Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: BlckMgk on September 06, 2004, 12:22:25 PM
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Just wondering what kind of work do they do on the average police cruiser. I.e. Super Charger?
Was wondering this cause I'm about to rob a bank and want to know what I need to get away from in the city, other than the helicopters (I've got a sholder SAM)
-BM
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nothing more than a computer chip these days
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well the roof and grill are both pre-wired for PA/Code light installation.....but ususally they don't put enough wires in eitherway so almost allways you have to tear up the interior and run more.
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hmph...if your gonna rob a bank, do it right...get into the sewers and tunnel into the vault
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All you need is a Cooper Mini. Didn't you see "The Italian Job"?
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If you rob a bank, you need a plane that can cruise at least 200mph.
You would rob the bank, drive to a road where the plane and a pilot would be waiting (with engine running). Jump in the plane, fly under radar for several hundred miles, and then land in some farm field.
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A typical set of changes between a civilian and a police cruiser involves things like:
--Heavy duty electrical system, including
--alternator
--battery
--wiring
--Larger radiator
--Upgaded and stronger suspension
--Better tires
--Strengthened frame
--top of the line engine available for that car.
--The cage generally doubles as a roll bar.
--Electronic speed governor disabled
--In the case of newer Crown Vics, a "long" version is available which stretches the car 6 inches compared to the civilian version. This fixes the problem the Crown Vic has with its lack of interior space.
There is usually additional detail changes from department to department. Also, not every department uses "police package" vehicles; some departments actually use normal cars outfitted with police gear. These generally don't last as long.
The vast majority of police cars out there these days are NOT especially "souped-up" for speed. Instead they're built to "take a lickin and keep on tickin". Police work is REALLY hard on a car.
Overall the police car scene has suffered badly ever since Chevy stopped making the Caprice cruisers with LT1 'vette engines (my Roadmaster has this same engine and it performs a _lot_better than any of the Crown Vic cruisers I've driven). Those Chevys had better straight-line performance the the 5.0 Mustang pursuit cars! The Crown Vics just don't perform anywhere near as well and are less comfortable too. Ford's saving grace is the CV handles a little better than the Chevy did. The new V-6 Impalas are worse still.
J_A_B
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use stealth..
if no one knows the money is missing no one can chase you.
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The police force here is acquiring several unmarked Impalas for traffic duty. They have lights installed in the roof, no radio antenna, and its near impossible to pick it out in a group of cars. Dont know about the specs, but they're doing a real good job on these Impalas.
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They have real fast radios......oooooh and spike belts :D
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One thing I've got to hand to you Americans is the way you deal with criminals in cars. I watch shows like Wildest Police Videos and I'm whooping it up like a good ol' boy when they T bone or ram the crims at 80+ mph and see them fishtale and screech of the road and roll it.
Watch the same situation here in the UK and it's very different, like they've got to fill out 20 forms in triplicate if they even get a scratch. Ram em, thats what I say, thats why God invented Range Rovers. This shame only lessens slighty when the obviously frustrated coppers surround the car with truncheons and beat the crap out of it.
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What ever you do you better hurry as I am sure most police and highway patrol will be using the new 300 with the hemi in it.
13.9 off show room floor. this and radios and you should just turn yourself in now. lol
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Originally posted by demaw1
What ever you do you better hurry as I am sure most police and highway patrol will be using the new 300 with the hemi in it.
13.9 off show room floor. this and radios and you should just turn yourself in now. lol
There have been rumors from Auburn Hills (Chrysler tech center) that the Dodge Magnum is being considered as a cop car.
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Originally posted by demaw1
What ever you do you better hurry as I am sure most police and highway patrol will be using the new 300 with the hemi in it.
13.9 off show room floor. this and radios and you should just turn yourself in now. lol
Too bad Dodge transmissions suck.
Karaya
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If any of you are from CT or passing through some day and you go down the Berlin Turnpike (5 & 15 I believe dunno the exact #)
WATCH OUT FOR THAT CAMARO NEXT TO YOU!
The pike's a huge racing scene and the cops like to play too. They'll roll up right next to you and try and get you to race. Seen a few idiots get nailed like that.
I've seen them in Florida too. Gotta love that 75mph speed limit (aka, hardly anyone's going less than 80).
Have had the "privalege" of speaking with a few cops from town about their car preference. All of them agree the Caprice was the best, though they're split-even between the Crown Vic and Impala.
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[Elwood Blues Jake Blues has a fight over the police car Elwood Blues got after he traded away the original bluesmobile for a microphone]
Elwood : You don't like it?
Jake : No I don't like it...
[Elwood Blues floors the pedal and jumps over an open drawbridge]
Jake : Of course it's got a lot of pickup...
Elwood : It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, 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?
[A brief thinking pause while Jake Blues lights a cigarette]
Jake : Fix the cigarette lighter.
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Speaking of the Impala..
