Hot Ticket: Mustang SSP Cars Getting Hard to Find
Finding a Police-Spec Crown Vic is super easy. But be prepared to hunt if you want to track down a Mustang SSP.
When I was a teenager in Florida, I spend loads of time traveling from the suburbs to Tampa, and more precisely, the dance clubs of Ybor City. That meant I spent a lot of time on I-75, and Highway Patrol cars like the one in these pics were a common sight. For the record, though I got tagged by a few motorcycle cops before I left the Sunshine State, I was never cited by an officer driving a Mustang.
While I’d like to chalk that achievement up to my hyper-attentive attitude behind the wheel, the reality of the situation is that in the late ’80s and early ’90s you had to be acting like raving lunatic to get pulled over on a Florida interstate. At that time, the speed limit was 65, but if you weren’t doing upwards of 80, you were a hazard. It wasn’t a bad time to be a kid, that’s for sure. If you’ve ever read any of the Dexter novels, the descriptions of traffic are dead accurate.
Now, since leaving for the West Coast in 1996, I’ve periodically searched for these, cars which are officially known as the Mustang Special Service Pack. Sometimes it was to check prices, and just as often, it was to prove to fellow gearheads that they were a real thing. Because while the Blue Oval made them available to departments across the country, they were far from universal. That said, they were never all that hard to find — but that’s changed.
A couple of weeks ago, I spotted this example from the Show Me State on Bring a Trailer, and was surprised that it went for nearly $30,000. No disrespect to officers of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, but the silver livery has nothing on black and tan combo seen on its southern cousin. The wheels on that car also look pretty close to consumer units, and don’t hold a candle the the aren’t nearly as cool as the silver and black ones see here.
Honestly, I figured it’d be a piece of cake to find a better example out there, and I was, for the first time ever, totally wrong. Even given that I spend an inordinate amount of time — occupational hazard — searching for cars online, I was only able to discover two Mustang SSPs for sale, this tough-looking black model, and the former Florida Highway Patrol car pictured here, which is obviously cooler.
The black one is currently listed at $17,900, and while there’s no price listed for the Florida car, given it’s got all the lighting a radio equipment intact, I’m guessing it’s going to worth significantly more.
Speaking of the lights and radio, it’s worth noting that from a performance perspective, there wasn’t any big difference between civilian and police model cars. Sure, there was an upgraded cooling and charging system, and some reinforcement in the floor pans. But the 5.0-liter mill produced the same 205 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque as the standard cars, though the blue and red flashers mean it would be significantly easier to open it up without getting pulled over.
That said, this little quest made me curious. Did the cops in you local jurisdiction have Mustangs? Or is the existence of these babies news to you? Drop me a line and let me know, especially if you happen to own one of these collector’s items — I’d love to talk to you about your car!
Photos: Classic Cars For Sale
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