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As we come to a close of our tribute to some of the most feared high pursuit vehicles, instead of praising a final all-out high performance police interceptor, we are going to point out the ultimate obnoxious vehicle to be added to any law enforcement fleet. For the officer who perhaps feels they have to make up for the lack of testosterone that mother nature bestowed upon them, what better way, than with a massive H2 Hummer urban assault vehicle.

The H2 Hummer is sleek and modern, but none-the-less also gives off a very old military feel. Just ask the folks of Melbourne Australia who have recently been introduced to the H2 Hummer by their police force after a couple occurrences of drunken violence in the city. These Hummers were brought on to make the citizens feel safer, and it has actually made them quite angry that now their streets look more like… well, Iraq!

Imagine cruising down the road and seeing the flashing lights and giant spotlight of a massive hummer. You wouldn’t know if it was going to stop, or just run over you. And while you may think you could outrun one, these do not all come with the underpowered engines anymore.

The 2008 H2 Hummer has the option of a 6.2-liter Vortec V8 engine, which snorts a robust 393 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque. This is a vast improvement over the 2007’s 320 horsepower and 365 pound-feet of torque.

While a performance run of 0-60 in 8 seconds for such a large beast will keep up with a lot of vehicles on the street, it certainly isn’t going to be hitting any top speeds near the 140 and 150 mph that many of the other pursuit vehicles we have featured… and while to be fair, these vehicles are not exactly intended for high speed pursuits, but in all fairness, they could still in fact find themselves in one.

This brings us to the inspiration of one giant Texas-T Sheriff who decided that a standard Hummer H2 was just not fast or manly enough for him. No… and the fact that it only maintained an average 11 mpg, in a state that is practically bathing in oil, was more than enough reason to see how bad of fuel economy he could really achieve.

He threw out that wimpy 320 horsepower engine and replaced it with supercharged 7.0 liter V-8, worth no less than about 700 horsepower. Now he can hit 60 mph from a dead stop in the mid 6 second range, tops speeds of about 150 mph, and he is on a first name basis with just about every convenience store/gas station clerk in a 100 mile radius.

The Hummer was fitted with an intercooler, performance pistons, precision balanced crankshaft, sport camshaft, custom air filter, performance manifold, stainless steel exhaust, and a heavy duty suspension system to keep it held down on the road during aggressive maneuvering.

Now we’ve seen just about everything!

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While not the meanest Interceptor on the streets, the Ford Mustang badge earns it rights to be amongst these vehicles, if by brand if nothing else. The Mustang brand has long been considered at least a moderately performance vehicle for the layperson… and while police officers are not exactly laypeople, they have budgets like the normal layperson and therefore the Ford Mustang captured their interest between 1982 and 1993.

While the old Ford 5.0 liter Mustang was not their most memorable example of what a muscle car should be, there were not many other vehicles that were in the 80’s. So for these particular years, the 200 some horsepower the Mustang Interceptors were capable of, were often more than enough. A Chevy Camaro drivers worst fear back in those days was to be pulled over by a Ford Mustang highway patrol unit… and you can bet that a few of them punched the petal to the floor, thinking they could easily outrun it.

Did they?

Well, it depends on if they had one of the earlier, high performance Camaro’s such as the late 60’s on up to a few models in the early seventies. These could definitely hand the Police Mustang its tailpipe. But if they had an early eighties to late eighties Camaro, well, those were just as weak if not weaker (for some models and years) in performance.

The Mustang actually took center stage after the 1979-1981 Camaro let down one to many officers due to gremlins in their power train. Despite what you may have heard about Mustang’s, they were actually pretty reliable in the early to late eighties… especially their special service models.

The special service package included the standard 200 horsepower 5.0 liter V-8 with 4-speed manual transmission. There were no special engine modifications for these packages, as Ford wanted to keep these vehicles on the road well into 100,000 miles. All those trick heads, dual carburetor set-ups, aggressive camshaft grinds were left to the street rodders.

What Ford did offer beyond the standard fare, was 15 X 7 steel cast wheels with performance tires and a 140 mph speedometer, which was not just for show, as it could actually hit these numbers if given enough space and time. All these goodies combined to a cost of no more than about $7,000.00 per vehicle, which was quite attractive to many law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the basics, a few special features could be added to any package at a modest cost increase to make these pursuit vehicles even more hearty. Such options included a heavy duty silicone radiator, engine oil cooler, high energy alternator, high performance belt driven clutch cooling fan, 15 inch alloy wheels, heavy duty interior/seats, cassette stereos, power windows/door locks, and reinforced floor pans capable of withstanding several dozens of donuts piled on top of the standard sized officer (I just had to fit that in somewhere).

The Special Service Mustang is still a rather popular commodity at auctions despite it’s less than favorable horsepower output. Why? Well these are a fine example of excellence when there wasn’t much excellent out there!

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Perhaps one of the most ultimate pursuit vehicles in history would have to be the 1969 Dodge Polara Pursuit Interceptor. 1969 was the last year of free muscle before emissions specifications on vehicles would drown out these Dodge powered vehicles raw power and create mice out of these rhinoceroses.

To begin with, the 1969 Polara pursuit looked a little like a toned down Dodge Roadrunner… but there was good reason for that. Underneath that rather robust looking hood sat one of Dodge’s most beautiful creations to man and woman alike, the 375 horsepower 440 cubic inch big block.

This beast came with dual exhaust, high compression heads, a 3.23 axle (great for highway speeds), and could pull off 0-60 in around 6.3 seconds. The Polara could also pound out the quarter mile in no more than 14.3 seconds… and this was loaded in full police gear.

Technically for today’s standards the Dodge Polara would be classified as a roving 4-door brick, but the 1969 Polara had a top speed of over 150 mph, which held the record for 25 glorious years, until the 1994 Chevrolet Caprice LT1 finally came into existence  and broke it.

To gain further performance out of the Dodge, some departments chose to remove the power steering, which made them a real chore to maneuver around town at slow speeds. But once out on the highway, the Polara pursuit vehicle was nearly impossible to outrun, unless it found itself among a similar beast, such as a tricked out big block Roadrunner.

Even against a similarly powered Roadrunner, the Polara Pursuit might have the upper hand, as it not only came out of the box with all that raw, low end grunt, it also came with stellar handling characteristics for 1969. The suspension on each of these vehicles consisted of heavy duty shocks and springs, thick diameter front and (optional) rear sway bars, heavy duty semi-metallic brakes, radiator, electrical system, battery, alternator, and transmission.

Practically everything was heavy duty on these vehicles… including the seats and interior, which were made to handle hours on the road with as many chili cheese dog gas explosions as most any officer could muster up. The Torqueflite automatic transmissions were specially calibrator for less clutch slippage, which not only allowed the transmission to last longer, but also gave your neck one heck of a snap during each gear change.

New and improved Police Interceptors will continue to come and go… but most likely we will never see anything down the pike with as much raw, low-end grunt, as the infamous 440 Polara!