Local Police Dept just bought a Hemi

[ALS]

I howled today when I saw a local township I have to drive through to get to work setting up a VASCAR speed trap. I guess the Intrepid R/T wasn't fast enough. There sat a brand new unmarked forest green HEMI Magnum. Getting ready to pounce on it's unknowing prey. I asked a friend of mine this afternoon that works for the township about the car. She said the only reason they bought it was because it was a HEMI. Her attitude when telling me about the car was of sarcasm you know the girl attitude like it was a immature guy thing. HEMI, it must be a Guy thing.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Should make for some nice high speed chases on cable T.V.

 

[Jimbo]

The Charger police package is either ready or should be ready soon. The 1969 Dodge Polara, without a hemi, but the 440 wedge, was still the most bad-*** cop car of all time.

 

[ALS]

These guys in the bad old days use to run 389ci Tri-power Pontiac Catalina's. Toward the end of the 60's they ran 428 ci and 455 ci Police package Catalina's. Then the Feds mandated that police cars had to have the same motors as civilian vehicles.

 

[kenw]

"Then the Feds mandated that police cars had to have the same motors as civilian vehicles. "


where did you hear this?

 

[ALS]

It was sometime in the mid seventies when they put that one in. The only difference is Heavy Duty suspensions, electrical, and cooling systems. They may have a beefed up transmissions but the engines are exactly same other than better exhaust systems and maybe lower restriction intakes. Look at the Michigan State Police tests on patrol cars/SUV's. These cars are dogs compared to the ones on the showroom due to the extra weight and equipment they have to haul around.
Just to give you an idea of how bad these cars are I'll use my 97 Volvo 960 sedan as an example. It weighs in at 3500 plus lbs and came with a 2.9 liter I6 24 valve engine rated at 181 HP. It is factory rated at 0-60 in 9.1 seconds and has a top speed of 127 mph. This isn't anywhere close to a performance car yet compare it's numbers to these Police vehicle performance figures. The fastest car only beats my car by 1/2 second to 60 mph. I wonder how much they slow down when you put a light bar on the roof?
MSP Vehicle Testing

 

[TheTanSedan]

That '69 Polara ran a 14-flat 1/4 at over 100 mph. I believe that it also carried two cops and 400-lbs of gear in trunk per test spec. Nothing like big block torque.

Detroit rarely put anything other than stock motors into cop cars as the small number of them didn't justify the extra work. I doubt that there were any differences after the mid-1960's. They always had to meet pollution specs as well. The heavy-duty components were essentially the same as the trailer-towing packages, and the only changes were for wiring and tires. Sometimes, in spring/motion rates.

This is not to say that some departments didn't modify individual vehicles.

As I recall, the new Charger with V6 has all-around better performance and excellent acceleration numbers compared to the 1960's - 1970's police-spec cars.

The big advantage a Police Pursuit DODGE Polara had over the muscle cars was high sped stability and longer range before refueling. Very few cars could actually outrun one.

 

[shortyb]

We have a couple Magnums in fleet right now and I've had the pleasure of T&Eing the new Charger Police Package. First off, both are FAST. Not quite like the Camaro P/Ps but deceptively quick in a very linear fashion. Very quiet inside (which lessens the realization of true speed a bit) and quite comfy for a perp taxi. BUT.....neither one handles very well IMHO. They are both very heavy cars and body roll is quite pronounced. The tires get loaded very quickly and slip angle threshold comes on fast. The touring tires roll on their sidewalls too making the push even more pronounced. We trashed a few sets of Continental ContiTouring tires in a very short time. Steering feel is kind of numb too. Turn-in is slow and disconnected (lot to do with tires) and both cars have a tendency to wander at speed. Haven't put them on an alignment machine but I'm sure the toe specs could be adjusted to bring some responsiveness back. All in all a nice ride but for a police car, I kinda like my Vic.

 

[99]

I lived in Florida during the time the FHP used the 5.0 Mustangs. In Illinois, the "narc" State Troopers have newer Mustang GTs and Camaro Z28s. I've even seen blinged out SUVs and other odd-ball "cop cars" like Buick Regals and Pontiac Bonnevilles pulling people over on the interstates around Chicago. I haven't seen any new Dodge cop stuff yet-just the Durangos and Intrepids.

