last night i was pulled over in my fine town of Grand Haven, by a Taurus. it was all black, completly unmarked (hence why i didnt slow down when i passed) and the town uses the crown vic for there marked cars. wondering if anybody seen these before? do they have any special features over a regular taurus?
SHO or normal model just curious.
I build cop cars for the RCMP and I can tell you that they use anything and everything. They use Crown Vics when they want you to see 'em. When they don't, you never know what they're driving. I've upfitted Tauruses (plain, 3.0 Vulcan models), Sebrings, Intrepids (non police package - I've never actually done a police package Intrepid), Malibus, Impalas (both police and non-police), Grand Prix's, Chevy, Dodge and Ford 1/2 tons, Suburbans, Blazers, Explorers, Expeditions, Durangos, Pathfinders - you name it, they'll drive it. I've even stripped MN12 Thunderbirds of police equipment (the T-Bird having been discontinued before I started working on cop cars). I was considering buying an ex-RCMP MN12 'Bird with that color change paint but my distrust of anything 3.8 kept me away.
When they really, REALLY don't want to be seen they usually rent cars and keep 'em long enough to do the job at hand.
I believe some of the Police/Taxi package taurii got a 3.8 V6 and split dual exhaust. Some even got a special grille that, instead of being solid, had slots cut into it for increased airflow I'm guessing.
(http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/police/vehicles/taurus.jpg)
The had suspension upgrades, par for the course on cop cars. I've also heard that, even though it's a 3.8, it can actually move the Taurus pretty quick.
I know that they definitely run the Taurus in Washington, DC, both the newer one and the older "oval" one. I talked to some officers about them, but all they mentioned for differences were the electrical upgrades to handle the added accessories.
I was also stuck in the middle of a high speed chase once, where I had to pull over on a narrow two lane road and watch about 25-30 police cars pass me by. It was really interesting to see what they were driving - mustangs, camaros, caravans, windstars, suburbans, etc. Really made me question my confidence in just watching out for only crown vics and impalas.
Around here they used to have a couple of Neons...
Look out for Unmarked Pontiac Montana's (yes you heard me right) I saw a guy pulled over by one 2 months ago.
Police Taurus = Robocop!
The military was using Taurus SHO's when I was still active duty. I know some of them were of the V8 variety. Our plain clothes units out here mostly use the 3.0 Vulcan equipped Tauruses and some Crown vics. They have some real oddball stuff for undercover work.
I saw a couple of people in my area getting pulled over by champaign colored dodge pickups. Thought that was strange when I saw that.
Maryland is using GTOs around here, Florida is using Marauders.
The Taurus Police Package typically had the 3.8L motor in it with other suspension tweaks.....
I got pulled over by a windstar because the were checking for "fraudulent temporary tags". They harrased me for almost an hour and went through my whole car asking why it smelled like pot.(which it didnt). then he harrassed me about cigarette butts that he found under the seat. This was the day after I bought the car. Then he gave me a warning for no insurance (which is madatory) and then told me that he is gonna be looking out for me. Sometime I hate cops. Alot of them are cool, but the few dicks ruin all their reputations.
man of the gen1 tauri that were used as police cars had the 3.8L, with a different set of heads, and pistons, the heads had lower compression due to the different chamber shape, and they did use different pistons to compensate for the lower compression
if i remember correctly, they did get a tranny cooler, and stuff like that too, alone with the grill that Brian mentioned, and those grills get expensive!
Wait till the cops start to get Hemi Chargers :bowdown: . I think that Dodge is going to starts selling them to police departments in the fall.
I got pulled over two months ago by a green subi outback