QOTD: What Police Car Did It Best?

Never mind muscle cars and sexy Italian exotics. Nothing sparks atrial fibrillation in the hearts of motorists like seeing a black-and-white Ford Interceptor, Dodge Charger or Chevrolet Tahoe parked by the roadside up ahead.

Your chest tightens. Your eyes dart to the speedometer in the hopes of finding a reading that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of “sedate.” More often than not, you suddenly find yourself as the commanding officer in charge of Operation Slow Down Without Brake Lights or Nosedive.

When outfitted with heavy duty components, hidden armament and a healthy does of The Law, a normal sedan you’d never look twice at in the Ponderosa parking lot transforms into the most menacing vehicle on the road. Some do it better than others.

Police package K-cars of the early-to-mid 1980s might not have had the clout (or muscle) of their V8-powered counterparts, but God help you if the driver of one decided you needed to spend some time on ice — assuming, of course, you’re not the “just try and catch me, copper!” type.

In a Slack chat the other day, the TTAC crew wasted no small amount of time arguing what vehicle made the best, most police cruiser. Naturally, everything went back to the ’70s and ’80s. And yes, discussion of Caprice, Impala, LTD and Crown Victoria models paled in comparison to vehicles cranked out by the almighty Chrysler Corporation.

If you watched television at some point in your life, it seemed that 90 percent of police vehicles in the ’70s bore a Plymouth or Dodge badge. Take your pick: the B-body Coronet, Fury or downsized Monaco. The expansive C-body Polara, Monaco, Royal Monaco and Gran Fury. The short-lived R-body St. Regis and Gran Fury.

At some point, every one of these models landed in a creek bed in pursuit of the Duke boys. It was an era where 360 cubic inches was adequate, but 440 was better.

If your TV show of choice never strayed from the mean streets of New York, it might have been the seemingly indestructible M-body Diplomat and Gran Fury that caught your eye. Smaller than its forebears, tough, and easier to park, these cars had brown vinyl seats galore.

If yours truly — a fan of every old cop movie ever made — had to make a choice, the options boil down to one vehicle; the Dodge Polara, specifically one of the fuselage era. There’s invincibility seemingly baked into the design, and a menacing quality that can’t be ignored. It looks like a predator, but not the reality TV kind. No, the hulking, I’m-going-to-pounce-on-that-wildebeest-at-the-mud-hole kind.

The full-size Polara never looked better than it did in 1971. In pursuit guise, a 440 cubic-inch V8 making 370 (gross) horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque sat under the hood, mated to a bulletproof three-speed Torqueflite automatic. If need be, it seemed the Polara stood a good chance of successfully demolishing a house.

Newer police cars treat their occupants better, provide more cargo space, offer (in some cases) all- or four-wheel drive, and give some thought to the environment. Still, it just seems there’s something lacking. Would you rather watch a car chase between a fleeing perp and a Tahoe, or something a little more retro?

Okay, over to you, Best and Brightest. In your mind, what is the cop car? What specific model would you consider the pinnacle of police perfection?

[Images: imcdb.org; Dmytro Kochetov/ Flickr ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]