1982 5.0 liter Special Service Package (SSP) MustangIn 1982, the CHP went to the Ford Motor Company, and asked if they could build a pursuit vehicle, capable of chasing down high speed violators. Ford stepped up to the plate, and came out with the above Mustang, capable of top speeds in the 120-130 mph range. These vehicles were equipped with manual transmissions, and were advertised to police agencies as "this Ford chases Porsches for a living".
The prior decade of patrol vehicles were of the full size sedan type, like the Dodge Polara, and the Ford Crown Victoria. From about 1972 on, the performance of these vehicles was pretty anemic, as the emphasis in Detroit was for smaller, emission type motors, and less performance. As a result, the top speeds for police vehicles kept falling, and it became much harder to enforce maximum speed laws on the wide open interstate highways like I5.
I can remember one night in the late 1970's, my partner and I spotted a Porsche traveling north bound on I5, at a very high rate of speed. We were driving a Dodge, equipped with an overhead light bar, and a little over 100 mph was as fast as the slug would go. We made a u-turn, and after what seemed like forever, we closed to within about 500 feet, and turned on the the red & blue lights. Instead of seeing brake lights on the Porsche, all we saw was disappearing tail lights, as the driver accelerated to probably 40-60 mph faster than our top speed. We never got close enough for a license number, but still called in a failure to yield, in hopes that perhaps the adjacent office would have better luck. Without the ability to stay at least close, this scenario played out more times than I care to admit.
In 1983, our office got the first Mustang, and despite the cramped interior, this was probably the fastest CHP vehicle since the 1969 Dodge. It didn't have the top speed of the 69 Dodge, but it was 20-30 mph faster than anything we had driven in many years. The manual transmission was at times problematic, when multi tasking was required. Trying to shift through the gears, talk on the radio, and make notes, all at the same time, was sometimes challenging. But, I have to admit, banging through the gears, while accelerating after a speeder, was a performance junkies dream come true.
For the next decade, Ford built approx. 15,000 of these SSP (Special Service Package) Mustangs, that were delivered to over 60 police agencies. Most of the departments were State Highway Patrols, and the CHP was the initial recipient of 405 of the 1982 Mustangs.
Most of our enforcement efforts in the Los Banos Office were targeted towards Interstate 5, and CA State Route 152. Both of these highways are long, and straight, where high speed enforcement was the top priority. The Ford Mustang was a welcome relief to many years of driving underpowered patrol vehicles.
