What Mods Do They Do To Cop Cars?

[riverrat321]

Hi, just wondering what mods they do to cop cars? I would be real interested in what they did to the EL XR8 in NSW? Anyone know about this?

[GTP owner]

Nothing - they are standard cars. Some have beefed up electrics to cope with all of the extra stuff they run, but that is it for the most part

[XR Martin]

Nothing performance wise.
Different instrument cluster, better brake pad material, interior lights that could be completely switched off.

[Mr Hardware]

Electric Windows (so they could lock the back windows)
2km increment speedos
interior light switch
Search for OPT20, i have spoken on the topic many a time. The 'cop chip' is a myth, if that's what you're asking.

[LTDHO]

They were thrashed for the first 50,000 klm then sold off.

[mik]

its funny people always think of police cars as haveing special hp mods , sometimes it is simple small items that allow them to do the job better.
a bit of trivia , back in the 70`s (XC days) they used to get high speed mods/fixes for the interceptors, for example, fmx auto`s had a habit of blowing auto oil out the dip stick over the engine and hot exhaust manifolds and setting fire to the engine at sustained high speed, (a few came back on tow trucks with burnt engine bay),
so they had a breather modifications, the 1/8 inch hole on the front of filler tube was brazed up, another hole was drilled on the rear of the tube 4 inches down and a peice of fuel line brazed on to it ,a peice of auto cooler hose was then run back to the breather on the auto solving the problem, i doubt they need this sorta thing with todays non foaming lubricants, wheels that came from roh for the police cars had less run out than standard general public rims, at the end of the roh production line they had a guy with a dial gauge checking run out, the very good ones went to vic police, the average ones went to joe public, and over a certain measurment were rejected, i think it was 10 thou, but i could be wrong (it was a long time ago ), so it would not surprise me if the chasers still got some good treatment.

[Jim Goose]

Special sticker package and pretty flashing lights....

[Road Games]

Krispy Kreme holder on the dash ...

[spannerman]

Reminds me of a movie

Elwood - Its got cop tyres cop shocks cop brakes its the model befor catalic converters so it will run good on regular gas
so watta ya say is it the new blues mobile or what

Jake - Fix the cigerette lighter

On a serious note I was working as an apprentice for ford when these where on the road they where constantly comming in for service with standard cracked front disc rotors
At that stage they where all leased by custom fleet and they where allowing us to fit DBA slotted disc rotors most of them had this done at around the first service (1500km) as the standard ones had cracked by then due to extreme use I also think they were fitted with Bendix ultra brake pads

appart from what else has been already mentiond that is about it pretty much standard XR8 that has had the bejesus floged out of it

[Fled74]

Originally Posted by spannerman

Reminds me of a movie

Elwood - It's got cop tyres, cop shocks, cop brakes, it's the model before catalytic converters so it will run good on regular gas. So watta ya say, is it the new blues mobile or what?

Jake - Fix the cigarette lighter.

Dang, you beat me to it.

[Franco Cozzo]

I fit out Ambulances at work and they have a MASSIVE amount of extra electricals involved, with a police car its most likely just the extra stuff for the beacons and LED flashers and siren.

[388cube_edxr8]

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

[GYRKIN GT]

The only Mod to any Police vehicle that I'm aware of is the addition of the E.V.W. (Enhanced Vision Windscreen) Not exactly sure how it works but, putting it simply, the E.V.W. enables the vehicle's occupants (the Police) to easily identify each and every "WHOMEEEE" out there.

For example,

Constable, "Sir, I've just checked your speed at 125 in a 100 zone"

Response, "Who, meeeeeeeeeeeee"

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

Yeah a mate spoke to a guy at the pub who's cousin who used to work with an excopper. He said during the 80's and 90's all the V8's got a bigger carby and the cop chip. Also got clutchless manuals and special head light fluid.
The only complaint the chip wouldn't let the secondary open up on the carby unless the blue lights were on.

