30thZ286speed

Michigan State Police recently had there annual police car evaluation tests of the 2004 models. Ford brought 2 Crown Vic PIs both powered by the 4.6L SOHC V8 now producing 250hp and 297 lb.-ft torque. Up from last years 239hp and 287lb.-ft. torque. One PI has 3.55 rear and the other a 3.27.

Law and Order magazine called the new PIs performance equal to the legendary LT-1 Caprice. I have to dispute there claim on this subject.

Here is there test results of acceleration and top speed on the new PIs

------------------ PI w/3.55 rear-------PI w/3.27 rear

0 to 60--------------- 8.25-------------------8.44
0 to 100------------- 22.52----------------- 23.30
1/4mile sec./sp.----16.34/86.43----------16.44/86.58
Top Speed-----------118*-------------------128*

*Both PIs are top speed limited due to driveshaft vibartions and harmonics.
Now taking these performance numbers against a 9C1 LT-1 Caprice, the Caprice is still clearly faster in every catagory, Even though there is only 10hp difference in the current PI and the LT-1 Caprice, the Caprice has a 33 ft-lb. torque advantage over the PI. Also another advantage the Caprice has is its transmission does a better job putting the LT-1s power to the ground.
The (94-96) Caprice LT-1 would go to 60 in 6.5-7.0 sec., 1/4 mile in 15.0-15.5 sec. and equipped with VR speed-rated tires would top out around 145+mph. Remember even the 300hp Marauder wasn't quite as quick as a LT-1 ImpalaSS.

The Crown Vic is slated for a major remodeling for 2006 and production should remain until 2010

Also tested was the Dodge Intrepid Police Pkg. powered by a 3.5L Magnum SOHC V6 rated a 242hp and 248 lb-ft torque.

0 to 60 8.56 sec.
1 to 100 23.56 sec.
1/4 mile 16.56 sec. @ 86.03 mph
Top Speed 135 mph

The Dodge rep. stated "We will be back next year with V8 RWD Police Pkg. vehicles. My guess would be that they are preparing the Dodge Magmum or Chrysler 300 with a Police Pkg. and probably will be powered by the 5.7L Hemi V8

The 2004 Chevrolet Impala is a carryover from 2003. Powered by the 3.8L 3800 Series II OHV V6 rated at 200hp and 220 lb-ft Torque

0 to 60 9.00 sec.
0 to 100 26.42 sec.
1/4 mile 16.89 sec. @ 83.58 mph
Top Speed 123 mph

Clearly the Impala is now out-gunned in the Police Pkg. comparision. GM fleet did consider using the supercharged version of the 3800 Series II V6 to improve the Impalas performance. After serious testing on the road with Michigan State Police and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Chevorlet had concerns about long term duability for police use with the supercharger. Also Chevrolet couldn't get the performance where they wanted using regular grade gasoline with the supercharged engine. All civilian models of the Supercharged 3800 require premium grade gasoline.
The Impala did out-brake all the cars tested, the 9C1 Impala uses brakes(calipers & rotors) that were used on the Camaro Z28
Chevrolet indicated that the Impala will be redesigned for the 2006 model year. The vehicle will use "similar technology" which probably means that it will remain FWD, but hopefully with a V8 this time.

Also shown as a prototype was a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe Pursuit Pkg. Many of you may recall the debate about this vehicle back a couple of months ago on this board.
The Pursuit Pkg. Tahoe will be 2WD only and powered by the 5.3L Vortec V8 rated at 285hp and coupled to a 4-speed auto and using 3.73 axle ratio.
Many changes were made to the suspension and tires, to lower the center of gravity and reduce body roll. Stability has been greatly enhanced for high speed manuavering.
At the test tack the Tahoe reminded some of the LT-1 Caprice exiting high-speed corners smoking its rear tires.

This years top-cop car is the newly enhanced Ford Police Interceptor. With Dodge coming back next year with V8 RWD Police Cars, where will Chevrolet be in the Police car business next year. Chevy needs a RWD V8 powered car really bad to compete, in the police business and in the real-world. The Caprice has been gone for almost 8 years, its time to do something.

crYnOid

Compared to the cop cars in Aus those are very crap! Even the local cops have 250hp I6 Ford cars. Go to sydney or melbourne and you will run into cops driving 350hp V8 holdens and fords!

