1982 CHP Mustang E870255

[Steve]

I wonder whatever happened to CHP E870255? Below is a picture of it, taken on February 21, 1984 at about 1 pm in the afternoon, on a very windy day. The location is in the Los Banos CHP area, on I-5 about 23 miles South of Highway 152. I am the CHP officer in the photo (age 27); this Mustang was my assigned vehicle. It was assigned to me in 1983, early in its career with the CHP. In this photo it has about 60,000 miles. Within a few months it had reached 70,000 miles, which in those days was when CHP took them off the road and sold them at auction. I was then assigned a new 1984 SSP Mustang.

I have often wondered whatever happened to E870255; it was a good car. I drove it fast, but never beat it up or was involved in any collisions and it was meticulously maintained. Everything we did in the Los Banos area was high speed; we covered a huge area consisting of parts of 3 counties. You could get an emergency call and it would be 70 miles away. Even at 120 MPH it still takes more than 30 minutes to get there. I drove this vehicle in more than one high-speed pursuit. Even with the 4-speed manual transmission it was no problem to manage driving, shifting, and using the radio because once the pursuit started in a wide-open area like this it was all high-speed in top gear. My favorite was one day just before noon I was pulling out of a roadside restaraunt East of Los Banos on State Highway 152, with a large to-go cup of coffee, ready to check the beat. I spotted a vehicle that caught my attention; I don't remember why but the important part is I turned on the red spotlight and attempted to make a stop. Instead the driver accelerated to 100 MPH and the chase was on. That chase went all the way into the Fresno area (about 65 miles), where additional units joined, and ended when the driver finally figured out he wasn't going to get away and just pulled over and surrendered. Turned out he had a high-bail warrant and just didn't want to talk to me that day. The best thing about this: 1)Nobody crashed and nobody got hurt, 2) I finished that large coffee and never spilled one drop!

Top speed for E870255 on level ground was 120 MPH. The top speed for the new 84 assigned to me was 137 MPH. E870255 was completely reliable, never broke down, and all the miles were highway miles. It was in perfect operating condition when turned in. Somebody got a good car. I probably could have bought it at auction but back then I just wasn't really thinking about it. Now I occasionally wonder what ever happened to it. If anyone out there has this vehicle and wants to know anything more about it, post here and let me know.