Well if you built one based on the X-11 performance package it wouldn’t have been too terrible by the standards of the day.
I’m sure it would have outperformed an early 80s slant 6 Diplomat police car in pursuit tests. Although the Dippy would be more like to still be running 100,000 miles later.
Speaking as someone whose family had an ’81 Phoenix, the FWD X bodies weren’t terrible cars until they started self-destructing.
Ours had the Iron Duke I4 and a slushbox, but compared to contemporary competition, even that powertrain wasn’t unreasonably slow. At 2.5 liters, the four cylinder had pretty good torque when the traffic signals turned green. Passing at highways speeds was another issue entirely, but for the around-town duties of a sheriff’s deputy, a Citation would have been a pretty liveable option during those peak Malaise Era years.
Well, at least until the electrical system fried itself and left you stranded.
Well, the Citation would be easy on a police dept’s budget. The sheriff would never have to open his book of citations because he’d never catch anyone. Saves on printing, court costs, and prisoner maintenance.
Police and Sheriff depts. have tried out smaller police cars here and there. Around this time, there were quite a few using the Malibu, but despite not being full-size it was still BOF and built like a big car. Of course that was no longer an option after ’83. I know some tried out the Fairmont and the Nova in the late 70’s also but I’m guessing they were too small. There were a few forces that used the Fox-body LTD in the mid 80’s also. But a Citation? Unless they were *really* trying to save a buck, that sounds like a bad idea!
Of course, the fact that the stars merely say “County Sheriff” without the name of a municipality or county shield/logo anywhere on the car makes me think this is a tribute with a sense of humor!
Sheriffs’ cars seem to be popular for police replicas abroad, since there is no legal office of “Sheriff” in most (all?) of Europe so it sidesteps officer-impersonation regs.
Yep, Lumina. The campus police at my university used those in the late 90’s also. Of course, those Luminas would resume the Impala name at their next model transition, and that seemed to mark GM “figuring out” how to make a proper FWD police cruiser given how ubiquitous those W-body Impalas became in police service. And still are, for that matter.
The Lumina police package had the 3800 under the hood. Unfortunately that was the only way to get a 3800 in a Lumina, a situation that was rectified with the round taillight Impala.
If one squints a little at the roofline, it looks a little like the Rover SD1. This was a very common police car in UK. With a HO 2.8 V6, it might make a better pursuit vehicle than cars like the Renault 16 or Lancia Beta. The French and Italians being so persistent with their tiny engines
The Citation hatch has a definite BMC Aerodynamica/Lancia Beta vibe to it. Also, a lot of US GM coupes of the period obviously are derived from the Fiat 130.
The only thing better would have been a K-car police cruiser!
I remember when police departments began experimenting with Citations and the like. Whether for budget savings (lower price & fuel costs) or greater maneuverability (mainly for big cities), it briefly seemed like these cars were the wave of the future. But for most cities, the experiment never went beyond the trial stage.
My guess would be the first time they tapped the brake pedal and the rear brakes locked-up, it quickly and unceremoniously put an end to any further thought of using a Citation as a cop-car.
And trying to stuff someone into the back of a caged Citation for a ride to the pokey definitely would seem to fall into the category of cruel and (very) unusual punishment.
Eric don’t poke TOO much fun at the concept of the K-car cruiser. When I was Active Duty (late 80s/early 90s), the on base Police cars were Reliants. Of course the Base speed limit was 45 max but they did get the job done.
How small is too small? My BIL is a detective with a sheriff’s dept. in another county. He’s a good-sized man but not huge (6′-1″ and about 210#). When he was on patrol his first ride was a late 1990’s or early 2000’s Crown Vic. Of course he always wore his belt with a pistol and other accoutrements of the job and very frequently was wearing a Kevlar vest. A few years ago he got a Tahoe to replace the Ford and marveled at how much easier it was to get into and out of the new vehicle. I can’t imagine him getting into and out of a Citation, or even the 5.0 Mustangs the state troopers were using, with any kind of rapidity never mind ‘style.’