30thZ286speed

Yes, I love some of the cars you all have down under, I'd love to take a trip there sometime and test drive some Holdens especially the Ute and the HSV models.

Z284ever

This is more like it.

http://www.911vp.com/2004_ford_v10_p...nterceptor.htm

kickinthehouse

what happens if you put regular 82 octane in the supercharged civilian SS ???????????????????????????

Z28x

WOW, 250HP... in a few more years and a few more upgrades and it will be as fast as the 1994 Caprice, talk about progress

stars1010

Yeah no kidding.

Has anyone noticed how sneaky the newer Camaro pursuit cars are? Driving back to school after the holidays I passed one on the interstate and I’m lucky I didn’t get a ticket. It looked just like a regular black Camaro. It wasn’t two-tone, just solid black. The lights on top were just a thin strip and very hard to see until you were right on him. It freaked me out. I’m sure he wrote tickets all day.

And about those Crown Vic Pis, I don’t know how anyone can get excited about 16 second cars (well excepts for mine ). I like the way they are doing it down under. 350 hp Cop cars are the way to go. GM needs to build another B4C for the 5th gen, America needs it obviously.

poSSum

That Tahoe package sounds interesting ...as a law enforcement vehicle (based on some of the moves we saw the highway patrols pull on our drive back from San Antonio) and as a tow vehicle ...maybe GM will do the right thing and make it available to civilians?!?

guionM

I know what you mean.

The CHP is running Camaros with the thin roof lights, only all of ours is white, which makes them simply invisible.


As for the police tests, I'm guessing Dodge is probally going to get the Magnum sedan. The whole Magnum front clip will fit on the 300 bodywork (all design creases and shapes match up).

Impala is moving to the mid-lux FWD chassis, and will likely have bodywork very similar to the SS concept, and carry a V8. You can use regular grade gas on the supercharged engine, but it will start pinging when you mash the accelerator, go up a steep grade, or end up in any situation where the supercharger engages.

It's pretty disturbing that one of the Crown Vic's main buyers, law enforcement, isn't worth Ford engineering a better driveshaft.

scott9050

I have to disagree with the marauder not being as fast as the caprice, fastest one I have seen tested ran a 14.77 at 95. 95 is a comon trap for these, but usually in the low 15's due to being undergeared for the DOHC engine.

scott9050

I am also wondering about how they run mid 16's with this car when there are others on Crown-Vic.net that are running in the high 15's with the old model from 2001-2002. I am guessing if they say that performance is similar to the vic that they also got crappy numbers out of the caprice, just a guess.
I remember in my old police car book that they were getting 15.5-15.9's from notch 5.0 Mustangs with a 5spd in the late 80's.

jg95z28

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading something a while ago that said the CHP Camaro's got a beefier powerplant than the others as they were the last police specials off the line and California ordered them that way. Does anyone else recall seeing (or knowing) this?

I definitely read something to that effect, but maybe the reporter was clueless.

Odin

One of our humble little v8 cop cars here

Only does 0-60 in 6.39 seconds and the 1/4 in 14.4

30thZ286speed

In the past when they tested police cars, they tested the cars with full police equipment: lightbars, spotlights,comm. equipment, prisoner partitions, full-size spare tire and also in addition to the driver there was a passenger up front. All of which can effect the weight and areodymanics of the car. All of this was done to try and simulate how the cars would perform in a real world patrol situations. In recent years when the manufactors started bringing cars without lightbars and some of the equipment. A lightbar can have a huge affect on top speed.

So for 2004 MSP required them to bring cars stripped of lightbars, equipment, and spotlights. That way the cars would be on a more even playing field.

30thZ286speed

250hp was a bit surprising to me because the '04 police borchure that I recieved states that it still has 239hp same as the '03 model. This must have been some kind of last min. deal.

A little more detail on the 250hp. Ford states that they redesigned the air cleaner box and also are using free flowing MAF from the Merc Maraudar to bring the hp to 250.

Back in mid 2002 when they intorduced the 2003 model the hp went up from 235 ('02 model) to 239hp ('03 model). Ford stated more power because of a redesigned air intake box. Orginally that must have been a pretty restrictive intake box.

The old LT-1 Caprices were the same way with the air intake plumbing, it had 2 resonators and plenty of curves and pinches to restrict air flow. Throwing all of this stuff out and adding a CAI usually netted 10-15 hp on a dyno, and switching to a Z28 MAF usually gave you 5hp more on top of that.