by David Burrell – – –
On 15 September 2011, the last V8 body-on-chassis passenger sedan was built in the USA. It was the Ford Crown Victoria, known to us devotees as the “Crown Vic”.
I reckon that the Crown Vic is the most recognised car on the planet. In just about every American TV show and movie you’ll see a Crown Vic as a taxi, rental car or cop car. Indeed, a movie about Los Angeles cops was titled “Crown Vic”.
The full frame chassis supported all manner of variants. There was Mercury Grand Marquis, a plusher version of the Vic. And that conveyance of choice for red carpet arrivals, the Lincoln Town car, was really a humble Crown Vic under all that bling.
Ford made 9.6 million Crown Vics over its 32 years of production. It is reputed to have been Ford’s most profitable car ever, simply because the bean counters refused to allow any real money to be spent on it.
The Crown Victoria name first appeared as the top-of-the-line Fairlane two door coupe in 1955 and 1956. Its standout styling feature was a slanted B pillar and a stainless-steel band across the roof – The Crown.
The name lay dormant until revived in 1980 as the most prestigious version of the LTD sedan. The mid-50s bright metal roof band was also given a re-run, to which Ford added a half vinyl roof.
New aero sheet metal was attached to the chassis for 1992, and it lost its “crown” trim. In 1998 the Crown Vic adopted the Grand Marquis body.
The end of the Crown Vic (and the Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car) was brought about because Ford decided that the cost of bringing the cars up to 21st century standards and replacing the worn, old tooling, was not worth the time, expense and effort.
As soon as police departments across the USA and Canada became aware of the impending demise they started buying and stock piling Crown Vics. Five years later some still had brand new cars waiting for duty.
The last Crown Vic I drove, and I’ve driven many over two decades, was a Hertz rental in Los Angeles in late 2011. It was brand new, and must have been one of the last examples.
The big silver car cruised the streets with quiet and relaxed efficiency. Its supple suspension, robust chassis and comfortable seats absorbed the many lumps and bumps of LA’s freeways as if they did not exist. The vast boot swallowed our bags with room to spare. The V8 effortlessly ensured we kept pace with the freeway traffic and had ample accelerative capacity for quick lane changes. Its size was never a problem in car parks, because the spaces are always generous in America.
Such was its ubiquitous association with American police forces, that when I parked in the driveway of a friend’s house at Hancock Park, his neighbour came over to see if I was a cop making a visit.
To my mind, the Crown Vic was what 20th Century America was built for and built by.
