[1988Bullitt]

John (xxtrpr) found this article from the Wichita eagle, it talks about getting 7 Mustangs, 7 Camaros, and 7 SHOs.

Wichita Eagle, The (KS)
1992-01-04
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: CITY EDITION
Page: 1A


SPEEDERS LOSE EARLY WARNING ROOFTOP LIGHTS MOVE INSIDE PATROL CARS
Mike Berry/Eagle Western Kansas bureau


Speeders, beware. It's about to become a little more difficult to get away with your lead-footed driving habits.
Those distinctive, visible-at-a-mile-and-a-half "cherries" are coming off the top of some Kansas Highway Patrol cars and are being moved to the dashboards. And once that distinctive patrol car silhouette is gone, it will be harder for speeders to spot troopers.
Trooper Craig Davis, who has been driving a so-called slick-top patrol car for about a month, said he already can note a difference.
''I'm getting better speeds now," said Davis, who is based in Garden City. "I'm clocking more at 80 and 90 miles an hour now," he said, explaining that serious speeders aren't able to spot him at a long distance and hit the brakes before he can get their speed locked on radar.
And some speeders rush right up behind his car before they realize they're overtaking a patrol car, Davis said.
Davis drives one of seven "slick-top" cars in the Garden City patrol division that had their top lights removed and the new dashboard flashers installed around Thanksgiving.
The conversion of those cars was financed by a federal truck highway safety enforcement program, said Capt. Dave Jones, division commander. He said the troopers have been surprising quite a few people.
Statewide, the patrol will get 22 new cars in a couple of months, and it will be up to individual troopers and their commanders whether a car is outfitted with the traditional rooftop light or a dashboard-mounted flashing light. The cars will continue to wear their regulation blue and gray paint jobs with the gold Highway Patrol shield on the front doors.
''Our goal is not necessarily to write more speeding tickets, but to reduce the amount of speeding," said Sgt. Terry Maple, the patrol's spokesman in Topeka.
The patrol hopes that heavy-footed drivers will slow down once word gets out that they can't count on spotting a patrol car before it spots them, Maple said.
Jones said the dashboard-mounted lights also are cheaper to buy and easier to install and are expected to increase the patrol cars' gas mileage and top speed. The dashboard mounts have reflectors that keep the lights out of the driver's eyes.
Patrol officials will study the effectiveness of slick-top patrol cars during the next year or so before deciding whether to make a permanent switch. A few patrol cars on the Kansas Turnpike have operated without rooftop lights for several years, Maple said, but the patrol wants more data before it makes a decision.
Jones and Maple both said safety will be the key element in making that decision. Some are concerned that motorists may have a harder time spotting a stopped patrol vehicle without the top light, although the cars still will be equipped with amber warning lights in the rear windows.
No matter what happens with the light question, the silhouettes of some of the patrol cars will be changing. Seven new Camaros, seven Mustangs and seven Ford Tauruses are expected to join the lineup this year as the patrol experiments with smaller, less costly, more fuel-efficient cars. Each patrol division will get a set of the three new models for tryouts, Jones said.
The patrol has been using full-sized Ford and Plymouth models.