Had an undercover one race me, flash is lights and call me a "Du mb A ss", we were only going 50ish when he flashed me, was pretty embarassing to say the least.
-BM
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Supercharged Impala hits 60 in 6.5, quite a bit faster than that Dodge, and gets about 30mpg on the highway. Not to mention it's a good bit cheaper. Not much of a decision for my tax money.
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Slow times....get a 2004 Neon SRT-4, 5.9 0-60, 13.5 on the 1/4, great suspension, too bad it's small.
Station near where I used to live (two towns over) just bought a puckload of Intrepids and they look close to the ones they race on NASCAR. Minus the mullets :D
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I have owned two ex CHP cars. one was an 80 impala that wa surprisingly fast for those days... it was light because it was stripped and even had roll up windows and rubber floor mats... it had heavy duty suspension and my son put a set of bilstein shocks on it... it had heavy duty brakes and the big radiator and charging system. It handled and drove very well.
also bought a 90 mustang CHP car.. it was the lighter lx coupe (not a fastback) with a 5 speed and heavy duty suspension and posi with a 3.55 rear end instead of the 2.76 it also had roll up windows and heavy duty cooling system including factory oil cooler. both cars had speedos that were calibrated and went to 160 mph.
Both cars were fun to drive.
At work, I have rescued a city cop car for my guys to drive to the lab... It is a crown vic...96 I think... not very fast... good suspension. stable car.
lazs
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Originally posted by lazs2
also bought a 90 mustang CHP car.. it was the lighter lx coupe (not a fastback) with a 5 speed and heavy duty suspension and posi with a 3.55 rear end instead of the 2.76 it also had roll up windows and heavy duty cooling system including factory oil cooler. both cars had speedos that were calibrated and went to 160 mph. lazs
The Mustang's that LE used were the "Notchbacks".
Karaya
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Originally posted by J_A_B
Overall the police car scene has suffered badly ever since Chevy stopped making the Caprice cruisers with LT1 'vette engines (my Roadmaster has this same engine and it performs a _lot_better than any of the Crown Vic cruisers I've driven). Those Chevys had better straight-line performance the the 5.0 Mustang pursuit cars! The Crown Vics just don't perform anywhere near as well and are less comfortable too. Ford's saving grace is the CV handles a little better than the Chevy did. The new V-6 Impalas are worse still. J_A_B
Comparing a 5.0 to a 5.7 liter engine? Come on, I'm sick and tired of people comparing the Mustang to the Vette. Chevy is the one who pulled the plug to begin with and allowed Ford a virtual monopoly on the market, blame Chevy.
Karaya
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whatever.... I called em coupes.. they were a lighter car than the regular fastback or convertable. with the 3.55 gearing the car would actually do 140 or so.. the 2.76's of the regular mustang were too tall for the 5 speed or aod to pull.
lazs
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I wasn't criticizing you, don't get your purse strings tangled.
Karaya
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I wasn't comparing a Mustang to a Vette, I was comparing a Mustang to a Caprice. The fact is the 5.0 Mustang was horrible for police work--too small, not enough utility, and it didn't even have a performance advantage over the Caprice which was still available then, unless you made substantial modifications to it. GM was stupid to stop making the Caprice, no doubt there.
FYI the Hemi-powered 300C and Magnum don't have a Chrysler tranny. They get a Mercedes 5-speed auto. Chrysler was smart enough to NOT risk putting their famously crappy transmission in their top-of-the-line cars. Models without the Hemi get the regular Chrysler transmission.
Police Impalas in no way get anywhere near 30 MPG in police work. The best I've heard of them getting in day-to-day use is about 14 MPG and since the CV is usually good for 11-12 MPG there's little to choose between them. The CV has the advantage of better durability, its tires last longer, it's just a better car overall. The Impala's only saving grace is it's a bit cheaper to initially buy which is a deciding factor a lot of the time. Well it also has more comfortable seats than the 1998-current CV has. I could almost call the Impala comfortable while spending long periods in the CV usually leaves me with sore knees. Nonetheless, I still have yet to see a front-drive car that is actually good for police use.
J_A_B
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you cannot compare the two engines.
Karaya
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"you cannot compare the two engines. "
You very much can compare their ability to do a job. You can also compare the V-6 in the new Impala the same way and come to the same decision--it just isn't as good for the job.
On the normal market it's a different situation and the 5.0 is one of my favorite engines. I geatly prefer it over the 4.6 they make now.
J_A_B
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Beware the Chevy Tahoe. They make a 2 wheel drive 9C1 Tahoe that just plain flies. It handles very well, it is lowered from the factory, with excellent wheels, tires, and brakes. Has about 320 HP. Much like the Chevy Caprice with the LT1.
Oh, and 95% of the departments DO NOT have the speed governers removed. They do have them bumped to around 100-110, but not removed, for liability reasons.
We did however rechip a Tahoe a while back, it does about 130.
