You’d better be on your best behavior for this one. This is a 1985 Ford LTD SSP (Special Service Package) and it’s on eBay. There is only 6 hours left so jump on it asap! The current bid price is $1,250 with a Buy It Now price of $3,000.
The Fox Platform LTD was made from 1983 to 1986 and in 1984 and 1985, a special police package was available with a 302 V8, it was sort of a four-door Mustang, as some have described it. The seller drives this car 40 miles round-trip every day to work and back and it probably doesn’t draw too many stares.
The SSP was similar to the Ford LTD LX which came with “the high output 5.0L CFI V8 engine, four-speed automatic transmission with overdrive, 600 lb-in front and 270 lb-in rear coil springs, front and rear sway bars, 10 inch front disc and 10 inch rear drum brakes, and a 3.27:1 rear gear ratio with a Traction-Lok differential.”
There’s a burn on the front seat, and there are holes that should be there, on the dash and transmission hump, from former equipment in its former life. There are no photos of the back seat, the spots where the 1980s perps would have ridden. Some cars had a gauge cluster above the glove box, but some didn’t, such as on this car. Some had bench seats, yet this one doesn’t.
Here’s the high-output 5.0L 302 V8. The 302 V8 in a 1985 Ford LTD would have had 165 hp, but I’m not sure about this engine. Anyone? I wonder if this may be a Ford LTD LX and not an SSP car? I’m not sure and from what I can tell from the VIN, that isn’t much help. Does anyone know from looking at the photos?
It says “Certified Calibration” below the speedometer, which leads me to believe it’s a SSP car. This site has detailed info on the SSP option. http://www.sspcentral.com/ford/1984_1985_ford_ltd_police.shtml
Well-kept, perhaps, but ugggglyyyyy.
Sleeeeper. See eric the car guys project Fairmont on YT. Nearly identical. Mustang in a box.
back in the day, toronto metropolitan police bought a bunch of these and granadas for cruisers, the cops hated them so much they screwed up the transmissions
and ripped the steering colomes out of the dash with brute force! i have a friend who was a shop foreman in the police garage he told me they spent more time off the road than on 6 months and they all ended up in a car auction,
one other thing here on police cruisers in general they have had the crap driven out of them by the force gits rid of them! toronto police had a bunch of front wheel drive cars and they couldn’t keep front ends in them jumping curbs doesn’t help either!
Ugly? Ooooooh-nooooo. It’s gorgeous. Literally gorgeous. I remember when they came out and my impression was they were so much more sleek than the typical brick shaped cars that were the standard at the time. I think it’s a great looking car.
This thing screems SLOW to me. Grandma would want more.
A sleeper indeed.
I want!
Yes, They had “Certified” calibration on the speedometer, dog dish Wheels, 140 mph Speedo, Bucket seats,. shifter on the column. (Only the limited had automatic on the floor and a floor console I believe. only with the 5.0 H.O 302 Motor.) . police packages were column shifted only. I seen one back in 84 take off from my dead stop at a red light and it moved out pretty quick back then. quicker than the full size LTD’s. My question would be if the 85 Mustang GT had 200 horsepower where did the extra 35 horse power go with this police package with this same motor? Computer, Timing, Compression to run 87 octane instead of premium fuel Maybe?
As an SSP Mustang man, I can tell you there are orders of magnitude fewer of these then SSP Mustangs. There isn’t a specific VIN for the Ford police cars. Cars were plucked from regular production and a buck tag with agency info was stapled to the radiator support for final assembly. I have seen production numbers for the LTD’s as high as 12k and as low as 800 (believed to be V8 cars only) so this is rare either way. Personally I think you couldn’t go wrong with a car like this whether it carries value or not. OE and/or go-fast parts are accessible anywhere.
These were my bread and butter for several years in the early 90’s. I purchased dozens of these from a local police auction. They weren’t pretty, but what was in the mid 80’s. They were always mechanically well kept. Most I had to do was a good cleaning and some light body touch up. They were surprisingly fast for the 80’s and I always made good money on them. Nice to see one still around.
The LX generally had a floor mounted shifter and a tach in the gauge cluster. The SSP did not. But…someone may have checked different boxes here. The certifed speedo is a good clue. Engine could be correct for either
Driven every day but has what looks like a temp. Tag in the back glass.
A customer had an LTD LX back in the late ’80’s. Super rare car. As I remember it had Mutang style seats, a floor shift, a Mustang style cluster, and the Mustang sport steering wheel. I would say this is not an LX.
Yeah…it’s butt-ugly and if I were a Fox body Stang i would be insulted by the comparison. But, I would happily drive the snot out of this every day.
I wouldn’t be at all ashamed to drive this one. If I were closer I might throw my hat in the ring. 2-door SSP Fox for the weekends, 4-door SSP Fox for family outings. My Mustang is even white.
I have a strange appeal to law enforcement cars. I can only figure due to so many behind me with silly lights flashing. Or quality time spent in back seat discussing Constitutional law with officer.
Rule of thumb: Do not try to bribe a GA State Trooper with doughnuts. Unless they are jelly filled. They like those
in my younger days, I was discussing speed traps with the officer writing me a ticket. Every time he talked, he would stop writing. I told him if he couldn’t write and talk at the same time to stop writing. He quit talking.
