One of my favorite domestic muscle cars is a Fox body Ford Mustang with the Special Services Package, or SSP. It’s seriously cool for just being a police car that could be ordered with a 5-speed manual, but doubly so for the slightly “sleeper”-like nature of a production car set up for high speed pursuit. The seller calls this a genuine SSP that also has an engine from a 1993 Cobra under the hood. Find the Mustang here on eBay with bids to $8,100 with the reserve unmet.
As an added bonus this is a notchback body, which also happens to my favorite bodystyle. The seller notes this is a retired Utah state police vehicle, which hopefully means it’s bone-dry underneath. The whole front clip has been replaced, which does beg the question if it was in a front-end collision in a previous life. Even if it was, that wouldn’t discourage me from bidding given this was just a used car for many years, and who wouldn’t want an actual Cobra powerplant under the hood?
Imagine being a cop in 1986 and handed the keys to a new Mustang police car – all the while roaming the foothills of Park City, Utah, pulling over ski bunnies. The imagination runs wild! Anyway, all that aside, I imagine you had to be one of the top officers to get the keys to the high-speed pursuit vehicle, or at least someone who had a high success rate of catching and ticketing speeders. Like most SSPs, the interior is pretty spartan and not all that nice; these were bare-bones by design.
Now, there’s part of me that’s sad a genuine Fox body Cobra has lost its engine; obviously, the Cobras are a fair bit more collectible than a tired SSP. While I thought he may have meant it’s a crate engine, the listing actually specifies that it’s from a 1993 Cobra. Regardless, this SSP looks like a great baseline for a sympathetic restoration of a genuine high-speed pursuit Mustang, especially one of the few that came with three pedals.
The SSP Mustangs have a strong following. They are cool to see when decked out in their original service livery. I’ve heard that officers liked them for their performance capabilities; for comfort and spaciousness, not so much.
This one, with its replacement front clip and engine, has likely led a rough life. But still could be a fun car to own and drive.
Hi Bob, well, I’ll tell ya’, front clip and motor tells me this was in a crash. I read, the troopers did like its performance, a Neb.(?) trooper was clocked at 146 mph in one, but were dangerous to drive, and there’s a whole slew of crashes where the trooper lost control at speed. Also, the manuals were soon replaced by automatics, as it proved too much during a pursuit, and once a perp was stopped, it usually took another full sized squad to haul them in. I’m not full of beans on this one, as I had an ’88 LX, 5.0 that I absolutely hated. Did I ever tell you about my heater core adventures with this car?
I did a heater core on my 89 GT… i tried to find the best replacement out there as to never do it again…
watch any Cars & Coffee clips of Fox Bodied 5.0’s leaving the parking lot to know this was likely a familiar story with the law enforcement drivers.
I call complete BS on the 146 mph…maybe high 130’s without a light bar on it. The manuals were not “soon replaced with automatics”. Most departments ordered a mix of manuals and automatics right up until the end in ’93.
I had one of these (mine was an 87). I bought it because of the exhaust and had aspirations of restoring it but a 90 5.0 LX 7-Up edition caught my eye and I ended up selling the coupe to my buddy. He’s still got it and still has some aspirations of restoring it (it’s been about 20 years now so we’ll see).
The front clip may have been changed just to go to the newer front end style. 86 should have been a 4 eyes I think. Could be a fun little car, but the interior is shot.
I’ve probably told this story before. When living in Wyoming in the 90’s we had a small car club in town. The local state trooper was a car guy and took part in some of our activities. He had a 5.0 Mustang assigned to him. He often commented about its impressive power, but given that the vast majority of his day was just cruising, the lack of comfort and space wore on him.
He often laughed at himself for the many times that, given the often-snowy weather, he found himself in a ditch with the light, tail-happy Mustang. Hopefully to quietly be pulled out by a local rancher, so he could avoid writing himself up and getting in trouble with his boss.
The auction notes a “minor issue” with the title. No details are given. In my experience, there is no such thing as a minor issue when it comes to titles. Just thought I would point it out, in case anyone is thinking about bidding.
I was a motorcop when the Mustangs came out. When the WX was really bad, I’d get in a Mustang. It was an ’86 with an automatic. If the road surface was hard packed snow/ice, it was marginally better than the bike; mostly due to having an enclosure with a heater.
The SSP’s didn’t accelerate as fast as a regular 5.0 due to special gearing..but that gearing enabled the SSP Mustangs to top 140+ mph easily.The top speeds were confirmed due to a number of SSP’s being transferred to EVOC for training officers/cadets in using the SSP in service and all the cars abilities were documented.
SSPs used factory gearsets ⚙️ far as i ever knew Rob. They we’re 2.73, 3.08 or 3.27 for AOD. Pretty tall gears.
SSP Mustangs had the same gearing options as production Mustangs.
They were no different in power output not transmission ratio.
They accelerated just like a production 5.0 sedan (if a production car were loaded down with 200 lb of all the equipment the departments added 😏)
That should read “NOR transmission ratio)
Guess that 10 year old hemmings lied to me..lol..said special gearing ,stronger wiring ,better cooling, better battery..i think it was hemmings..it’s in my bathroom stack of hundreds of car mags for leisure reading…but they did top 140 mph easy :P even as a senile senior citizen i still learn new junk.
I had 88 gt. 2.73 gear. It would easily top 140. But turn/ brake at those speeds and the rear would lift and jump. Had a few fox bodies and few trans am’s. The 5,0 5spd was great in mustang. It I prefer the handling/ breaking of the ta. And look cooler. Lol