Mount Up for Canada in this Royal Fox Body Mustang SSP
California and Florida weren’t the only ones to avail the Mustang SSP, as this one defended the Queen in Saskatchewan.
Bullitt. GT500. Boss 302. Just three of the famous Mustangs to grace the highways of the world for nearly 60 years. And while they were out being bad little ponies, one horse kept them all in line: the SSP. From the early Eighties to the early Nineties, this special Fox-body Mustang chased down Porsches, Corvettes, Ferraris and more for the likes of the California Highway Patrol (who commissioned Ford to build them in the first place) and the Florida Highway Patrol.
Turns out Queen Elizabeth II herself also received a few Mustang SSPs of her own. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had a fleet to protect her subjects in the great white north, like this one we found heading for the Mecum Indianapolis auction the other day.
A total of 32 cars were used by the RCMP, which were as close as the agency’s officers were going to get to riding actual horses in the Eighties. Four of these high-performance steeds — including this one — landed in the province of Saskatchewan, whose southern border touches Montana and North Dakota.
Under the royal hood is the Mustang SSP’s 5.0-liter V8, delivering 210 horsepower to the rear through a five-speed manual. This helped the mounties rush to bust drug operations to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds on their way to 135 mph of Canadian-style justice.
Inside, the Mustang SSP’s interior is the thin blue line you can touch. The radio, lights, sirens and the Remington 870 are ready to go defend the Queen and her subjects at a moment’s notice. No power windows, though; officers had to roll them down to get their Tim Horton’s fix before starting their shifts.
It’s really cool to know at some point, this Mustang SSP likely did protect the Queen whenever she visited Canada. You can’t say that about 15,000 or so other cars Ford made for law enforcement and government agencies in North America. The fact it’s still in uniform to this day is a bonus. It definitely lived by the motto “Defending the law, Maintain the right.”
Photos: Mecum Auctions
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