1992 Kansas Highway Patrol SSP

[1988Bullitt]

John (xxtrpr) found this article from the Wichita eagle, it talks about getting 7 Mustangs, 7 Camaros, and 7 SHOs.

Wichita Eagle, The (KS)
1992-01-04
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: CITY EDITION
Page: 1A


SPEEDERS LOSE EARLY WARNING ROOFTOP LIGHTS MOVE INSIDE PATROL CARS
Mike Berry/Eagle Western Kansas bureau


Speeders, beware. It's about to become a little more difficult to get away with your lead-footed driving habits.
Those distinctive, visible-at-a-mile-and-a-half "cherries" are coming off the top of some Kansas Highway Patrol cars and are being moved to the dashboards. And once that distinctive patrol car silhouette is gone, it will be harder for speeders to spot troopers.
Trooper Craig Davis, who has been driving a so-called slick-top patrol car for about a month, said he already can note a difference.
''I'm getting better speeds now," said Davis, who is based in Garden City. "I'm clocking more at 80 and 90 miles an hour now," he said, explaining that serious speeders aren't able to spot him at a long distance and hit the brakes before he can get their speed locked on radar.
And some speeders rush right up behind his car before they realize they're overtaking a patrol car, Davis said.
Davis drives one of seven "slick-top" cars in the Garden City patrol division that had their top lights removed and the new dashboard flashers installed around Thanksgiving.
The conversion of those cars was financed by a federal truck highway safety enforcement program, said Capt. Dave Jones, division commander. He said the troopers have been surprising quite a few people.
Statewide, the patrol will get 22 new cars in a couple of months, and it will be up to individual troopers and their commanders whether a car is outfitted with the traditional rooftop light or a dashboard-mounted flashing light. The cars will continue to wear their regulation blue and gray paint jobs with the gold Highway Patrol shield on the front doors.
''Our goal is not necessarily to write more speeding tickets, but to reduce the amount of speeding," said Sgt. Terry Maple, the patrol's spokesman in Topeka.
The patrol hopes that heavy-footed drivers will slow down once word gets out that they can't count on spotting a patrol car before it spots them, Maple said.
Jones said the dashboard-mounted lights also are cheaper to buy and easier to install and are expected to increase the patrol cars' gas mileage and top speed. The dashboard mounts have reflectors that keep the lights out of the driver's eyes.
Patrol officials will study the effectiveness of slick-top patrol cars during the next year or so before deciding whether to make a permanent switch. A few patrol cars on the Kansas Turnpike have operated without rooftop lights for several years, Maple said, but the patrol wants more data before it makes a decision.
Jones and Maple both said safety will be the key element in making that decision. Some are concerned that motorists may have a harder time spotting a stopped patrol vehicle without the top light, although the cars still will be equipped with amber warning lights in the rear windows.
No matter what happens with the light question, the silhouettes of some of the patrol cars will be changing. Seven new Camaros, seven Mustangs and seven Ford Tauruses are expected to join the lineup this year as the patrol experiments with smaller, less costly, more fuel-efficient cars. Each patrol division will get a set of the three new models for tryouts, Jones said.
The patrol has been using full-sized Ford and Plymouth models.

[ImEvil1]

Thanks for posting the pic. Unfortunately, I don't have any clear pics of the two '92s to see what's stamped on them (D or F). You can see by the build sheet above, though, that's it's marked D, but the cars definitely came with the regular, 4 cylinder LX seats.

BTW, Ford produced an SSP Taurus in '92, so that's probably what the article is referring to, and not an SHO (unless you have something else about it that you didn't post).

Glad you were able to identify your unit number.

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by ImEvil1

Thanks for posting the pic. Unfortunately, I don't have any clear pics of the two '92s to see what's stamped on them (D or F). You can see by the build sheet above, though, that's it's marked D, but the cars definitely came with the regular, 4 cylinder LX seats.

BTW, Ford produced an SSP Taurus in '92, so that's probably what the article is referring to, and not an SHO (unless you have something else about it that you didn't post).

Glad you were able to identify your unit number.

I meant SSP not SHO, sorry. I really don't see what the disagreement is about here, every picture I have seen and posted of the 7 two-tone Kansas SSPs have sport seats in them. I don't even have to go by the certification label or the buck tags (even though they show sport seats) because I have in-service pictures of MY car and others with these seats.

I understand your car was equipped differently, but possibly labeled the same as mine. However your cars were not Kansas cars and they were not on the same order. You also have to factor in that Ford may have put the wrong seats in cars or full orders of cars occasionally. Parts shortages, miscommunication, and human error does happen in plants. Or it may all be 100% correct, and that’s how everything was ordered.

All I am trying to do here is share information. I know you are trying to be a fact checker and I am fine with that but pictures don’t lie. The article had been posted a long time ago and I figured most had read it and seen the pictures so I figured it would be neat to see a clearer picture of the interior which also happened to show a clear shot of the seats. Since that was not enough, here is another “never before seen” picture of my car in service:

[gixxer1]

All the Kansas mustangs in 92 had sport seats. I also have a 92 Khp and have spoken to a few Khp troopers and they all confirmed the same thing. I have numerous pics of these cars showing the seats clearly. This car still belongs to a Khp trooper that i can not name. He put his tag on for the pic which i blacked out.

[gixxer1]

[gixxer1]

I wish i had more than 5 minutes to edit.......

[28HopUp]

Originally Posted by gixxer1

I wish i had more than 5 minutes to edit.......

I gotcha fixed up!

[gixxer1]

Originally Posted by 28HopUp

I gotcha fixed up!

Thank you buddy!

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by gixxer1

All the Kansas mustangs in 92 had sport seats. I also have a 92 Khp and have spoken to a few Khp troopers and they all confirmed the same thing. I have numerous pics of these cars showing the seats clearly. This car still belongs to a Khp trooper that i can not name. He put his tag on for the pic which i blacked out.

Looks like he had a similar repaint to mine, quality clearcoat......

[1988Bullitt]

Something else kinda cool about the picture below, the only panel on my car that was not original with a VIN sticker was the left front fender. As we were soda blasting the car we found a decent size chunk of filler / bondo in the hood covering the dent, at the time I had not seen the pictures so I just though a baseball or something landed on it at some time. Well when you look at the dents (in-service) vs after soda blasting it looks identical, and it explains why my LF fender was replaced. The LF corner of the hood had also been bent back out and the sealer was chipped off from the body guys flexing it.



Easier to see on primed metal.