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Making police cars: who and what was involved?

by David Zatz

At Chrysler, before Daimler, a fleet engineering team handled police cars, taxis, and performance cars—all the “special interest” vehicles. During the 1980s, Bob Lees headed this area. That team also personally took the police cars to the Michigan State Police and California Highway Patrol tests.

The nature of the work required many, many changes, mostly involving durability rather than power. To quote Bob Lees, “The police are like greyhounds at a rabbit track: when they see somebody doing something wrong they have complete focus on them and they take off after them. They don’t care if they are jumping curbs, or going over ditches or through hedges, they want to catch that person. So you do a lot to reinforce the suspension. You do things to the engine to make it last longer, and handle high speed work.”

Police cars endured all the normal testing of retail models, as well as numerous extra tests for tougher conditions. Changes from regular cars to police cars included:

Bodywork

• Reinforced locks and hinges (so suspects could not kick the door open)
• Reinforcements in the roof for the sirens and lights
• Numerous extra welds—the exact number and placement depended on the year
• Reduced chrome, when possible—police cars were usually built off the lowest trim model to keep prices low (and prevent public perception of “wasted taxpayer dollars”)
• Better anti-rust treatments in some years

Powertrains

Chrysler usually offered a range of engines, including lower-powered models for city police, who had lower needs for power and higher needs for economy, and top-performance versions for rural and state police who may need a sustained pursuit without radio help from other officers. Both versions had high durability. To quote Bob Lees, “A police car is not going to catch a Ferrari, it’s not that fast. More than anything you want durability to be able to take the rough work, the rough roads and the pursuit work, or sitting by the side of the highway with the lights and radio going, sitting and idling for hours, even in the heat in the desert, and everything else. That’s where the emphasis is.”

Police could often catch criminals by chasing until the criminals’ cars failed. The famed New York City chase which inspired the one in The French Connection ended when a detective’s personal Plymouth outlasted the criminals’ car, which fell apart from the rough New York roads. (The city’s police cars did not make the cut, either, and that’s when New York City switched to Mopars—until Chrysler left the business.)

Upgrades generally included:

• Heavy duty cooling to deal with long idle periods as well as long wide-open-throttle periods
  • Not just engine cooling; oil and power steering fluid coolers were often included
• Heavier-duty transmissions with fluid coolers (pre-1990)
  
• Durability upgrades, usually including more heat-resistant valves
• Dual timing chains in many years (including all 318 and 360 V8s)
• Heavy duty rockers (painted green and red)
• Reinforced cranks and pistons
• The biggest possible radiator, fan, and shroud
• High-grade silicon rubber hoses (starting in the 1980s) to deal with underhood heat
• Bigger axles, where applicable (e.g. M-bodies used the eight-and-a-quarter-inch design rather than the 318’s usual seven-and-a-half)

Brakes and suspension

• Tighter steering chucks, which made the police part more desirable in pre-1990 cars
• Stiffer, heavier duty shocks, springs, and/or struts (which can make police models uncomfortable, especially compared to standard retail cars)
• Vinyl floors for durability and easier cleanup
• High-speed tires
• Bigger rims in some years (e.g. Diplomat/Gran Fury had 15x8 instead of normal 15x7), slotted for brake cooling
• Light “dog-dish” hubcaps into 1989, with holes drilled for heat dissipation and weight reduction in 1981-89; the “dog dish” design covered just the lug nut area, leaving more room for heat dissipation
• The biggest brakes Chrysler had for that year, with semi-metallic brake pads depending on the year
• Rear sway bars on some models/some years
• Silicone brake fluid in some years, to prevent brake fires under unusual conditions

Electrical

• Heavy duty circuits to run radios and lights
• Extra circuits for upfitters
• Heavy duty alternators (in the 1950s, police cars were just about the only vehicles to get alternators instead of generators; in the 1970s and 1980s, they got the most powerful alternators, e.g. 90-100 amps)
• Higher capacity batteries, in later years with battery insulators

Other

• Calibrated speedometers, sometimes offered as an option
• A switch to sound the siren with the horn button
• Aftermarket tap-ins
• Seats:
  • Reinforced structures (these were usually set as an option for fleet buyers since they were less comfortable)
  • Bench seating, even in cars not designed for it
  • Heavy-duty vinyl or fabric seat coverings
• Extra radio speakers and two-way radio antennas
• High pressure cutoff switches for the air conditioners in some years (to avoid problems with long idling times)

Modern Dodge Charger police cars can also have 360° cameras, computer mounts in the trunk, extra-large screens, swing-out keyboards, and other modern gear.

Police cars at Motales

Dodge Intrepid: the police car
Agile, surprisingly quick front while drive pursuit vehicles

Plymouth police cars of 1976
Downsized but strong

Car Spotter: 1971 Plymouth Fury Pursuit Car
Big and classy police car

Making police cars: who and what was involved?
Diving into the changes that make an ordinary car into a pursuit vehicle (or just an ordinary police car)

Prototypical police cars: Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Gran Fury
Inside the M-body Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Gran Fury that defined how police cars should look for at least a decade

Mopar police cars of 1980: St. Regis/Gran Fury, Aspen/Volare, B-Van
The last of the big Plymouth and Dodge police cars, in their penultimate year, with the final F-body squads

Mopar police cars of 1983: Diplomat/Gran Fury and Reliant/Aries
Two quite different approaches to police cars, with front and rear wheel drive, powered by V8 and four-cylinder engines

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Books by MoTales writer David Zatz

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