The Ford Panther platform has been dead for five years now, and most people only acknowledge it’s loss when they realized that they needed to start memorizing another set of headlights to recognize police cars by. The Ford Crown Victoria and it’s workhorse P-71/Police Interceptor identity, Mercury Grand Marquis and it’s darker, kind of meaner Marauder sibling, and the Lincoln Town Car were the last of their kind, the last body-on-frame rear-driver cars sold in the American market, the last old-school technology units in a world that had long abandoned the for front-drive midsize sedans, SUVs and trucks. Most people don’t miss them. We here at BangShift do…they were underpowered at the end, but they are probably the last vestige of old-school-style hot rod material produced by the factory, and they can be wicked up nicely.
Case in point is this 2000 Crown Victoria. Yes, that’s a supercharger poking through the hood, connected to a 5.4L engine raided from a Ford Lightning that’s cranking out something along the lines of 500 horsepower. Yes, that’s a shifter sticking up through the floor, connected to a TKO-600 manual five-speed. Yes, we are foaming at the mouth at the possibilities. We’ve driven late-model Panthers, and even the newest ones still feel like an old-school car. It’s a bit difficult to describe, but there is a difference between how a Panther feels…which is like any true “muscle car” actually feels like….and, say, a late-model Mustang. If you made the leap from a Torino into this CV, you’d notice how much newer it is, but you’d also note how familiar the driving sensation feels. Especially once you let the Lightning mill kick you square in the ass with while the supercharger whines away.
Craigslist Link: 2000 Ford Crown Victoria
