Speeders from the land Down Under may want to tread softly because it sounds like the Australian police will be adding some heavy horsepower to their fleets.
Motoring.com.au recently spotted a new “Mustang Interceptor” being approved for Australian Design Rules for safety, anti-theft, and emissions. The new muscle pursuit car will reportedly be based on a 2020 model year Ford Mustang GT with the 460-horsepower, 5.0-liter V8 and 10-speed automatic transmission. However, these will also be tuned by Mustang specialists Herrod Performance, the same folks behind Australia’s supercharged R-Spec ‘Stang.
Despite the presence of rear seats, it doesn’t look like the police-spec Mustangs will be used to ferry many criminals around. In fact, Motoring reports that at least one version will lose its second row entirely to make room for something called “police pack part FR3V-7842844-A.” Our inner five-year-old hopes that’s Australian police code for “badass gun rack.”
Speaking of badass, Australian cops have already been known to use BMW M5s, Kia Stingers, and even unmarked M3s in their pursuit of justice. However, the Greeks seem to have the upper-hand when it comes to cool squad cars.
This isn’t even the first time Aussie constabulary has dabbled with the idea of adding Ford’s pony car to the force. Back in 2016, the pre-refresh current-gen Mustang was tested for police duty but overheated after just three minutes of “intense driving,” according to Jalopnik. To avoid history from repeating itself, Herrod Performance has apparently equipped this new Mustang Interceptor with a modified radiator and extra transmission and differential cooling.
The fast Ford will reportedly be shopped around to multiple police departments across Australia for additional testing, but both Ford and Herrod Performance are being understandably secretive about the whole thing so details beyond that are scarce. Wouldn’t want to make things too easy for Australia’s bank robbers, y’know?
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