they probably get anymore is an alternator and silicone hoses. Heck, they might not even get the alternator anymore because, as I also said above, newer cars are coming with more and more creature comforts so they need bigger alternators to run them. The regular Crown Vic probably even comes with aluminum wheels, lower suspension, and smaller alternator which all cuts weight and would end up making it faster.
The cop interior isn't exactly lightweight either.
I wonder if they get better brakes anymore even. :O/

[TheProfessor]

every cop car ive ever seen has the bulshit steel rims
and as far as weight..............once i did see a FWD impala that was gutted inside cept for the cage and laptop and drivers seat
not that you can make a slow car fast by doing that anyway though

[geoffinbc]

Yea they are all the same up here too. There were the good old days of Caprice 9C1's which got you a 350 HO motor. But it was a joke even at that. TBI 350's had 8:1 compression and made just over 200HP.

Today in my city there are some wicked fast cop cars that would easily take down my truck. I have sighted. Subaru Impreza WRX, Nissan 350Z, Dodge SRT4. Camaro SS (several ocasions on the highway. Once witnessed him take down a 911 Turbo). Some less fast but still descent cars are the Civic Si, Nissan Maxima. There are of course thousands of 3800 Impalas and the last of the dying Crown Vics.

But dont rest too easy. From what my dad has herd through the GM grapevine the W bodies will be returning to RWD (in 2006) with V8 engines. GM wants to return to the cop car market in a big way like the old days, offering big white cruisers with scary power numbers. If the power trends of today cars continue to rise as they are, none of us in our mid 90's sedans, coupes and pickups will be safe

[RednBlack]

End of Myth...your Daddys' Crown Vic is probably faster.. it has less weight.. http://popularmechanics.com/automoti...e_Interceptor/

[vsop4me3.1]

I know they can explode when hit from behind and the upgrades are mainly electrical and suspension. I did however see one crown vic with intake, but it just looked like some sort of insulated dryer hose. nothing special.

http://www.crownvictoriasafetyalert.com/aboutCVPI.html

I would like to buy a cop car. they usally sell then at like 60k miles and they get serviced regularly oh yeah and they have all the fluid coolers.

http://www.gmfleet.com/us/products/specialized/police/

http://used-police-cars.com/

http://www.usedpolicecars.com/

[Anonymous]

Take my word for it, DON'T EVER BUY A USED POLICE CAR. The cops drive them hard, and they beat the shit out of them. We had the crown vic up to 120, and sustained that for about 25 minutes at WOT. He had that Crown vic at WOT more than he did at part throttle through his entire shift. Every call we went to he had it floored. Curbs were nothing. To him they were like striped lines-meant to be avoided but not. I can't even count how many curbs he hit dead on. I seriously thought it'd blow his tires. Hell we fucking jumped a curb in the Z28! Trannsmissions. You know how you should put it in R, go back, then let it stop before you put it in drive? Yah right...Once the car was where it should be, he just cranked the shifter right back into drive, and you heard a loud clunk, and then the tires chirped and it went. And I know those trannies are good, but they have got to get sick of redline shifting, and flooring it off the line. I am shocked that those cars last as long as they do, it is a testiment to American craftsmanship for sure.