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"They do have them bumped to around 100-110, but not removed, for liability reasons. "
Stock civilian CV's are governed at 110.
The Crown Vic "Police Interceptor" (the actual police package car) will do more than that. As would the Caprices.
If the PD's in your area are limited to 110, it is possible they are just using regular cars outfitted with lights and such. A lot of departments do that when times are lean. Or maybe the departments in your area are a lot more worried about high speeds than the ones here in Ohio.
J_A_B
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Well which one will it be?
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JAB,
Have you ever driven the police mustang or LT1 caprice to compare them? Both my dad and brother were/are CHP officers and have driven both, and your comment that the mustang had no performance advantage is completely incorrect.
My dad was one of the few officers in his office considered a "pursuit driver" and so he was always assigned to a mustang. He drove the mustang every year that the CHP used them, and he could do some amazing things in that car. When he had to drive even the LT1 caprice, it was a huge step backwards in performance and he couldn't wait until his mustang was back in service.
The mustang had it's limitations (NEVER offroad one as the rear axle mounts could rip out of the floorpan!) but as a pursuit car it was nearly perfect. The only pursuit cars that match it nowadays are either the police camaros or some of the non-standard (ie. expensive) highly modded sedans used by some western states.
My dad remembers the mustang very fondly... It would do 140 uphill, downhill, and as long as you didn't wind up the springs in a skid and then release them resulting in flipping the car, it wouldn't bite you in the butt. But he was a rather above-average pursuit driver so he never got a scratch in a pursuit even though on occasion if the perp wrecked, my dad would be close enough that the splattering radiator fluid from the crash would land on his hood :)
My brother got a lot of seat time in the LT1 caprice since he was assigned one as a resident post officer, but he said it still drove like a caprice. Sure it could accelerate faster than most sedans, but it could never be confused or really compared with almost any real sports car including the 5.0 and 4.6 mustangs. It's just too heavy and doesn't handle as well. It made a great cop car, but it's plain silly to try to say it was as good of a pursuit car as the mustangs were. I went on ridealongs in both and I've done some amature track racing of my own, and I've seen the difference between the cars myself.
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Originally posted by BlckMgk
Just wondering what kind of work do they do on the average police cruiser. I.e. Super Charger?
Was wondering this cause I'm about to rob a bank and want to know what I need to get away from in the city, other than the helicopters (I've got a sholder SAM)
-BM
If you live in Los Angeles or the Inland Empire.... GOOD LUCK!:D
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The state troopers used to drive Mustangs and Camaros here in Oregon, but ended up just going with the Camaros. The mustangs were a tad bit quicker, but were not nearly as good in wet weather.
I'm seeing a trend in the cities that involves minimizing high-speed pursuits in favor of helecopter tracking and surrounding with barricades/spikes. I'd heard rumors that alot of the newer tactics made the "rear wheel drive" requirement a little less important. Just yesterday, I saw two of the more rural police cruisers were actually the front wheel drive impalas. I haven't seen them in Portland yet, but I don't think that will be long. Municipalities simply do not like having only one choice for police vehicles.
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"Municipalities simply do not like having only one choice for police vehicles."
Half the reason they're buying the Impalas is because the CV has a reputation for being a bomb on wheels.
"Have you ever driven the police mustang or LT1 caprice to compare them? "
I've driven the Caprice head to head against the 5.0 'stang. The 'stang displayed no advantage. Neither car was terribly new at the time, but the Mustang was older.
The thing with the 'stang was it was more likely to be customized and improved than most other vehicles. I have little doubt that there are some really fine performing pursuit Mustangs out there. In general I am of the opinion that they just aren't worth it. There are so few pursuits around here that having a dedicated pusuit vehicle is a waste of money, especially in the case of the Mustangs I've seen. A local PD near here actually has a Porche outfitted as a pursuit car, but it sees little use outside parades just because of its inherent impracticality.
J_A_B
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yep... the mustangs are evil in wet weather. short wheelbase, solid axle... high hp to weight and light rears... you can power drift one in the rain on a corner at allmost any speed.
lazs
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I won't tell you how long ago this was.... But the last cruiser I drove was a stock Ford Fairmont with a 2.3 liter straight four! LOL
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Not to mention the Mustang weighing less.
Karaya
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Originally posted by SunTracker
If you rob a bank, you need a plane that can cruise at least 200mph.
You would rob the bank, drive to a road where the plane and a pilot would be waiting (with engine running). Jump in the plane, fly under radar for several hundred miles, and then land in some farm field.
That farm field would be flashing on the police map by the time you got there. ;)
J_A_B - interesting list of police car mods. Our SAS guys make a further 2 mods on their cars in case they have to ram their way out of trouble: 1) airbags disabled; 2) Impact induced fuel cut off disabled. Modern cars have a safety feature that cuts the fuel in the event of an impact. The SAS don't like that.
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