1989 FHP located...

[Five-o-joe]

Trooper hidalgo confirmed that the car I have is his old car. He recalled the accident history and timelines that match the carfax and auto check records exactly. He also gave me additional details that further confirm definitively that this 89 was his car. Pretty cool. He serviced Miami with trooper brown who previously had unit 432. Trooper brown told the previous owner of 432 that the other LoJack car at the time was driven by trooper hidalgo, who actually had the first LoJack equipped unit. Speaking with trooper hidalgo directly, he advised me that he did in fact have the first LoJack car (his 1989), told me how he got the car and that trooper brown had the second LoJack car ...the only two at that time. He indicated that they were the beta testers and both worked Miami, trooper hidalgo being in troop E. Neat history....

I called dhsmv with two case numbers and they told me they only keep records back 10 years.

More to come...trooper hidalgo is looking for any old in-service pics...

[Five-o-joe]

UPDATE:

Trooper Tim Brown just called me after I emailed him my contact information. After discussion, Trooper Brown could not remember the unit number of my (trooper hidalgos) car but confirmed that the car I have is in fact trooper hidalgos car, being a 1989 and being equipped with LoJack. He also confirmed that trooper hidalgos unit was the first unit equipped with LoJack, and his unit 432 being the second. He also told
me he still has the 432 tag number and is willing to give it to Jonathan. I have his phone number to connect the two of them......

Trooper brown called trooper Ralph Lola while I was on the phone with him and asked if trooper Lola's car was equipped with LoJack by the time they were filming real stories of the highway patrol and asked him what his unit number was. Trooper Lola confirmed that his unit (#1609) was equipped with LoJack by that time. It appears that trooper Lola's unit is the other LoJack car pictured in real stories and the roof number ending in "9" seen in the picture is unit 1609.

Trooper Brown advised me that trooper hidalgos car (my 1989) was what he called an interstate car and was not working robbery when real stories was filmed. He also told me that the "interstate cars" were the "really fast ones". This lines up with a story that trooper hidalgo told me about chasing down an IROC that was "running" and that trooper hidalgo "hit 152mph......he didn't get away".

I still have not yet been able to confirm the unit number of trooper hidalgos car (my 1989) or the meaning of 0048 written in the trunk. The search continues....

Really cool new details found however. I don't believe that it was previously known that by the time of the filming of real stories of the highway patrol, that there were other LoJack equipped cars besides the first two "beta tests" described by both trooper hidalgo (#1) and trooper Brown (#2) and that the other LoJack car pictured in real stories is actually trooper Lola's car, also equipped with LoJack and the complete unit number of trooper Lola's car was 1609. Neat stuff....

[ImEvil1]

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...read.php?t=999

Forgot to include this one earlier.....knew the names sounded familiar.

[Five-o-joe]

Yes, thanks. I read that thread a couple days ago and actually spoke to Mike (vintage racer) on the phone a couple nights ago. That's where I got the names from and was then able to do some research and make contact with some other folks who got me an email address for trooper brown. I then found an arrest report online written by trooper hidalgo that had his phone number. I've since been able to pick up where the trail,previously ended and speak directly with trooper hidalgo and trooper brown and trooper brown contacted trooper Lola while I was on the phone with him.

I've been able to obtain very detailed history of these cars from the troopers who had them but still have not yet been able to confirm the unit number of my 89 (trooper hidalgos) old car. Still working on it....

[MOstang]

[NoDrama43]

All good stuff. What are your plans for the car?

[Five-o-joe]

Growing up in Miami, I remember these cars when they were in service. I have had a love for the FHP cars since I was a teenager.

Plans are to replicate the condition of the car when it was in service as best I can. For me, that means obtaining as much history as I can and equipping the car as closely as possible to when it was in service being used by trooper Hidalgo. I plan to drive the car to let it be seen and to take it to cruises/car shows. Not planning to do a restoration, but rather, a preservation. I'm not trying to win any trophies or anything like that, just want to get the car out there and let it be seen and appreciated as a piece of automotive history.

What makes these cars so cool to me is the history, the stories, and the people who used them as a tool to do a job.

Immediate plans are: to track down and confirm the unit number and round up the few stock pieces needed to replace the aftermarket pieces. It has exhaust mods, lower control arms, msd wires and under drive pulleys. Other than that, the car is stock, with the exception of the chipped FHP computer. Interesting is that it has black marker writing all over the computer. It says "lab use only", "tester", "49 state emission OK", "12-15 HP Boost", and some other numbers I can't read because they have faded too much. Trooper Hidalgo told me the whole (very interesting) story about that chipped computer when I spoke with him....I then went a pulled the computer to see if it had a chip after talking with him. I was very surprised by what I found......a detail that confirmed that this car was in fact trooper Hidalgos.