The demise of the rear wheel drive/Police intercep

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Bird,

I'm confused, weren't you supposed to catch the speeders not leave them in the dust/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
MOPAR rules/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
Al

 

[stevepio]

Hi All.

I started in 89, when bird finished. My first 2 years were the two saddest cars - 89 Diplomat and 90 Crown Vic. Both slow, poor handling, and uncomfortable.

The 91-93 "Bubble" caprices were ok but not great.

The 94-95 LT-1 Caprices were indeed rockets, and had great brakes too. 96-97 Crowns were slow and poor handling but in 98 a new rear suspension design took most of the quirks out of the handling to make for a pretty decent car. A previous poster was correct that the 4.6 is no nitro burning ball of fire but the 2000 and 2001 handle so well that we just never slow down!

I have a 9C3 Impala now with the 3.8 V6. The Police gears give it some get off the line and it handles great. Our 2002 fleet purchase will be 16 2002 Crowns and 5 Impalas.

Dodge is releasing an Intrepid Police package based on the production R/T model in mid 2002. Numbers look good so far.

 

[Bird]

The statute of limitations has expired, Al./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif But seriously though, I'd have never tried to outrun anyone on any public road in the Dallas area. I had one guy who wanted to see whether his Dodge would outrun my Roadrunner, but he was talking top end instead of drag race, and while I've have liked to try it to see, we didn't have access to a track we could drive like that on. The short Chev. race was in far west Texas where we could see for 5 miles in every direction and there was no one else in sight./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Bird]

Steve, it ought to be interesting to see how that Dodge Intrepid does. My youngest daughter totalled one a few months ago; fortunately no injuries, the other guy's fault and he had insurance. But before she wrecked it, I had kept it and used it for a week once, darned nice car and got a lot better mileage than I expected from that V-6.

 

[scruffy]

Bird, naw, it wasn't sick. That Rebel just had a few more things goin' for it. At the drags in Samoa, CA, it was never beaten in its class....to include a 500hp 68 camaro, and a 426 Pontiac Bonneville that were supposed to be very fast. Could pull consistant low to mid 9's with it. Got so it spent more time on a trailer than it did on the road, and I just tired of the expense of keeping it around./w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif I had a 69 Javelin with a 343ci that I wanted to pull and stuff that 390ci into, /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gifbut the wife vetoed the idea, /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gifas the Javelin was hers. (I built that one out of 3 javalins that had been wrecked) She was scared of the Rebel. That thing was bored 60 over, heads and mating surface on the block shaved 30 thousands each, 12 to 1 popups in it. Anti pump up lifters, cam, cromally push rods, dual double pump holly 650 quads on it. Fun part was getting traction on the ground with it. Traction bars and slicks was the only way to go with it...but slicks ain't street legal.
Don't do that stuff anymore. Stock is the only way since the anchor got thrown out!

 

[stevepio]

My wife has a 99 intrepid with the 3.2. The Police will have the 3.5. My wife's goes like heck as is.

Here's a scan of one of my collection....

 

[Jeff396]

A fire caused by a backfire through the carb eh? That one never occured to me. Now I carry a couple of fire extinguishers like six guns in each of my old cars but I always figured it would be the electrical gremlins that would get me. It's too bad you still don't have that Vette, the values on the steel bumper cars are doing really well. I don't know if you still get any of the magazines or not but if you do, my car is appearing in the pages of "Vette" magazine in their January issue. It came as a big surprise as they actually took the pictures and story over 3 years ago. Heck, I don't even live in that same city anymore. If you don't get the magazine, here's a picture of my baby.

Jeff...396

 

[MikePA]

Great looking car! Must be sweet to drive. Is that an old T-Bird in the background?

My neighbor across the street has a '68 plus a '5x. So I get reminded almost every summer that I used to own a Vette, although his is green and mine was salmon.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Mike,
Was that a Holley carb/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
Al

 

[Hillbilly]

When I was a boy my father bought a brand new 1965 GTO, the engine was I believe 389 tri power(does that sound right?)I distinctively remember it was a 3 speed on the floor,we had it for about a year and dad sold it to my cousin because my mother could not hardly drive a standard let alone a something as fast as the GTO was.My cousin took it took a dragstrip as street stock and had quite a collection of trophys.
I was about 8 years old and cried when my dad got rid of it./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif