1988 Alabama DPS (my next SSP)

[nighthawk756]

Just got off the phone with one of my very good friends that's a retired Alabama State Trooper Sergeant. He was issued one of these cars in the first batch and kept it until it was retired. Found out some very good info that I wasn't aware of.

The Mustang Monthly August 1990 issue that's in the SSP related articles section here on the site eluded to a "training car" for Alabama. 30 were "issued" cars and one was a EVOC car. Well, he's now the second Trooper that confirmed to me that it wasn't ever used as a "training car" but was actually issued to a Trooper instructor at the academy. All the initial training that was done, the Trooper's drove their issued cars the whole time. I even asked if it was ever used as maybe a "chase" car for training and he said no.

And here's another interesting tidbit....these cars actually had roof numbers also. He said he actually has an aerial shot of the cars when they were in the well known "V" formation for photos. He said all the roof numbers are clearly visible. He said his was 179. So if I'm unable to track down exactly what unit # mine was....I might just make it 179 in honor of my friend.

Another funny story he told me....when they got to the academy, they assembled in one room and their names were called. They went up, signed for the car and was given the keys. He said as soon as they called his name and unit #, he said every instructor said out loud "fastest one of the bunch". They had driven them all to give them a shakedown so to speak before issuing them out. He said they weren't kidding....a fellow Trooper clocked him at 157 in his.

Another interesting thing was, he said that 2 instructors from FHP actually came up and trained our instructors. Gotta love insider info!