cops dig the vic

the crown vic is very big in russia, and japan. almost all the pursuit cars in moscow are crown vics. I don't remember what towns it is in japan that uses the crown vic, but 2 years ago a car carrier dropped off a load of yodas, and reloaded with P-71 interceptors. i asked the lot owner about it, and he told me the names of the 3 or 4 towns in japan and a few other countries that the 1200 cars were going to.

Reply to
Tom
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If you have ever been to Japan, you would realize that American sized cars are a real detriment. There are a number of toll routes and freeways where they might be used to effect, but not in the towns and cities. Heck, in the town and villages, the roads and streets are not much wider than a Crown Vic. I can recall a lot of places where the cops would have had to park blocks away from a destination and walk in.

Reply to
veegerNO SPAM

Sounds about right. I barely ever see a Crown Victoria that isn't a police car. Usually, if it's not a police car, it's the Mercury or Lincoln siblings people choose.

Reply to
Mr. Bunny

{snipped}

Even when lowered and stiffened, a Tahoe still has a pretty high gravity point. It won't be able to take turns at remotely the same speed you can in a car with stock suspension.

Reply to
Mr. Bunny

I'm not a big fan of the American cars in general, but they're not all garbage. One thing you need to understand though, is that roads in North America are generally of much poorer condition than in Europe, and distances far greater, so the cars need softer suspension to offer somewhat decent comfort. And as a result, they have poorer handling.

But the only European cars that even come close in size to a Crown Victoria is the Volvo 7s and 9s (which btw is just a Ford by a different name), BMW

7s, and Mercedes E and S. And even then, just because it's a European car, doesn't mean it's any safer to be a cop. In Denmark, I've seen cops crash just about every model of car they have: Peugeot 406, BMW 535i, Volvo 440, Ford Mondeo, Ford Taunus, and a whole bunch of others. The Beemers were originally bought to catch speeders, but had to be scrapped because they had too much power for the cops to handle. A lot of the Fords actually got lowered and stiffened suspension, high performance brakes, high-performance ABS electronics, and a bunch other mods, just for the cars to be able to survive everyday police work. No off-the-shelf car can handle being pushed hard every single day, the components are just not designed for hard driving.

If you want cops to be safe, then you need to basically provide them with race cars: Roll cage, racing suspension and brakes, increased driver input (the amount of feeling that gets filtered out of the steering on modern cars makes them more dangerous at high speed maneuvering).

Reply to
Mr. Bunny

The Russian police cars were donated by the US government after the warmup, as an aid to help fight the explosive increase in crime. You can't use that as a scale for what they'd rather be driving.

Before that they had Lada 1200s, and were quite pleased. But after the fall of the USSR, they had no money to keep them running, so they ended up having to patrol on bicycle. That led to the US providing vehicles and parts to keep them running.

Reply to
Mr. Bunny

While it's true that they still would not handle as well as a 'vette, or whatever, in the hands of professionally trained drivers, they can be pushed to greater limits than the average driver could ever handle and control. As an example, I offer such organizations as the Secret Service, as well as the many personal security agencies (high end not rent-a-cops).

Reply to
veegerNO SPAM

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