[388cube_edxr8]

Originally Posted by LTDHO

Yeah a mate spoke to a guy at the pub who's cousin who used to work with an excopper. He said during the 80's and 90's all the V8's got a bigger carby and the cop chip. Also got clutchless manuals and special head light fluid.
The only complaint the chip wouldn't let the secondary open up on the carby unless the blue lights were on.

See I know your pullin me leg there because the cop cars have red and blue lights.

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

See I know your pullin me leg there because the cop cars have red and blue lights.

not in the 80's they didn't

[Mad_Aussie]

Originally Posted by LTDHO

bigger carby and the cop chip.

Fuel injected carby???

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by Mad_Aussie

Fuel injected carby???

fuel injected , wyn's protected....

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

fuel injected , wyn's protected....

Hahahahah they definately had the speed restrictor lifted as well because the OBD scanner had POLICE tape wrapped all over it and no matter how much i begged and pleaded they would not load it into my car , so i will never know if it had different mapping or not - Apparently it raised the idle speed on XR8's because they used to stall performing U-turns ?

Anyone know if this was true ??

[random1]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

Not a chance! as a former ford employee i can assure you that was not the case. IF it did have those mods??? it would have been done after the police sold it off.

I have seen cop cars ordered with brake upgrades on hyw cars, but only the same brakes in which any member of the public could have spec’d from factory eg: GT brakes

As for performance, nil mods. Except! for the vehicles used in protection... such as prime ministers chase car... even then, they are done after market and not factory.
Bullet proofed/armored vehicles receive after market upgrades to help shift the extra weight around…
Chip is a myth!
As for having a Lumpy cam? never seen one done from factory in my life.

[388cube_edxr8]

Originally Posted by random1

Not a chance! as a former ford employee i can assure you that was not the case. IF it did have those mods??? it would have been done after the police sold it off.

I have seen cop cars ordered with brake upgrades on hyw cars, but only the same brakes in which any member of the public could have spec’d from factory eg: GT brakes

As for performance, nil mods. Except! for the vehicles used in protection... such as prime ministers chase car... even then, they are done after market and not factory.
Bullet proofed/armored vehicles receive after market upgrades to help shift the extra weight around…
Chip is a myth!
As for having a Lumpy cam? never seen one done from factory in my life.

I have it on questionable authority that there is a performance shop here in Brisbane that is affiliated with the Queensland Police somehow.

[JC]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

The car has been modified post police duties.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

I hope that is sarcasm and I suspect it is. There is little chance an EB had any form of performance mods, there is not a fat chance in hell any current HWP cars have performance mods except minor things like brake pads.

They have absolutely no power mods, I have seen enough HWP spec cars and spoken to the trainers at the driver training centre. They are stock SS commodores, XR8 and XR6T (and stock BF F6 when they had them).

Interestingly, when I bought the F6 one of the driver trainers asked how it was, to which I said great. He said that they found when they had the BF F6 they found it was probably a bit too powerful, they prefer the XR6T out of the Fords. I know NSW upgrade the brakes (hence the typhoon wheels) but QLD do not, stock brakes and the source of the most criticism they have for these cars.

The general duty sedans in QLD have absolutely no power mods, we had a full police spec sedan (VE sedan based on the pov pack) as a station officer car (now have a Subaru Forrester, what a bucket of pus that is). The only mods it had was a dual battery setup for all the electrics and larger output alternator. It also had the FE2 suspension package (as fitted to SS) with different spec tyres and the usual cop steel wheels. The engine was still base spec commodore V6 and trust me it had no extra power, with full service weight it could hardly pull the skin off a custard. I will say that it handled quite well but the brakes did get a bit suspect on extended code 1 drives. There were some other little minor differences but nothing performance orientated and nothing to get excited about. Mt Gravatt station still has one of these but it will be replaced soon with a Forrester.

