Swerve and protect in this 800-hp Mopar cop car
This former Canadian police car is currently up for purchase on eBay. While it used to have a 440-cubic-inch plant, it now burns rubber with a much more modern powertrain.
It’s no Bluesmobile. If Jake and Elwood had been driving this 1968 Coronet, their drive to the Cook County Assessor’s Office would have been much faster. The Coronet is a size smaller than that famous Mopar prowler, but it was truly a police car and served in Canada when it was powered by its original 440 V-8. Its cop motor, cop tires, cop suspension, and cop shocks have all been replaced. Now it’s got Viking coilovers in the front, Mickey Thompson E/T Street drag radials in the back, and, most interesting, a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi from a 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat. And the sellers will throw in some police-spec tires and wheels with dog-dish hubcaps for the $55,000 asking price.
The Hemi breathes through a set of TTI headers and cutouts that can bypass the mufflers and send exhaust through the rocker-mounted zoomies. The car’s original 727 trans has been replaced by a GearStar 4L85E, giving the B-body a bulletproof overdrive capable of hard launches and respectable fuel economy. The listing promises 10-second timeslips when running slicks and 22 mpg when cruising on the highway.
Other chassis and drivetrain components include Wilwood brakes, a Dana 60 rear axle with a limited-slip differential, and a custom-made radiator. In addition to the headers, the Hellcat V-8 uses modified pulleys to spin the supercharger a bit faster and a new charge cooler to keep the increased boost from raising intake temps. Hemituner Performance has helped to keep the modified Hemi humming along and pumping out somewhere in the range of 800 hp.
Inside, the Coronet looks exactly how you’d hope a ’60s cop car would look: chock full of strange electronics, with a massive switch panel littered with toggles.
The ad notes that the car is mechanically sound even though it’s cosmetically a little worse for wear, looking every bit like a police car that’s been in service for a few years with some dings and scratches. It has survived 6000 miles since the engine swap was completed to participate in Hot Rod magazine’s 2019 Power Tour, which drove through North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. In truth, the Coronet doesn’t look like it’s been through 50 years of being beaten up, and the ad suggests it may have been repainted in the early 2000s. Like the original car, this one doesn’t have air-conditioning. If this ride is in your future, you may want to plan your drag strip road trips carefully to beat the heat.
