The demise of the rear wheel drive/Police intercep

[MossRoad]

Scruffy, when I was in high school I had my dad's 70 Nova with a 230 straight six. I had it bored .30 over, put in a cam from Clifford performance, a four barrel and headers. Had some head work done. With the original 3sp it would run around 112mph at 6800rpms. I put in a 4spd out of a monza and it cut the top end down to 85 at 6800 rpms, but man did it get there fast. Burned rubber in all four gears. On a short run that was perfect, but on a long stretch the big motors would eat me alive. Had alot of fun with that car. It rusted out so bad that one day my mom and I walked up to it, grabbed the back bumper and pulled it off with our hands. We ended up cutting it into pieces with a torch and putting it out with the trash! I still have the hood out on my property and the motor is mounted in an old Toyota Landcruiser that hasn't run for 15 years. I'm going to replace it with a 292 straigh six some day, but that's another project.


<font color=green> MossRoad </font color=green>

 

[scruffy]

Mossroad, people didn't give the old inline sixes credit, but a lot of them were runners. I bought the 64 American new, when my Spyder went down the Eel River in NoCAL on the root end of a Redwood tree in the '64' flood. I had it lookin' nice, but at 80000 miles on it, lost a head gasquet on it. I put a 'Vette 327 in it when I found out it would bolt right up! Turkey would run 125mph @ 2600 (or there abouts) rpm when you was in third and over(drive). that tranny put out compression all the way down to three mph before it would start free wheelin'. Loved it. Wasn't worth a hoot outta the hole (because of funky rear axle/hub setup), but at 15mph up, look out! The '67' Rebel SST I bought was fast in stock form, but after rebuild it was a holy terror! It was a 390/four speed combo, and still had AMC's trademark funky axle/hub setup. Differentials were okay, but when you have an axle/hub combo that has no splines on the mating surfaces, a 1/8wX1/4dX1/2l woodruff key supplying the 'locking' factor, backed up by a big nut that required 200 foot pounds torque, complete with a skinny 1/8 cotter pin to lock the nut in place. Well, the first time you dump a lot of horsepower to those rear wheels, you just spun the hub on the axle. Bummer. After 3 or 4 sets, I got mad and arc welded the hubs to the axle.....no more problems. Alas....sigh....no more hot-roddin'....kids, family, etc done away with it.

 

[RobertN]

Yup, it was a Camaro that crashed. They ran one of thier four Challenger's up to the dozers real fast, but with room to stop. For the crash, they took a Camaro they picked up with a blown engine, pulled the engine and loaded it with big boom movie stuff. Then they used thier 383-auto Challenger to tow the Camaro to the Dozer's. They ran a cable from the Challenger, between the dozer blades, to the Camaro, and towed that thing right into the dozers.

If you look real careful at the very end, the tail shot at impact, you can see those tail lights and rear deck lid are definitely a Camaro.

If you liked the movie, here's a couple great links

http://geocities.com/1970ufo/vpoint.html
http://vanishingpointmania.com/

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[RobertN]

I have some Austrailian hot rod magazines. They have lots of articles on hopped up six cylinders in there, including hemi-head Mopar sixes.

Apparently, even though v8's are really popular, the sixes have had a good performance run down there too.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[oombala]

police and taxi cabs are primary buyers for the crown vic. about 5 years ago when chevy phased out the caprice, ford stated they would make the crown vic thru 2002 . i have heard now that there redesigning it for 2003, still a rear wheel drive car. they have several prototypes out with v-10 engines shoe horned inside. ive also heard there toying with the idea of putting the cobra mustang engine in it. dodge is alledgedly making a rear wheel drive intrepid, but i have yet to see one. and rumor has it that since the camaro is gone, gm might bring back the rear wheel drive caprice because there impala sales arent what they expected.

as an advanced emergency vehicle operator instructor, i can safely say the front wheel drive cars are no match for a full sized rear wheel drive car , for longevity and comfort. we tried some impalas, and after about 50,000 miles of wear and tear on a county dept, 12 hours a day, the front ends are falling apart and we will not be buying any more as long as the rear wheel drives are available and the front wheel drives are designed the same way. however for a small city or town driving few miles on shift at lower speeds, they should do ok.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"I can safely say the front wheel drive cars are no match for a full sized rear wheel drive car , for longevity and comfort"</font color=blue>

I was at a friend's one evening and saw one of their county's new Caprices come down the road and make a turn into an access drive to a new development. The neighbors were shocked when the car bottomed out with a loud crash and came to a sudden stop. The whole front end was wrinkled up (bumper pushed up into the grille and lights, etc.). He'd hit so hard even one end of the light bar broke loose. The old Crown Vic had gone through there regularly without a problem.

 

[Hillbilly]

For a family car/value for your dollar/something if well maintained will run and run/and a massive amount of trunk space and ample leg room front and back(not to mention the luxury and comfort),you cannot beat a Ford LTD crown Vic/Mercury Grand Marquis.I hope Ford Motor company never drops this car from there product line.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Well now I just gotta jump in here, having just watched 50 Crown Vics go thru the Rochester Police Auction this morning.
For my money, the best police cars ever were Dodge Diplomats. Those babys would haul and do it all day long.
The LTDs seem to eat trannys at about twice the speed the Dodges did, and the LTD is way short on Whoa too. Suspension, what suspension.
Average price for a Crown Vic today, with 90k miles was $975, and there were at least a dozen taxi drivers there buying their next replacement cab.
Now if anybody needs a rebuilt police tranny with torque converter for a Dodge, I still have 2 I bought when the last Dodges went out of the fleet. Contact me at franzd1@iwon.com

 

[MossRoad]

Around April 12 of this year the South Bend Indiana police department pulled a Ford Crown Victoria police car out of service because of "an alarming amount of rust" on the frame. Apparently, it got inspected after an accident and they found too much rust, then they started looking. South Bend has about 300 cop cars, most of them Fords. Well, by April 25th a Ford rep inspected them and said that 68 of them were unsafe. They had to pull them off the road permanently!

Now I'm not knocking Fords or anything like that. Just thought you all might be interested.

 

[Hillbilly]

I am not talking police cars as much as I am family cars.I had a full size LTD Crown Victoria L/X and sold it after about 150000 and now I have a Mercury Grand Marquis,I have not a had any transmisson problems or rusted frame problems.I can not speak for anyone else,but I can speak from my own experience and my next car will be a LTD Crown Vic or Grand Marquis,they work for me and thats all I care.