The days of the high power pursuit specials (if they ever really existed) are long gone. For a start all vehicles are covered by the manufacturer warranty and therefore they do not get any non factory mods except electrics essential for service requirements. Also all the XR8's, XR6T's and SS's are capable of 200 km/h + standard, a speed the cops are not allowed to do in a chase so why would they need more power. Cops today operate under much tighter controls regarding the conduct of pursuits than they ever have before, they do not need cars that can achieve warp factor 9.

[noosacuda]

Mythlogical pursuit cars eh? Like the Nu-process 4 speed E55 Charger that
"never" existed? LOL

[blownvn]

Originally Posted by geckoGT

The days of the high power pursuit specials (if they ever really existed) are long gone.

They existed, but yeah it was a 70s and 80s thing, nowadays they'll just take whatever.

Chrysler Australia did several Police specials, with the K series cars and the hemi sixes in those case came with Torqueflite autos (if optioned with auto). Personally I wouldn't mind getting a K13 Charger with the 360.

Holden and Ford both allowed police departments to buy cars that wouldn't exist if you or I ordered them.
Plus it's been well documented that some police departments went shopping for muscle cars with some using E38 Chargers, GT Falcons, and GTR Toranas. Not much different from today when you think about it, with F6's being used as pursuit cars in NSW fairly recently.

But yeah, the "Cop Chip" fallacy has dragged on too long with these modern cars.

[Walt Kowalski]

True story from the 70's

A good mate was based out near Bathurst. He had his HWP XA (or B or C cannot be sure but one of them) modded at a local friendly workshop with all sorts of goodies including extractors, a 650 double pumper Holley etc etc.

Apparently it caused quite a stir when it was time to take it back to Sydney at the end of its life as there were no invoices for any of the work.

But apparently that same car had a really bad history of diffs and gearboxes blowing every 5 minutes etc LOL.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by blownvn

They existed, but yeah it was a 70s and 80s thing, nowadays they'll just take whatever.

Chrysler Australia did several Police specials, with the K series cars and the hemi sixes in those case came with Torqueflite autos (if optioned with auto). Personally I wouldn't mind getting a K13 Charger with the 360.

Did they? All Valiant police special cars were K codes. The number following the K code, just designated the body style and which state the car went to.

Yes, the Hemi came with the torqueflite. The 318's had extra clutches in the autos to cope with the pounding. otherwise the motor was a stockie, with a 2 barrel carb and 2 into 1 system on the 8's. Otherwise, these police cars were basically poverty packs. Rubber floor mats, vynil trim (with the exception of detective cars) and the speedo was in kilometre an hour increments. They came with radial tyres as standard (Cross plies were the norm in the VH onwards range, unless specified by the customer).

BTW. I have a 77 model ex-cop Valiant. Came from the factory with 6" steel rims and hubcaps

[blownvn]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

Did they? All Valiant police special cars were K codes. The number following the K code, just designated the body style and which state the car went to.

Actually the number after the code designated the engine/trans combo.

K10 - 265/4-speed
K12 - 265/auto
k13 - 360/auto
k16 - 318/auto
(plus a few others mixed in there)

Yes the motors were stock in most cases, but the cars themselves had a stack of little changes compared to the average cars. I like the idea of a poverty pack with a decent engine.

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by geckoGT

and the usual cop steel wheels.

Sadly a thing of the past now as both the VE Omega and FG XT have had alloys fitted as standard for about 2 years now. The only police vehicles we'll see them on are the Falcon ute / Commodore ute divisional vans.

Will miss the old 'interceptors' on sedans.

[barnz_xr8]

Originally Posted by 388cube_edxr8

The cop chip is not a myth, a mate had a EB SXR8 with 'cop mods' as it was an ex cop car.

It had an aftermarket computer and a lumpier camshaft. This is a 302 Windsor in a 17 year old car that would rev past 9000rpm regularly. No pings, no misfires, nothing.

The new HWP cars (in Queensland anyway) have a similar treatment.

dude your mate must have been driving a nascar or eating magic mushrooms because that motor would have granaded 17 years ago