“Citation” was a bad omen from the start, Who would name a car after the last thing you want ti get while driving? And it was also an Edsel model name!
Same entity who would name the enlarged variant Celebrity. I imagine Chevrolet product planning offices have a dictionary list of words that start with C taped to a wall and many many darts strewn about
The original definition of “citation,” and the one most commonly used at the time, was for an award or medal, usually military. The Edsel Citation used the same definition.
Wow — that’s great! I’m sure those Citations quickly became the bane of the Xenia Police Department! And the detectives had to suffer with the smaller (presumably 4-cyl.) engines too.
’81 seemed like the end of times for cars, was a mad rush for “smaller, smallest” and led to the Caddy Cimarron for one.
Governments were eager to show voters they were ‘saving gas’ too, so they put cops in Citations, etc. Once these cars died, it was back to full size cruisers.
Only in recent times have police moved to other types of vehicles.
This car reminds me of a police car that would have been used in an early-80’s movie with a limited budget, dressed up to look the part, then wrecked at some point during a sped-up chase.
These comments on the potential speed of these cars has me thinking these folks never drove an X car with the V6. Compared to much of what was out there in 1979 X Cars with the V6 – even in non-HO trim – were rockets.
Agreed. They’d run circles around those slug Dodge St. Regis with the 318 that the CHP suffered with. Those could barely top 85. having had a V6 Skylark X Body, I can assure you it could go faster than that. These were brisk for the times.
Those “slug” Dodges were St. Regis, the Chrysler R-body, not Miradas, which were swoopy 2-doors on the Volaspen-DiploBaron chassis. And they had way more top end than 85; it’s just that seemed to need until halfway to the next county to get there.
Mine topped at 105 on the runway at Hamilton Field in Marin County, CA, after an EVOC class there. Took the whole runway!
Yes, that was a typo. But I can assure you that the versions the CHP got were seriously underpowered and it turned into a PR nightmare, as it became well known that one could easily drive away from them in a possible chase.There was lots of media coverage of it at the time. It specifically is why they then bought Mustang 5.0s.
Chris M.
Posted June 14, 2016 at 12:55 PM
California emissions were much more restrictive than the rest of the country back then, weren’t they? That could explain a lot–a 318 that was barely adequate for the rest of the country could become decidedly inadequate when saddled with even more power-sapping emissions controls.
roger628
Posted June 15, 2016 at 6:08 AM
Add a light bar and a trunk full of equipment and it’s even worse.
Oh jeez – That reminds me of a long lost memory – I remember reading in a Canadian car magazine years ago about a town in New Brunswick that had Lada Nivas… I found reference to Hartland, NB having one.
The Dorchester (SC) County Sheriff apparently had a bunch of Citation X-11 patrol cars. The X-body Facebook group had a post of pictures of them. They department also had VW Rabbits…
…said no one ever.
Not even the chair!
😀
I am, I said.
Well if you built one based on the X-11 performance package it wouldn’t have been too terrible by the standards of the day.
I’m sure it would have outperformed an early 80s slant 6 Diplomat police car in pursuit tests. Although the Dippy would be more like to still be running 100,000 miles later.
Perhaps 200,000!
Speaking as someone whose family had an ’81 Phoenix, the FWD X bodies weren’t terrible cars until they started self-destructing.
Ours had the Iron Duke I4 and a slushbox, but compared to contemporary competition, even that powertrain wasn’t unreasonably slow. At 2.5 liters, the four cylinder had pretty good torque when the traffic signals turned green. Passing at highways speeds was another issue entirely, but for the around-town duties of a sheriff’s deputy, a Citation would have been a pretty liveable option during those peak Malaise Era years.
Well, at least until the electrical system fried itself and left you stranded.
They’re some pretty big Untils!
