JE>>> I do not remember what make, but the Texas Hi way patrol
 JE>>> has some super souped up patrol cars now. No way any
 JE>>> normal vehicle will out run one of them.

 ml>> if they are like they were when i was last out that way,
 ml>> their biggest feature is all the additional cooling
 ml>> capabilities... extra large radiator, additional oil
 ml>> coolers and tranny fluid coolers... it wasn't that they
 ml>> were so fast but that they could simply last longer at
 ml>> high speed than those they were chasing... all they
 ml>> needed to do was to keep them in sight ;)

 RW> I was there in November. On my way, driving my 88 IROC, I
 RW> noticed some headlights in the rearview mirror coming on
 RW> fast. I was doing the Texas daytime speed-limit of 70mph
 RW> + 5mph. I slowed to 70mph, then 65mph (night speed-limit)
 RW> as the headlights got closer and closer. When the
 RW> headlights finally caught up to me and passed me like I
 RW> was sitting still, it was a Texas Ranger - Ford Victoria.
 RW> I could easily outrun that car in my 98 Z28 Camaro (PCM
 RW> speed-limiter programmed off), but the radio in the Vic
 RW> would have troopers waiting for me down the road.

yeah, there's always the radio... no way to outrun one of them... unless
you have a jammer O:)

i mean, i agree with jay's reply about how they don't want a long chase...
all i know is what i saw when i was there in the mid 80's... cooling fins
all over the place under the hood and lottsa piping to and from those
fins...

and actually, i need to correct myself... i was in western oklohoma where i
saw this vehicle... but i was in texas at least once every three days for a
full work day...

the vehicle that i saw was a 'vette confiscated from a drug dealer... the
cops didn't put it in the auctions but instead decided to keep it as a
"low profile" patrol car... the explanation given to me about all
the fins was for cooling and that with them, they could simply outlast
runners who's vehicles overheated from the stress of running at
highspeed...

i'm sure that there are some, as jay mentioned, super souped up patrol cars
but i'd imagine that they are intended for the "short bursts" so
as to, as jay also mentioned, terminate the chase very quickly...

we had a trooper around here with a Mustang 5.0... there were times that he
did race that vehicle against some of the kids fast vehicles... if he won,
they got a ticket of some sort... i forget the details of everything but
they did end up taking his 5.0 away from him for a little while... he got
it back a year or so later and was a bit more reserved and IIRC he has left
the force since then...

)\/(ark