A lawyer was able to unhook me from that one because it was an asinine speed trap stop. I had sped up too early as the speed limit changed from 35 – 55. Within sight of the sign but not past it yet. So I guess he technically had me, as his partner did with the next car that passed.
Everything fox body will work on these. Parts will be cheap! Only 6 hours left…..
If Dragnet would have continued, this is what Bill Gannon would have driven. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/22/43/c6/2243c6bc9cac55e48414e15306106a5f.jpg
I guess that I’m a minority here,as I like
the looks of these,& also Fairmonts.
I miss my Black LX,& I was the only one in
our family that really liked it.
We had one (unmarked) in the early days of my career. Good running car, nice size, handled well with much better power/weight ratio than the Crown Vics. It did have a certain lightness in the rear that revealed itself on wet streets. (Ask me how I know.) ;)
The old Fox “quadra-bind” rear suspension. You’re not the only one to be bit and certainly won’t be the last.
Auction closed with the car not meeting the reserve… We’ll see it again..
Bufort T Justice was the winning bidder on this old squad car!
junk nerd car worth shredder price
jump on it with giant press
It also has the trunk release at the bottom of the dash on the driver’s side like the SSP Mustang’s. Another good clue that this is a SSP car.
As much as I love my fords this “Fairmont” here north of the 49th puts the “P” in plain and or the “f” in fugly…..
just not worth much unless there is a cars and coffee for x-police stuff
in my opinion
Had identical one in deep blue in the late 80’s. Bought for $500.00 used. Money was tight to say the least for our new family. Put all our money on a down payment for a house. We just married and didn’t know anything about these, other than it passed inspection, body was in excellent condition, interior was clean… we threw the dice thinking there must be “something” their hiding…but we could find nothing wrong with it. …a good clean car for $500.00. Our young family hauler with 2 baby seats strapped in back. Yea,.. HAUL OUT it did when you wanted it. It served us well for another 6 or 8 years. Excellent car. Highly recommend.
I owned new a 1985 Ford LTD II LX, and as a deputy sheriff also drove and bought these cars when they appeared ijn auctions. They used to be called 4 door Mustangs. They had almost everything the ‘Stang did back in the day with the exception that the carburetor on the LX & police package was a throttle body fuel ‘injection. Say what you want but they were little screamers and tons of fun to drive, when it ran right. My personal LX and the PP versions were however basket cases of build and reliability issues. The LX trans ripped itself out at 1500 miles. It got so bad I sued Ford over it and won. But the problems it had were ones it just shouldn’t have if it had been built right and the dealership people weren’t nuts to boot. It cost about $16,500 new (a LOT of $$ then) and when I bought a Monte SS new in 87 I noticed if I had still had the LX It would already have devalued over 1/2 it’s sticker price in two years. PLUS it wouldn’t have been worth THAT if it had been any version other than the 302. As mentioned, the right carb and a few other parts and it would have been a killer little 4D for sleeper kicks. This particular one IS a police package. Few survive.
Kind of partial to the ’80’s “Box” service cars. This one was an arson investigator’s car, full AHB spec, traded a Jeep 401 core motor and a few hundred bucks for it (photo is from when I removed it from the guy’s barn). About 8 years ago, still have it- makes a cheap car to transport my dog in, haul parts, even has a small receiver hitch & light wiring for a small trailer.
Those wheels are hard to find nowadays.
Didn’t Axel Foley put a banana in the tailpipe of one of these cars?
Yes, They had “Certified” calibration on the speedometer, dog dish Wheels, 140 mph Speedo, Bucket seats,. shifter on the column. (Only the limited had automatic on the floor and a floor console I believe. only with the 5.0 H.O 302 Motor.) . police packages were column shifted only. I seen one back in 84 take off from my dead stop at a red light and it moved out pretty quick back then. quicker than the full size LTD’s. My question would be if the 85 Mustang GT had 200 horsepower where did the extra 35 horse power go with this police package with this same motor? Computer, Timing, Compression to run 87 octane instead of premium fuel Maybe?
I would love to have a crisp from the garage Fairmont (or nonMustang fox body). I would pull the wheezing 302 and drop in an aluminum 5.3. With 706 heads, (to up compression for the big cam and too add low/mid range tq. Would use an Elgin 238/242 .595/.595 112 which costs $235 and has specs nearly identical to a TSP Magic Stick 3, so theres $200 saved to pay for a set of PAC valve springs. Would use TBSS intake, 92mm dbc tb, decapped injectors, flex fuel sensor, ebay long tube stainless headers, 2.5 true dual tailpipes and 3 inch mids, catless, 160 stat, electric cooling fans, NGK TR55 plugs, 25% udp, electric water pump, mishimoto rad for a fox. Should be looking at over 500hp, 4l85e, 3200 stall, narrowed explorer 8.8 with 3.73 traclok and have a good light drive shaft made, rear batt mt, a big fuel cell in the trunk to make e85 driving easier.
I just retired as mechanic for our police dept here in the upper north west we had these along with cvs and Fairmont’s cops loved the cvs for there size fairmonts were whimper eng and suspension yes the ltd 2s would not hold up as the cvs but in all my yeas nothing has those are truly bullet proof but the ltd2s we had were more fun. I always said I would get one.