Every few years, the car mags do an article about police cars. Do you ever wonder why? They are the cars that most of us would like to avoid seeing on the road, and generally they are built upon rather bland family sedans that most of us would prefer not to be seen driving. But cop cars do have an appeal to car enthusiasts beyond black-and-white paint and seeing them sliding their cruisers around corners in hot pursuit on movies and TV, because we know that the reality of a cop-car's life is lots of brutal street work requiring hard-core parts to make it live during endless idling and urban patrolling.
The big cruisers are nicely equipped with a variety of heavy-duty and high-performance parts normally not available on their civilian counterparts-things like reinforced frames, extra-capacity cooling systems, and bigger brakes, springs, and sway bars. You know the drill-cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. Plus, the cars are usually stripped of their excessive luxury trappings, leaving a purposeful, utilitarian workspace ready and willing to be driven hard when the need arises. And that's why these cars are cool.
To make a police car, the manufacturers take an otherwise coma-inducing Crown Victoria or Caprice and jettison the tacky chrome trim, overstuffed mouse-fur seats, and shag carpeting. In place of that, they install bucket seats and a rubber floor, hang bigger brakes and sway bars, plumb in a bigger radiator, and a brace of transmission and engine oil coolers. Suddenly, cars destined for the blue-hair set are ready for action.
That's the balancing act the manufacturers face. They have to design their family sedans to appeal to the luxury-car buyer while keeping an eye toward police and fleet service. Why else do you think Chevrolet bothered dropping LT1s into Caprices in 1994? So gramps could get to the Moose Lodge in record time? No, the cops were crying out for more power than the wheezy 180hp TBI engines of the previous models could muster. In speaking with several jurisdictions in Southern California, all their fleet managers agreed that the manufacturers ask for feedback from the departments on how their cars can be improved to better suit service for the police. For example, in 1998, Ford redesigned the rear suspension of the Crown Vic, installing parallel lower training arms and a Watts linkage in place of the former angled upper and lower control-arm design.This improvement addressed complaints from police about the Crown Vic's twitchy handling at speeds exceeding 100 mph. A second, more extensive overhaul followed in 2003, which saw the addition of a hydroformed frame, aluminum suspension arms, rack-and-pinion steering, and inverted, monotube shock absorbers. Who would have thought the Vicky's vanilla exterior belies a performance-car's underpinnings?
The last time CC ran a police-car story was nearly 10 years ago, so we thought the time was right for another look.Plus, the recent big news about DaimlerChrylser's re-entry into the market with police-spec Chargers and Magnums, which has the fuzz all across the United States itching to try out Dodge's latest Hemi-equipped cruiser. We'll spec out the current V-8, rear-drive models as well as some of the notable recent cars. While these are equipped with the cool cop-car stuff that isn't available to the general public, the good news is that you can go to an auction and get your hands on 'em. when the cops are done.