Ford has had the police cruiser market locked up for the last 15 years with its Crown Victoria, but that is all history with the last Panther unit rolling off the St. Thomas assembly line on September 15 at 2:25 pm. Nevertheless, Ford is looking to retain, and even increase, its police market share with a new Interceptor based off the all-wheel-drive Ford Taurus. Base police interceptors will get the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 with 280 hp—about the same as the outgoing Crown Vic, ergo, nothing to write home about. The real news is that PI units will be available with the optional 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost, rated at 365 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque. It’s also all-wheel drive. Mechanically, it’s identical to the Taurus SHO, minus all the expensive luxury accouterments. The Ford Police Interceptor—at the least the EcoBoost version—will go head-to-head with the forthcoming Chevy Caprice PPV (see blog here), which packs a potent naturally aspirated 355hp 6-liter.
The obvious question: When is a civilian version of this stripped-down SHO going to be available to the public? We’d love to get our hands on one!