My Father has a good friend who was a Florida State Trooper, now retired with 33 or so years, who was assigned to the Orlando area for most of his career. My Father, and Grandfather before, owned a car repair shop that specialized in front end alignment and high speed wheel balancing. While I was in college and home on visits (mid 80s)I would hang out at the shop and this Trooper, Jack, would bring his car in for an alignment and balancing since the no one in the state barn, or anywhere, was as good as my Dad
, seriously.
So Jack always had an FHP Mustang and that is what he brought in. When Dad aligned it he then did the high speed balancing and then road tested it. Often I rode with him. I wasn't really into the Mustangs at all, but remeber the cars being very strong. I also remember thinking how cool the black wheels were with the small caps. I also like the 60s stuff with the dog dish caps the best.
Anyway, that is my first memory of the SSPs, and Jack had 3 different ones over the years...
My buddy Todd, who many of you met in Birmingham, also came back to UF in the fall of 85 with a brand new 85 GT in black with A/C as the ONLY option. Did quite a bit of street racing and only a Buick Grand National could outrun it.
Then this guy at GPD I knew was all crazy about them and I just kind of started liking them more and more...I think he is on this board...lol
Oh yea, interestingly enough. Jack, the Trooper, has a sister who happens to be my Lt. at GPD. I was talking to her about the site, these cars etc and asked her to ask Jack if he remembered his unit numbers because someone might be restoring one of his cars. She pulls out her cell and calls him up. She says into the phone "Oh, no one would have one of yours" and I think maybe he wrecked all of them. The she says "oh-they are all in the barn in the back yard". He had 3, a 1983, a 1986, and a 1993 and he apparently bought all three from the auctions...more on that to come.