5-speed Crown Vic, pretty sweet video.

I'm sure you guys have seen this? Very nice. Sounds great and looks fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PgNDNamCMY

I drive one every day (little older), and it is fun Every once in a while I get the pleasure of an unsuspecting ricer hoping to waste some punk kid in a grandpa car with exhaust.

I have all the parts to convert mine...I just have to get around to doing it.

that car needs gears.

I dig it.

He managed to best a marauder at the drags too if you look at the other videos.

I started my 5 speed conversion to my P71 this weekend. I must be turning into a total Bob Costas as I get older because at only 30-something degrees outside I decided I was getting too cold and uncomfortable to keep working in the garage on the car.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get it done this winter! :) I'll make sure to post videos for my project, too.

I have to get one of these cars now, thanks for posting that

4 days. That's how long it took to convert mine. 1) acquire used pedal assembly from junk yard for clutch pedal. 2) integrate clutch pedal into crown vic. 3-4) Install the transmission and hook everything up. Day 5 go drive at VIR to do a shake down.

Probably the dumbest thing I ever did, but it worked out well. The day after I finished the conversion I drove 3 hours to do an HPDE weekend at VIR. Amazingly nothing failed, and the conversion was a complete success.

Where did you get the pedal assembly from (what vehicle)? Any one work better than another?

that vic needs a short throw shfter, it look like he was driving a truk for a while. I have a "quick" shifter in my 70 beetle even thou I dont race it makes it so much nicer to drive.

I cut the pedal out of an SN95 assembly, and added the pedal to the crown Vic assembly.

I have a Hurst short through, with a Hurst 16" shifter, and let me tell you what. It's a dream to shift. The throw is much less than most cars even with the 16" handle. And it puts the shifter right next to the steering wheel which reduces the amount of time your hand spends traveling to and from the shifter. I really hate how short the shifter is on most of the converted Crown Vics. They all have to hunch over to even reach the shifter. Everyone that see's it is shocked and you can tell they think it's stupid looking. But everyone who has sat in it says the same thing, it looks odd, but it really is the perfect shifter setup. Though admittedly it does need to be tilted back a hair more to make 5th more comfortable.

I drove my grandma's crown vic before and that thing handled like a total pig. In fact I about blew the 4.6l up on the freeway when I hit the gas going up hill at 85mph and the plastic intake manifold exploded. I thought it was just carbon burning out of the engine. I had to limp the thing back home and get into my old mercedes with twice the miles and about 2.5times as old.

I drive a 30 year old mercedes that handle so much better even on the original shocks. Do you folks change the suspension or what. I have never been in a car with that much body roll. I like the idea of the manual conversion, but not if the thing would still handles so poorly.

So you blew up a grandma's engine while hot-dogging it and it's the cars fault? Wow, just wow...

The P71's are a lot stiffer, and the 03+ are stiffer still. You were probably hot dogging around in a P73 civilian model with the kind of ride that grandma's prefer.

There is no comparison between the P71 and the civilian versions.

My spring rates are 50% stiffer than P71's. I run performance shocks all around, all poly suspension components in the front with upgraded anti-sway bars (also poly mounts). It is nothing like stock at all, even compared to police models. I kinda get tired of people that I see talking up the P71 as a god car (not on here, you fellas are spot on about it being a well rounded car). It is a good car, like was said, far better than the civilian. But it's a far cry from performance focused.

were did you find all those suspension parts? I've got the bilstein hd's and that's it.

dean1484 wrote: There is no comparison between the P71 and the civilian versions.

yeah there is... car and driver or popular mechanics did it. the P71 version is slower in every respect and it handles worse.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1269541.html?page=1

Car & Driver also said the 400HP GTO could only muster a 13.8 1/4 mile yet I have a box full of 13.0's. Please son! Popular Mechanics? Are you serious? The very same ones that did the baby seat crash test at 40 instead of 20 then yelled about all of them being unsafe?

OK, you dislike every American car, and especially P71's. Get over it and stop posting in threads about them then.

P71 wrote: OK, you dislike every American car, and especially P71's. Get over it and stop posting in threads about them then.

I wouldn't say every american car..

The reason I dislike the car is that it is a fraud. People think police interceptor means cop shock, brakes, engine and ZOMG fast.. Not so. My grandmas crown vic is faster than a police car PERIOD! Besides the fact that they guzzle gas.

I read the article. I don't understand how the civilian version could be faster/quicker/better handling. Taller gearing and more crap bolted to it? The one ONE thing it has is a .8" lower ride height (not the TWO INCHES that Popular Mechanics stated). Other than that single feature it doesn't even make sense why the civilian version would outperform. Crappier tires, softer springs? You tell me. How specifically is it that makes a p73 better?

they tested a full on police unit with radio, cage etc..

So one without a full cage, radio, light bar setup, etc... that still includes the stiffer springs, shocks, sways, bigger brakes, better gears, extra coolers, etc... for a readily available decent price is not a good deal?

Weight. They tested a fully-equipped one. Also, they're Popular Mechanics, so they "embellish" a lot.

People think that because people are ignorant. Id does have cop shocks and springs and loads of other equipment, but anybody that knows anything about cars knows the engine and other major components are the same. No one here with a P71 (or any Vic/GM) has ever said otherwise. So you hating a car for somebody else's stupid perception is just plain dumb.

That would be like hating all GM's because the major magazines all say you should... oh wait, you do that.

And if you say 25-30 MPG on 87 octane is poor for a full-size, 5-passenger car is poor one more time I'm going to hit you with it!

ignorant wrote: they tested a full on police unit with radio, cage etc..

really? I got the impression that it was not yet equipped with any of that. Well doesn't that pretty much make the test irrelevant?