Ah, the "cop motor, cop suspension, cop tires..." urban legend lives on. *le sigh*
My '94 Crown Vic Interceptor ran consistent 16.9's all night long in full stock trim, with push bar and spotlight still intact. Never did much but minor tweaks to it here and there - can't do a lot to the non-PI motors, really - and only got it down to a 16.7 after better tires, lighter rims, misc. weight reduction, and an electric fan. The fastest I ever took it up to was 125 MPH on a flat straightaway in Kansas one time - it had a bit more to go, but my tires were only speed rated for 115 and things were feeling a bit squirmy at that speed so I chickened out. Lots of folks over at crownvic.net have pegged the 140 MPH needle at one time or another.
The newer 99+ models run lower 16's, maybe high 15's at best, but can be made to run in the mid- to low-15's with little more than a Marauder airbox, Lightning MAF, 4.10 gears, and a chip tune. They're not the unbeatable speed demons of lore that everyone has thought them to be - cops aren't running 440 Dodges or 460 Ford Special Service packages anymore - but they are VERY darned reliable tanks, and they take a heckuva beating both mechanically and structurally. They're built with redundant cooling setups and beefed-up framework/suspensions to stand up to the crap they're subjected to on a daily basis by cops and cabbies, alike - jumping curbs, repeated WOT blasts, sustained high speeds, etc. They're also one of the last body-on-frame vehicles still being built in the world, which is (besides their weight) one of the things making them one of the safest rides on the road.
Example: a corrections officer I used to work with was struck head-on by some old lady at night on the way back from a transport run at about 65 MPH. The old lady was crushed to death in whatever the heck she was driving (it was some generic mid-size domestic, I forget the exact make/model); the officer walked away without so much as a scratch (the driver's door even opened without a problem). The exploding fuel tank from rear collisions gag is blown way out of proportion, as just about ANY car that gets nailed at 60+ MPH from behind while it's stationary is going to probably rupture the tank - my buddy's '04 Edge Ranger that suffered such an impact just last week, for example (luckily he wasn't in there, he was helping someone change a flat on the side of the highway).
I keep kicking myself in the arse for selling my '94 CVPI, but maybe someday ... driveway space permitting ... I'll have a '99+ model to replace it as a daily driver, giving the 'Stang time to sit back and become a weekend toy.
I remember those days...not to long ago...
