WRX vs. Police Charger

[AutobahnSHO]

    

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-videos/latest/video-subaru-wrx-rescues-dodge-charger-police-car-stuck-in-snow?src=soc_fcbks

[Rupert]

All that revving sure did him a lot of good.

[bing_oh]

The Chargers do suck in snow...maybe even worse than the Crown Vics (I think it's the factory tires).

[giant_mtb]

Cop in a CV got stuck in our driveway once.

[BENZ BOY15]

Cop in a CV got stuck in our driveway once.

You would think they'd use Tahoes or something like that.

[giant_mtb]

You would think they'd use Tahoes or something like that.

Mmmm nope. Crown Vics and now Chargers. There are some Tahoes around...K9 units and such.

The cop said something along the lines of "once we switched to digital radios and got rid of the heavy old CBs in the trunk, we don't have any traction anymore."

Not sure if it had winter tires or not. But we had to push him. Couldn't get up the slight slant of the driveway. Which is weird, because my dad was driving the Grand Marquis at the time but he rarely had issues. Snow tires and a couple sand bags in the trunk...ideal for RWD.

[BENZ BOY15]

Mmmm nope. Crown Vics and now Chargers. There are some Tahoes around...K9 units and such.

The cop said something along the lines of "once we switched to digital radios and got rid of the heavy old CBs in the trunk, we don't have any traction anymore."

Not sure if it had winter tires or not. But we had to push him. Couldn't get up the slight slant of the driveway. Which is weird, because my dad was driving the Grand Marquis at the time but he rarely had issues. Snow tires and a couple sand bags in the trunk...ideal for RWD.

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought about that, but it makes sense.

But what doesn't make sense it thinking that a RWD vehicle is going to cut it up there. Of course it'll be fine for...six months (ish) out of the year, but for the other half? I dunno....seems like if you're a cop, RWD snow issues are the last thing you want to deal with when you're chasing somebody down.

I guess they make it work though. But he couldn't get up your driveway? Man. That's the slightest of slight slopes.

[giant_mtb]

It's not like we have high speed chases or anything. No speed limits over 55. You can totally get by with RWD if you've got some snow tires and sensibility about your driving...which cops do. They wouldn't be buying Chargers if they didn't think they'd use them in the winter. But there are a number of Tahoes, as well.

[BENZ BOY15]

It's not like we have high speed chases or anything. No speed limits over 55. You can totally get by with RWD if you've got some snow tires and sensibility about your driving...which cops do. They wouldn't be buying Chargers if they didn't think they'd use them in the winter. But there are a number of Tahoes, as well.

Yeah, that makes sense....clearly they suffice for what's needed. And yeah, doesn't seem like you'd guys have too many high speed chases. Especially during the winter.

I wonder which car most LE people prefer.

[giant_mtb]

Snowing hard: Tahoe

Obvious.

[Mustangfan2003]

I wonder if you can get a Charger police package with awd?  After seeing some of the cars that highway patrols are using it seems like a lot of northern states are going with the Taurus or the Explorer.  If I recall the Tahoe is only offered in 2wd. 

[BENZ BOY15]

Snowing hard: Tahoe

Obvious.

True.

Tahoes make pretty awesome LE vehicles.

[giant_mtb]

Houghton police made the jump to Explorers. Not sure if they're AWD or not. Haven't seen any anywhere else around here yet.

[BENZ BOY15]

Houghton police made the jump to Explorers. Not sure if they're AWD or not. Haven't seen any anywhere else around here yet.

I think I saw some of those. The snowmobile people were being a little rowdy, as I recall.

But that's a pretty good idea; it's a nice compromise between the Charger & Tahoe.

[MX793]

I wonder if you can get a Charger police package with awd?  After seeing some of the cars that highway patrols are using it seems like a lot of northern states are going with the Taurus or the Explorer.  If I recall the Tahoe is only offered in 2wd. 

There is a 4WD Tahoe police package but it is not pursuit rated, which makes it ill suited to highway patrol duty.  Although I thought I recently read that GM had come out with a pursuit rated 4WD Tahoe model.

NYS Police, who have been running Tahoes for quite a while, seem to largely be buying new Tahoes to replace their aging CVs (as well as older Tahoes) instead of purchasing any of the new sedans (Taurus, Caprice, or Charger).  I think they may have a few Chargers in the fleet, but I haven't seen any Tauruses, Explorers, or Caprices in NYSP service that I can recall.

[GoCougs]

I'm gonna guess that it comes down to limited availability of "approved" models, budgets, incentives, grants, etc. RWD sucks in the snow, even with snow tires, and a full-size V8 RWD sedan is gonna be really sucky.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Open diffs suck in snow. RWD is fine.

[BENZ BOY15]

I'm gonna guess that it comes down to limited availability of "approved" models, budgets, incentives, grants, etc. RWD sucks in the snow, even with snow tires, and a full-size V8 RWD sedan is gonna be really sucky.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. It just seems that for more winterized areas, a 4WD would be ideal.

[Rupert]

Open diffs suck in snow. RWD is fine.

LSDs suck more.

[Eye of the Tiger]

LSDs suck more.

wat

[giant_mtb]

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. It just seems that for more winterized areas, a 4WD would be ideal.

No way.

[BENZ BOY15]

It surprises me that that they'd even buy RWD cop cars...in the first place. But I suppose it works. Although like you said, they're starting to use Explorers now. Which makes more sense.

[Rupert]

wat

More total traction, but way harder to keep the back end from sliding around. You want a locker.

[MX793]

Yeah, limited slips are pretty squirrely in the slick, though they do offer better forward bite.

[Soup DeVille]

More total traction, but way harder to keep the back end from sliding around. You want a locker.

No, no way do you want a locker for snow, unless you never plan on turning. old school posi-trac typ limited slips work fine. If you don't know what to do when the back end slides around in the snow, you need to quit driving.

[GoCougs]

LSDs suck more.

Well, without modern stability/traction control at-speed snow/ice driving with RWD and LSD is indeed a recipe for disaster. I only have experience with old-school rigs but my hunch is modern electronics only help somewhat - slip has to be detected before it can be corrected after all, and there are limits on how much a car can be controlled once things start to go haywire.

[Eye of the Tiger]

RWD with a locker in the snow = easy.

[Rupert]

No, no way do you want a locker for snow, unless you never plan on turning. old school posi-trac typ limited slips work fine. If you don't know what to do when the back end slides around in the snow, you need to quit driving.

Only lock the diff if you aren't getting any traction/are stuck.

[Soup DeVille]

Only lock the diff if you aren't getting any traction/are stuck.

Oh: manual lockers are another story. Most lockers aren't.

[GoCougs]

No, no way do you want a locker for snow, unless you never plan on turning. old school posi-trac typ limited slips work fine. If you don't know what to do when the back end slides around in the snow, you need to quit driving.

Nah, with lockers you can turn as fine in snow as you can in mud or the like. Slippage makes things work okay. Lots of YouTube vids of guys maneuvering in snow/mud with lockers. Couldn't do any serious off roading without lockers engaged. Many (I'd wager these days most) lockers are manual.

The issue with LSD with at-speed driving is when you get squirrely you're toast - few can recover.