SMPV Mustangs?

[litsnsirn]

Mike, that first Diplomat picture is a federal 55 mph car and not an SMPV, right?
Would the white one be a SMPV that was repurposed or a car from another agency that was dissolved into the CHP? It appears to have regular spotlights and a regular pushbumper.

When I went to the Ripon show a few years back somewhere between SJO and Ripon I remember having seeing an all white CVPI CHP car, are those still called SMPV's?

[mac88chp]

Originally Posted by litsnsirn

Mike, that first Diplomat picture is a federal 55 mph car and not an SMPV, right?
Would the white one be a SMPV that was repurposed or a car from another agency that was dissolved into the CHP? It appears to have regular spotlights and a regular pushbumper.

When I went to the Ripon show a few years back somewhere between SJO and Ripon I remember having seeing an all white CVPI CHP car, are those still called SMPV's?

While not part of the original SMPV program, I've heard of those Federal 55 cars being referred to as such just because they weren't traditionally marked vehicles. Yeah, the white Diplomat definitely looks to be a repurposed car, most likely it was from an SMPV.

I don't hear the term SMPV much anymore from the Chippies. There are still white commerical enforcement units and those typically have pushbars and CB antennas. The new category of white cars lack both of those, sport chrome 5" spots and are referred to as "PCF" units. That stands for Primary Collision Factors, which are defined as speeding, tailgating and unsafe lane changing and according to the CHP are among the leading causes of accidents. These stealth units are supposed to concentrate on these types of enforcement , which I suppose is how they got authorized to use them. But the stealth helps for all types I guess, huh?

SMPV (commercial enforcement) unit, slightly wrecked:


PCF unit, about as stealthy as you can get with a Vic:

[litsnsirn]

The one that I remember seeing was like the one on the top, it had a white pushbumper on it.

[Va 5.0]

Here are a few more SMPV articles:


http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-...highway-patrol

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-03-..._1_speedy-cars


http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-...highway-patrol

[Va 5.0]

Pilot program SMPV Equipment:

[28HopUp]

So COOL!!!!!

[28HopUp]

As mentioned by Va 5.0 (Jack), he found a 1988 CHP report to the California State Legislature about the original SMPV pilot program. The document is over 80 pages long, and goes over all aspects of the program that first year. Jack sent me photocopies, which I scanned into a PDF file. The file was 18 MB in size (!) which proved to be too large to load quickly (roughly 3 minutes, depending on connection speed). So I condensed the report down to 23 pages, at just over 4 MB in size. It is in PDF format, and takes about 30 seconds to load -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...nsedreport.pdf


It is interesting reading. The condensed version still talks about the program, the cars, officer opinions, and its findings. Although the report says that all five SMPV Mustangs were 1985 models, one picture shows a white 1984 CHP Mustang (no plate number though). There is also an interior shot of a non-Mustang, showing the lay-down style shotgun rack.

Thanks Jack!!!!

[mac88chp]

Invaluable stuff! Too bad there isn't a more clear photo of that Mustang interior, Ken could really use that right now for his '89 SMPV resto. One of John's retired CHP buddies who came with him to the Ripon show last weekend worked out of the Hayward office and told me he clearly members a white early Mustang test unit that was assigned there.

From this document I can now identify these SMPV photos as being the Oakland office test units:

[28HopUp]

Attached is a cropped pic (done by my scanner) of a picture I purchased recently from Darryl Lindsey (hope I got his name spelled correctly). It sure is a great photo from the original program. Only one Mustang was painted silver, so that is E408445 on the left. No other license plate numbers are visible.

[Mustang Kid]

Cool stuff!!