Well, the Citation would be easy on a police dept’s budget. The sheriff would never have to open his book of citations because he’d never catch anyone. Saves on printing, court costs, and prisoner maintenance.
Police and Sheriff depts. have tried out smaller police cars here and there. Around this time, there were quite a few using the Malibu, but despite not being full-size it was still BOF and built like a big car. Of course that was no longer an option after ’83. I know some tried out the Fairmont and the Nova in the late 70’s also but I’m guessing they were too small. There were a few forces that used the Fox-body LTD in the mid 80’s also. But a Citation? Unless they were *really* trying to save a buck, that sounds like a bad idea!
Of course, the fact that the stars merely say “County Sheriff” without the name of a municipality or county shield/logo anywhere on the car makes me think this is a tribute with a sense of humor!
And it needs a chubby character wearing a campaign hat, drawling “Where’s the far,boy?” to round out the ensemble.
I got that from how optioned-up it is.
Sheriffs’ cars seem to be popular for police replicas abroad, since there is no legal office of “Sheriff” in most (all?) of Europe so it sidesteps officer-impersonation regs.
Indeed, “sheriff” is an ancient Anglo title, from “shire reeve,” a royal official.
The M-body Diplomat and Fury police cars were also midsized cars, realistically, and were fairly popular in police service.
Seattle Police actually used Darts back in the 70s.
and La Conner, Washington had a more offbeat choice…
I remember this ad from the 70s
How about this one? from 1964, and in Alabama, of all places (Scottsboro).
The NYPD used to have Chevy Corsicas back in the 1990’s.
That’s a Lumina next to the Caprice
Yep, Lumina. The campus police at my university used those in the late 90’s also. Of course, those Luminas would resume the Impala name at their next model transition, and that seemed to mark GM “figuring out” how to make a proper FWD police cruiser given how ubiquitous those W-body Impalas became in police service. And still are, for that matter.
Whoops, sorry.
The Lumina police package had the 3800 under the hood. Unfortunately that was the only way to get a 3800 in a Lumina, a situation that was rectified with the round taillight Impala.
There were 3800 V6 Luminas in 1998-99, LTZ trim.
If one squints a little at the roofline, it looks a little like the Rover SD1. This was a very common police car in UK. With a HO 2.8 V6, it might make a better pursuit vehicle than cars like the Renault 16 or Lancia Beta. The French and Italians being so persistent with their tiny engines
The most famous of the SD1 police cars were the 2 that made the “Liver Run” back in 1987. This made the news even in the USA
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/the-liver-run/
The Citation hatch has a definite BMC Aerodynamica/Lancia Beta vibe to it. Also, a lot of US GM coupes of the period obviously are derived from the Fiat 130.
British slang for police cars back then was “Jam Sandwich,” from the paint scheme.
The only thing better would have been a K-car police cruiser!
I remember when police departments began experimenting with Citations and the like. Whether for budget savings (lower price & fuel costs) or greater maneuverability (mainly for big cities), it briefly seemed like these cars were the wave of the future. But for most cities, the experiment never went beyond the trial stage.
The only thing better would have been a K-car police cruiser!
Turbo, TURBO, TURBO!
Woe to the poor idiot that has to be thrown in the back of one with the cage installed.
My guess would be the first time they tapped the brake pedal and the rear brakes locked-up, it quickly and unceremoniously put an end to any further thought of using a Citation as a cop-car.
And trying to stuff someone into the back of a caged Citation for a ride to the pokey definitely would seem to fall into the category of cruel and (very) unusual punishment.
Eric don’t poke TOO much fun at the concept of the K-car cruiser. When I was Active Duty (late 80s/early 90s), the on base Police cars were Reliants. Of course the Base speed limit was 45 max but they did get the job done.
Too much for the Parking division, too little for everything else.
