Ford Police Interceptor for 2011

The next time you get pulled over for going 12 over the limit, this may be the new Police Interceptor doing it in 2011.

Ford is showing off the new Police Interceptor which looks to be build off of a Ford Taurus sedan.  It replaces an aging Crown Victoria which has been on sale for a couple of centuries now.  The new Interceptor betters the ol' Crown Vic in just about every way.

Lets start with looks.  It appears as though it carries many of the same police goodies as a regular cruiser does, search lights, bull-bars, sirons, 18" rims and LED flashers.  I imagine the Interceptor is still quite heavy as the Taurus tips the scales over 4000 lbs.  This will obviously effect its handling,  but should still be more agile than the ancient Crown Vic.

On the inside the Interceptor has been 90% changed from a regular Taurus, to meet the needs of the new breed of donut chomper.  I must say the seats look pretty skimpy, there appears to be a complete lack of side bolstering on the seats.  Perhaps this is to accommodate a chubbier Police force, but they say its to accommodate large belts.  The doors also swing open an extra 10 degrees.

The guts of the new Interceptor are standard Taurus units.  A 3.5L 263hp V6 is the standard unit compared to the 4.6 V8 250hp in a Crown Vic.  To be honest though, the Vic's are so old they are probably closer to 200 at this point, unless they've been rebuilt.  There is also an up-rated EcoBoost engine available for when Pruis's go out of control, that unit outputs 365hp and 350 lb-ft of torque.  All new Interceptors are AWD as opposed to the FR layouts of the Crown Vics.  All this power is put through a high cap Six-Speed Automatic Transmission.

C02 emissions and gas mileage should be much improved with these changes.  The new Interceptor will roll off the line at the same Chicago plant as the grizzly Crown Vic.  The change over will be un-interrupted as the Crown Vic is retired from active service in late 2011.

So keep your eyes open for the new Taurus Cruisers at your local coffee shops.