Subject: Re: Cop Car Top Speed?

From: [email-masked] (Alexander K. Berghausen)
Date: 15 Nov 1995 18:24:19 GMT

In article <1995NOV11.152020.35415@WINNIE>, [email-masked] writes:
|>  Was wondering what the top speed of a cop-car is - the normal chevy caprice
|> and ford version that is -  Was watching real-stories of the highway patrol
|> and they showed this big old caprice keeping up with a motorcycle... Sheesh.
|> Just wondering if my future muscle-car can outpace one of these boats.
|> 
|> Kevin Ballast
|> [email-masked]
|> VRA
|> 

I think the top speed of a stock 5.0 (old) is about 153.  This doesn't, however,
account for the effects of a light bar on the top; the light bars add an
incredible amount of drag, severely limiting the top speed.  Also, I'm not
sure about the Caprice, but my dad went to observe police pursuit school
and said that the new LT1-equipped Caprices can out-accelerate the 5.0 Mustangs.
The Caprice top-end is probably pretty damn fast, provided it doesn't
have a light bar.
  Also, motorcylcles have terrible aerodynamic drag.  Except for the
super bikes with large, high output engines, many cars can achieve greater
top speeds than motorcycles.  So, what you saw in "Real Stories.." is not
inconceivable.

Alex

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From: [email-masked] (Adam Glass)
Date: 15 Nov 1995 21:20:57 -0500

<[email-masked]> wrote:
> Was watching real-stories of the highway patrol and they showed this
> big old caprice keeping up with a motorcycle... Sheesh.

Bikes don't typically have unusual top speeds (by car standards.)  Any
big block cop engine ought to give a cop a similar top speed to that
of a performance bike.  (140? 150?  Shit, my 1.8L car can do 140...)

Where a motorcycle blows away practically any car is acceleration.  I
imagine your typical cop car can do 0-60 in about 6 seconds or so.
Maybe less.  Many sportbikes can do 0-*100* in that same period of
time.  That sort of acceleration is untouchable... provided you get
off the highway and don't give the cops a chance to get up to speed.

A
--
DoD#1118

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 16 Nov 1995 15:56:31 GMT

In article <1995NOV11.152020.35415@WINNIE>, [email-masked] writes:
> Was wondering what the top speed of a cop-car is - the normal chevy caprice
>and ford version that is -  Was watching real-stories of the highway patrol
>and they showed this big old caprice keeping up with a motorcycle... Sheesh.
>Just wondering if my future muscle-car can outpace one of these boats.
>
>Kevin Ballast
>[email-masked]
>VRA
>

	Well, the Chevy Caprice cop car is the same as the Impala SS, which
has a top speed of somewhere between 130-140mph if I remember right.  As for
the older models, I drove an one a few times (it was a security car where I
worked) and even though it was beat up and abused, it was still pretty fast.
I was told it had a 350 in it, but never saw any documentation to back it
up.

======================
Anthony Podloski
University at Albany (SUNY)		1990 Pontiac Sunbird
[email-masked]		    "Cruzin90"

"Great spirits have always faced violent opposition from mediocre minds"
				-Albert Einstein
======================