I have a question for Ford Guy, how fast are American police cars? Today the most common police car is the Ford Crown Victoria (Chevy Caprices and Dodge Diplomats must have been mostly phased out by now) just about every US police department seems to use them. But they are still big, cumbersome cars (compared to European police cars), do they handle well and have high acceleration and top speeds for high speed pursuit? They just don't look like they could be as fast as something like a Volvo T5 or BMW 5-series, police forces in Britain often use these cars and they tune them up so they reach speeds of up to 170mph, there isn't much that can outrun a British police pursuit vehicle.

First off, here's a list of all CURRENT police-package vehicles designed for pursuit:

Ford Crown Victoria
Chevrolet Impala
Dodge Charger
Dodge Magnum
Chevrolet Tahoe PPV (Pursuit Package Vehicle)

The Crown Victoria is a good car, it handles well, and has a good top speed overall. However, I think that a published source would be more interesting for you to look over. Below is a link to the Michigan State Police's Police Vehicles Evaluation Page. The Michigan State Police (MSP) is the foremost tester of police vehicles in the country. Every year, they test out every single police-package vehicle that is made available, as well as other Special Service vehicles (the SSV Explorer, Expedition, Tahoe, etc.) Their tests are very highly regarded and many agencies look at their results. Although there are many links, the one that you would probably be most interested would be "Test Vehicle Descriptions and Competitive Evaluations." I hope this helps

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123--16274--,00.html

I got to see up close one of my close cop friend’s Ford Expedition SSV XLT he was assigned to. It was a K-9 unit, and he had a special pad on his belt that if he pressed it, it would auto-open the rear passenger door and let the dog out. I thought it was sweet myself.

Nice . How did he like the SSV? Did it handle well?

He seemed to like it. His previous K-9 unit was a older model Explorer, which didn’t have that automated door thing. I know that poor Expedition gets the hell drove out of it. He had to chase someone off-road in it one time, but he said it wasn’t as "heroic" as it sounds, as it was a low-speed chase that didn’t last very long.

Lets put it this way. We do have police chases, and those slow, old Crown Victoria's do keep up with Corvette's. Don't ask me why, but they do keep up with cars that are supposedly faster.

Well, the CV made for pursuit are quite improved over the standard model I guess (suspensions, engine, etc.)

There was a pretty good article in Motor Trend a few months ago you may be interested in also: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/112_0704_police_car_comparison/index.- html

They have a saying here that no matter how fast your car is, you can't outrun the radio.

But I read the test reports Ford Guy posted and even the police package Crown Vics only did 0-60 in about 9 seconds with a top speed of 130mph. That's not particularly fast. The Dodge Chargers were a bit faster.

Anyway, once you have a police helicopter above you, you're never going to get away.

Funny, my partner and I were in a brand-new 2006 Crown Vic PI the other day and at one point, we reached 90 MPH after about 10-15 seconds. The handling was great, but I did take into account the fact that it was new. G-MANN, what did you think overall of the report?

Also, the article provided some good pictures of the re-designed 2007 Tahoe PPV.