svopaul

a few Fox pics from the show this past weekend.....

63galaxie

Awesome, they all look great! Especially the '82 highway patrol.

Blip

Nice pictures, I've got to done some toons of special service Mustangs.
These are great ref shots.

conv_stang

man, that was alot of SVO's in that picture! love the line os SSP's as well. hows your ssp coming paul?

svopaul

I have 2 now...a GSP and FHP. I just built a new engine for the GSP and have not had a chance to install it yet....hopefully in a few weeks....The FHP car is going to be a total ground up restoration back to original but that is a ways off...

TJ4Cam

Great, now I miss my 'ol SVO more than ever...thanks...

runfox

Hey I got a question for you SVOPaul, I looked at all those ex-police cars and some looked like they were still in service. I guess they were restored to original. But I'm wondering about all the "Police" hardware inside like the radar and radio's and computers and all that. Is any of that stuff functional, or just an empty box that looks like real police equipment or what? I was looking at a few of the FHP cars, and wondering if they were still in service and if not how did they get them with all the lights and radar still on them ??

Then I was thinking , if they look that good to me, wouldnt it be easy to fool other people into thinking you have a real FHP car, and wouldnt that be falsely impersonating and Officer or something?I mean if the flashing lights work and all are you allowed to drive them around and hit the flashing lights or siren?

svopaul

Good question!

None of those cars are still in service but are restored to "in service" condition. Different states have different laws but I'll touch on that later.

There is a fine line between impersonating and not and it can often boil down to intent and use of the car and how you act if pulled over. You can't blame an officer for questioning you if you are just driving down the road in an ex police car but there is a group called the EVOOA: Emergency Vehicle Owners & Operators Association...membership to that group can help when an officer is questioning your intent. All of those cars you see are equipped with functioning equipment but those items were gathered by the owners after they got the car....all police Mustangs were stripped of their emergency equipment prior to being sold...so that is part of the restoration effort when you have to find all the original equipment that was in the car and there are lots of variations because some departments recycled things while others installed new.

Many of those cars you see are not permanently marked, they have the deals on magnets so that they can install them for a show and remove them to drive home...it IS illegal to drive the car on public roads marked unless part of a parade or special event where permission is granted. It is also HIGHLY illegal to use the lights or siren on a public road as well....doing so will get you a place UNDER the jail . For those cars that are permanently marked they are transported in a trailer or everything is covered up during transportation. For those cars with light bars mounted it is a smart idea to have a cover or painted domes on the bar that are marked "out of service" and or have the same type signs in the window of the car to make it well marked that it is in fact out of service.

Some of us(me included) drive the cars in unmarked condition with no lights and only the 2-tone paint job, black wheels and antennas...this is legal depending on the state you are in and the agency car you are driving...for example, in Florida is it explicitly illegal to drive a car(any car!) painted in the Florida Highway Patrol colors of tan and black but if you have say a California car in black/white or a Georgia car in blue/grey then you are OK to drive it. In Georgia the law is clear in stating that all emergency equipment must be removed but it is OK to drive the car in the blue/grey GSP colors. One of the guys at the show drove in from Georgia with his GSP Mustang and then installed his light bar and decals(on magnets). You should NEVER with these cars have anything that says "POLICE" on them or in them displayed...no raincoat, nothing...THAT is over the line of impersonation.

Many of the owners of these cars are current or retired law enforcement while others like myself are not. You always have to be prepared that you could get stopped and questioned just because of the nature of what you are driving but as long as you don't do anything wrong and have a good attitude then all should go well. There have been cases in the past where people have used a car inapropriately...one was in Texas where a guy took his uncles DPS Mustang and pulled someone over....they went directly to jail and the uncle was ordered to dispose of the car within 90 days or the state would crush it...that car now belongs to a collector in the Northeast.

Now there are times when I just drive my GSP down the road here in Alabama and nobody will pass me or at a light someone behind me suddenly throws on their seatbelt trying not to be seen doing it. The car is not in Alabama colors and Mustang enthusiasts know the car has been out of service for many years but the average public does not. The only effect I have on the public by driving it is to slow them down and make them wear seat belts....which isn't a bad thing but the key to owning/operating one of these cars is to know the law and what you as the owner need to do. There is a big responsibility to act accordingly which means drive and act responsibly and don't loan the car to anyone because it is your car and you are ultimately responsible.

If interested in more info on the SSP Mustangs visit www.evooa.org.

Scothew

It took me all day to finnally get to read that post Paul. Thats very informative and I learned quite a few things I never knew about the SSP cars.

viza

I drove through Arizona once on the way to Phoenix and I remember seeing Arizona state troopers driving SSP Mustang's on those steep mountain highways. I guess they really needed the power to accelerate up those inclines. I saw two of them in 1993.

Edit: Must've been 1992. Long time ago LOL.

Very cool cars...

Linkage: http://www.sspmustang.org/photos/smf_photo2d.htm

-Viza

future9er24

whats that white one, second from the left, top row, with the wide flares?

that is SO cool

svopaul

That is a VERY Rare McLaren Mustang...1981 I believe. Belongs to a friend of mine here in Alabama. I believe they made a total of 7 or 9 of them.

future9er24

i was thinking of saying McLaren but i didnt want to risk being wrong :P

i remember the one photo that had the red '82 GT in the foreground and the black McLaren in the background... oh man, what i wouldnt give for that black one...