How small is too small? My BIL is a detective with a sheriff’s dept. in another county. He’s a good-sized man but not huge (6′-1″ and about 210#). When he was on patrol his first ride was a late 1990’s or early 2000’s Crown Vic. Of course he always wore his belt with a pistol and other accoutrements of the job and very frequently was wearing a Kevlar vest. A few years ago he got a Tahoe to replace the Ford and marveled at how much easier it was to get into and out of the new vehicle. I can’t imagine him getting into and out of a Citation, or even the 5.0 Mustangs the state troopers were using, with any kind of rapidity never mind ‘style.’
“Citation” was a bad omen from the start, Who would name a car after the last thing you want ti get while driving? And it was also an Edsel model name!
Same entity who would name the enlarged variant Celebrity. I imagine Chevrolet product planning offices have a dictionary list of words that start with C taped to a wall and many many darts strewn about
The original definition of “citation,” and the one most commonly used at the time, was for an award or medal, usually military. The Edsel Citation used the same definition.
….Er….It was supposed to be a joke…..
Ranger was also an Edsel model name, I seem to remember it did pretty good as a Ford truck.
Pacer was also an Edsel name. And we know how that went for AMC.
Xenia, Ohio (1981):
Wow — that’s great! I’m sure those Citations quickly became the bane of the Xenia Police Department! And the detectives had to suffer with the smaller (presumably 4-cyl.) engines too.
’81 seemed like the end of times for cars, was a mad rush for “smaller, smallest” and led to the Caddy Cimarron for one.
Governments were eager to show voters they were ‘saving gas’ too, so they put cops in Citations, etc. Once these cars died, it was back to full size cruisers.
Only in recent times have police moved to other types of vehicles.
Great find and well shared, Johannes.
This car reminds me of a police car that would have been used in an early-80’s movie with a limited budget, dressed up to look the part, then wrecked at some point during a sped-up chase.
Pedal to the metal – a legitimate alternative to pulling over with one of these in the mirror
These comments on the potential speed of these cars has me thinking these folks never drove an X car with the V6. Compared to much of what was out there in 1979 X Cars with the V6 – even in non-HO trim – were rockets.
4cyl? no so much.
Agreed. They’d run circles around those slug Dodge St. Regis with the 318 that the CHP suffered with. Those could barely top 85. having had a V6 Skylark X Body, I can assure you it could go faster than that. These were brisk for the times.
Those “slug” Dodges were St. Regis, the Chrysler R-body, not Miradas, which were swoopy 2-doors on the Volaspen-DiploBaron chassis. And they had way more top end than 85; it’s just that seemed to need until halfway to the next county to get there.
Mine topped at 105 on the runway at Hamilton Field in Marin County, CA, after an EVOC class there. Took the whole runway!
Yes, that was a typo. But I can assure you that the versions the CHP got were seriously underpowered and it turned into a PR nightmare, as it became well known that one could easily drive away from them in a possible chase.There was lots of media coverage of it at the time. It specifically is why they then bought Mustang 5.0s.
California emissions were much more restrictive than the rest of the country back then, weren’t they? That could explain a lot–a 318 that was barely adequate for the rest of the country could become decidedly inadequate when saddled with even more power-sapping emissions controls.
Add a light bar and a trunk full of equipment and it’s even worse.
I had a bored out V6 84 Skylark Coupe. It was not slow.
“Citations are for writin’, not for drivin’, son.” 🙂
http://adland.tv/commercials/vw-volkswagen-rabbit-police-car-1980-030-usa
Oh jeez – That reminds me of a long lost memory – I remember reading in a Canadian car magazine years ago about a town in New Brunswick that had Lada Nivas… I found reference to Hartland, NB having one.
The Dorchester (SC) County Sheriff apparently had a bunch of Citation X-11 patrol cars. The X-body Facebook group had a post of pictures of them. They department also had VW Rabbits…
https://www.facebook.com/NashForSheriff/posts/959112284202720
This is the car driven by Sheriff Barney Fyffe after God dropped a safe on Sheriff Taylor.