The 2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility has been unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show and while the drivetrain is largely unchanged from previous models there are a host of other technological improvements made to help keep officers safer and make their work environment more comfortable. Believe it or not, these things have more specific components to them than you would expect and the ones that they do have are pretty cool. Yes, they have a new front and rear design but that’s not what we’re talking about.
The cool stuff that these things have include components like a beefed cooling system, a revised electrical system that is better capable of handling the big loads placed on these vehicles with various lights and other stuff, an optional surveillance mode which detects people walking up to the back of the car in an officer’s blind spot and locked the doors while raising the windows, heavy duty suspension components, re calibrated power steering ratio, and a pursuit mode in the transmission that changes the shift points when it senses aggressive driving going on and keeps them elevated until the vehicle is back under normal operation. In an awesome twist, that software is programmed to allow and enhance J-turns! We’re not making that up. The brakes are also different on these PI models and use 18-inch rotors and beefy steel wheels that are designed to enhance venting and cooling. The hubs and bearings on these are different as are the springs. The subframe is reinforced in various places that normal production models are not.
When Ford cancelled the Panther platform cars, everyone was wondering what their next move would be. This utility and the sister Police Interceptor sedan have been the answer. This utility is the highest selling police car in the country with about 55% market share according to Ford. While that is nuts, it is still 15% off the 70% share that the Panther cars had from 1996-their cancellation.
Police cars will always fascinate hot rodders as they have since the beginning. By now you should know that they sure as heck fascinate us. Will these be sold off at auction when they are done? Seems like it would be a fun package to mess with as a speedy family truckster, right?
CHECK OUT THESE PHOTOS AND THEN HIT THE LINK TO SEE THE FULL RELEASE FROM FORD ON THE 2016 FORD POLICE INTERCEPTOR UTILITY –
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 2016 FORD POLICE INTERCEPTOR UTILITY
Just a minor correction … 18″ wheels, not 18″ brake rotors!!
they’re not as great as everyone puts out. chp units are having cracked rotors replace every 3k-5k miles, so many rotors were failing, they were backordered and unavailable while units sat idle; awd pto units are blowing up constantly; transmission failures abound; blown engines. ford can’t seem to figure it out. the ‘fix or repair daily’ thing is really true here.