Category: 1982

1982 Ford Mustang Special Service Packages – Daniel Strohl @Hemmings

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At a glance, these two 1982 Ford Mustang notchbacks for sale on Hemmings.com don’t look too remarkable, aside from the 5.0 badges and a few other visibly non-stock details. However, as the seller illustrates, both are not only California Highway Patrol-issued Special Service Package Mustangs – some of the most revered examples of the four-eyed Mustang – but are also the first two SSPs: the prototype and the development mule. Neither has been restored, and only one is currently running, but it appears all the documentation to prove the cars’ places in history is in order. From the seller’s description:

This pair of 1982 Mustangs includes the Original 1982 Special Service Package (SSP) Prototype Police Mustang assembled in December 1981 and the 1982 Mustang SSP Police Engineering Mule assembled in April 1982. These 2 Mustangs are the only 2 Pre-Production Mustangs built by Ford to develop, engineer and test the proposed Special Service Package Police option for the 1982 Mustang.

The first 1982 SSP Prototype Mustang built and modified in December 1981 and was given to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) for testing and evaluation as a high speed traffic enforcement vehicle. CHP Unit # 851963. At that time in 1982 this Mustang was the only vehicle tested by the CHP that would accelerate to 100 MPH in a given time frame, stop in prescribed distance and have a top speed over 125 MPH. The results this extensive of testing by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) at the CHP Training Academy in Sacramento in January/February 1982 with this original 1982 Mustang SSP prototype was the first fleet order, production and delivery to the CHP of 400 Special Service Package SSP equipped Mustangs. This Mustang is the Mustang that started it all as the first Mustang police car!

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Sundancer – 1981 AMC Eagle Sundancer, 1982 AMC Concord Sundancer – Jeff Koch @Hemmings

AMC’S INTERESTING, ILL-FATED EARLY 1980S ATTEMPT AT BRINGING BACK THE CONVERTIBLE, IN TWO FLAVORS: CONCORD AND EAGLE

AMC Sundancers: 1981 Concord & 1982 Eagle

AMC’S INTERESTING, ILL-FATED EARLY 1980S ATTEMPT AT BRINGING BACK THE CONVERTIBLE

The death of the “Great American Convertible” from the mid-’70s through the early ’80s has led to a lot of soul searching, head scratching, and finger pointing over the years. Who pulled the trigger? Who’s to blame? Was it the government publicly mulling over zealous safety regulations? Was it the advances in air conditioning that had made cool, enclosed air more desirable—and cheaper—than sun and a natural breeze? Was it Detroit, which refused to spend the millions tooling for a body style that was shrinking in sales from year to year? And if Detroit stopped making convertibles because of slow sales, wasn’t it really our fault? How did we ever get to a place where convertibles weren’t cool enough to buy?

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Related – The last AMC: Jeep’s ZJ Grand Cherokee turns 25, Renault, Chrysler and an Assassination