As for the cop car chases in the 60s and early 70s.....keep in mind most musclecars back then had really deep gears...like 4.10s, 4.56s, 4.88s and 5.13s and no overdrive transmissions. The top speeds were like 115-120 while screaming at redline with a 1:1 transmission. They were built for drag racing a 1/4 mile at a time, anything past that was pretty much a dead issue because they were more or less already at top speed. THAT'S why cop cars could catch them.....the cop cars had taller highway gears and thus had a higher top speed, so they eventually caught up to them after they were initially left in the dust.

 

[blupupher]

It is one of the only domestic made RWD v-8's out, and that is what cops like.

 

[Shannow]

In the U.S., do the sports car people give high performance cars to the highway patrol ?

There's reports down here that BMWs, RX series and whatnot are donated to the highway patrol as a sort of advertising.

 

[Dan4510]

Just what we need more barneys on the road handing out tickets, busywork when they cant find a real criminal to catch.

Dan

 

[jsharp]

quote:

---

The Charger police package is either ready or should be ready soon. The 1969 Dodge Polara, without a hemi, but the 440 wedge, was still the most bad-*** cop car of all time.

---

It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?

 

[kenw]

At the time, the police package was a standard option that virtually anyone could get if you ordered enough of them at least. What you COULDN'T get was black and white paint....

A relative's company bought dozens of them as standard policy as they tended to hold up a little better in fleet usage. They also contained a calibrated speedometer that had to be re-calibrated every so often.

Some of the Texas DPS units had the lights mounted on the grill to reduce drag and wind noise. Lots of complaints as you could come up behind them unknowingly......

 

[farrarfan1]

ALS, I'm curious as to how you determined the officer was "setting up a VASCAR speed trap" as opposed to a RADAR or LIDAR "speed trap". I still don't know exactly what a "speed trap" actually is.I've been a VASCAR operator for the last 26 years and a certified VASCAR instructor for 20 of those.Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to learn how you determined this by looking at a police car parked on the shoulder.

 

[ALS]

Simple Watson, Three uniformed officers talking while standing with two unmarked police cars and a marked slick top. There are 2 white lines on the road right in front of them. This particular spot on the road is a well known hang out for bored police officers. The pickings are usually pretty good BTW. They set up 2 or 3 days a week for a few hours in this particular spot.
I guess when the pay for an officer in this particular local department starts at $50K and you have to have a 4 yr degree and at least 70% the officers have Masters Degrees you got to pay for them some how. Average pay runs around $80K for the departments 45 officers.
BTW I am not complaining about their pay these guys are some of the best police officers money can buy.
As far as radar goes, only Pennsylvania State Police may use radar. Lidar is not in use in the state and even if it was State Police would be the only ones that would be allowed to use it. Back in the sixties and early sixties the locals had the use of radar but soon abused the use of it and it was remanded by the legislature to the State Police only. They are trying to get the use of radar back but little hope with all the stories that continue to come out of Ohio. There must be two or three stories a year about the abuse and revenue generating with the use of Radar by small towns and municipality's.
The locals have VASCAR, ESP (rubber hoses across the road), following / pacing or a stop watch to catch speeders.

[ November 10, 2005, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: ALS ]

 

[Jimbo]

CHP cars up until recently did not have roof-mounted light bars, supposedly for less wind resistance. Because they were fully decked out in black and white paint, I tend to belive that was the reason. There are a few all-white ones out there today, but they have light bars.

The legal definition of a "speed trap" in California is timing vehicle travel from one known point to another. This is prohibited. For radar, an engineering survey of that steet or road must have been done within the last five years to validate the posted limit. Radar and a valid posted limit is not a "speed trap" by statute. If aircraft are used, like on I-15 to Vegas, an intercepting unit on the ground still has to get an accurate speed by pacing.

 

[farrarfan1]

Jimbo, check this website under State Police/Highway Patrol then go to california. they have been using Federal's Vector light bar since the early 90's on their vehicles with bars.

http://policecarsite.atspace.com/main.html

ALS thanks for the info on PA law. Interesting how the states vary.

 

[ShortBuSX]

Gotta love the frivolous spending...geeh, I sure hope he gets to drive it home during the evenings and weekends.