Race a Mustang; Go To Jail?
By: Richard Fleener
Recently Katrina and I were traveling through Indianapolis and had the shock of our life. There was a herd of Mustang GTs roaming the interstate. We were driving a large motor home with a horse trailer behind and never got close to breaking the speed limit so there was no threat of a race here. Now, if I had been in the ZO6 and saw a new Mustang GT riding my ass I would have most likely downshifted, mashed the accelerator to the floor and had some fun….until I went to jail!
Luckily that was not an option driving the motor home because almost every Mustang we saw was beautifully clean, shinny with fancy factory wheels, racing stripes, rear spoiler and a lot of red and blue lights hidden in critical locations. The Highway Patrol in Indiana must have cornered the market on Mustangs and put them in the hands of Officers with a heavy foot. I swear we spotted a dozen of these cars along side the road with the appropriate red and blue lights flashing in all their heart stopping glory.
The frightening thing is we saw these beautiful cars on the side of the road with motorists stopped getting their paper souvenir from the State of Indiana, what we didn’t see were all the ones still driving and hunting. There is no way any one of us on the interstate that day would have seen one of these Mustangs and hit the break pedal thinking it was a Patrolman! I remember the old Fox 5.0 Mustang Highway Patrol cars in various States around the Country. They were usually all the same color and painted up like the regular Patrol cars. Not these Mustangs; they are top of the line models with all the popular colors and exterior dress up options. You will never suspect that these are your State’s law enforcement officers. The pursuit lights are even well hidden and nearly invisible to the motoring public until they light them up!
If you are a gearhead and you are driving in Indiana and see a beautiful new Mustang charging up behind you just let it go or it could be your ticket to jail! On the other hand if you drive a new Mustang and the locals around Indy know the Highway Patrol has a fleet of Mustangs you may get a lot of new found respect on the road!
As residents of Indiana, we have learned to give a healthy dose of respect to most Fords – be they a Crown Vic, or a Mustang! Other models to beware of: Dodge Chargers & Ford Expeditions. Plus, there is at least one mids 70s Corvette on the sneak patrol – I saw it on I-70 about 3 months ago.
I’m beginning to yearn for the days when you could spot a patrol car from a mile away, just by looking at the model and the baby moon hubcaps…
Carl, They are making it quite a challenge. Like you, I use to be able to spot a “plain Jane” patrol car a mile away. We have the typical models on the road and some that are very difficult to spot including pickups but nothing like those Mustangs I saw. A 70s Vette would be impossible to spot!
Richard,
They also have a few blue F150s running around; but, most of those are actually Conservation Officers (generally the undercover guys looking for illicit produce), so they don’t pose quite as much of a risk to speeders.
I was really shocked the first time I saw that mid 70s Vette decked out in hidden lights with a similarly shocked speeding victim pulled over on the interstate – just east of Greenfield, IN on I-70.