96+ SHO Police Pursuit - Part One

Thanks to Sheriff Buford T. Justice:

Not long ago I was behind a new Ford Police Interceptor, model year 2000, and coveting their snazzy POLICE INTERCEPTOR rear trunk badge. It is very small, only 7/16” tall and 6.5” long with lettering only 3/8” tall. It is black with chrome letters block letters in all capital letters.

POLICE INTERCEPTOR is the official FOMOCO model moniker for the 2000 police pursuit Crown Vic, the names Ford or Crown Vic don’t show anywhere on the outside of the car.

Now a V8 fender badge for a 3rd Gen SHO costs $24 or more and you need two. So if one wanted to put a POLICE INTERCEPTOR badge on their trunk lid what would it cost? The discount price is only $11.13 and the Ford part number is XW7Z-5442528-AA. Much cheaper than $50 for 2 crummy V8 fender badges. Even I can afford one!

If one chose to perpetrate this allusion the trick is to put it where it looks factory, and will not fall off - someplace flat. The left side has the SHO letters and they wrap around the fender, they can wrap because they are separate letters. A POLICE INTERCEPTOR badge located on the curve will crack and fall off. On the centerline of the trunk it is too crowded with the Ford Oval and trunk key.

Mustering all my natural aesthetic savvy gained from decades of being a flashy dresser (note Penn State sweat shirt and Yokohama hat below) I put mine under the backup light on the right side, a finger width from the edge and above the bottom, which skirts out. It sticks on with a tacky backing and one must clean off any car wax before sticking that puppy on. Level and plum adds a nice touch.

To my piercing gaze it looks credible and subtle - not too flashy. Some SHO folks with cars so equipped have reported police investigating their SHO. Somehow this ½” tall plaque draws more police attention than an old red F-body in primer with a roots blower sticking out of the hood. But its not bad attention – more like how could Ford make a police model and not tell me type of puzzlement. For this reason this modification is not recommended for those with something to hide or a naturally suspicious demeanor. Keep contraband like nuclear devices out of plan sight.

That vehicle happens to be evidence, valuable evidence. That’s gonna convict a maniac, that I have been trying to apprehend, and I have been in high speed pursuit for 700 miles. – Sheriff Buford T. Justice

I recently gassed up next to a very clean Impala SS I had my GPS running on my lap top and he told me between a laptop and the badge he wondered if I really were a policemen. I told him I wasn't. "Then why the badge?"

"Well, I earned it. I intercept as police as as anyone else you will ever meet." ;-)

The Impala owner never even heard of a SHO either. Asked about "dem V8 badges". I opened my hood, and he opened his. What a V8SHO lacks in displacement it makes up for in under-hood art. And as he said, with 4,300# dry curb weight it NEEDS 350 CID.

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