[Shotimes] Police and other grills, was vent holes in the header panel

[Donald Mallinson]

Ron,

One thing for sure, the "police" grill never was an option 
on the SHO.  that is why you never saw them on those cars 
till people discovered them and liked them and started 
putting them on.

For me it isn't about cooling, although it DOES offer some 
minor advantages, it is about looks, and having something 
that not everyone has.

I have the old brochures, and at least in the main showroom 
brochure, there is not a "towing" package.  Maybe you are 
thinking about the "Heavy Duty Load Carrying suspension 
(with V6 engine)"(exact words from the 1989 brochure).

The police/taxi and other special packages are almost never 
mentioned in the public brochures, but towing packages 
usually are, and they aren't mentioned in any of the 
1989-1991 Taurus brochures.  Maybe in the order books that 
the public usually never sees.

As for some of those cars you saw running around with the 
grill back when the cars were new (1986-1991) chances are 
many of them were police/taxi models that never sold to 
police departments.  A FWD police car was something most 
police departments never wanted.  Many of them were probably 
made to show to departements, and for anticipated sales. 
These cars then go to the general public eventually.

The "new" Taurus had enough power and room to be practical 
for some departments, but most didn't consider FWD durable 
enough for the intended use and till the demise of the 
Caprice, very few FWD cars made it to departments.  Now the 
Impala is in some departments, but the bigger RWD Crown Vic 
still outsells it by a wide margin, exploding gas tank and all.

As mentioned many times, the "police" grill IS also the Taxi 
grill, and maybe it could be ordered with some other 
packages, or by itself.  I will find out about that pretty 
quick and settle that question.

What is NOT in dispute is that it is no more wrong to call 
it the "police" grill than to call it the "taxi" grill, or 
in your words the "towing package" grill.

The grill has always been, and will forever be correctly 
referred to as the "Police" grill, and yes, mainly because 
it sounds better than "taxi" grill.  When I tell people 
about the grill at shows and cruise in's I tell them exactly 
that, and they seem to get why it would be called the Police 
grill.

Don Mallinson
Ron Porter wrote:
> Well, a lot of things were a part of the Police package, and the HD Cooling
> - Trailer Towing (now I don't recall if these were one & the same or not)
> was just one component.
> 
> There are a LOT (well, "were" a lot) of the SLOs with the slotted grill
> around Detroit, and a bigger bunch around Louisville. There was even at
> least one regular SLO with the grill in the junkyard when I bought my seat
> track, but I already had the grill on the '89 and they weren't in short
> supply yet. Through the late '90s, I saw more of those grills on SLOs than I
> did on SHOs. And I don't recall seeing them on very many police cars,
> although IIRC Louisville had a couple of old SLO department cars still
> running around.
> 
> If someone has one of the old Sales Brochures for Tauri from the '89-'91
> era, I'm sure the exact listing of the option will be there.
> 
> IMHO, SHO folks called them Police grills, because that sounds better than
> the "Taxi" grill or the "Towing" grill!!
> 
> Using the grill is a "looks" thing, it's the only reason that I and other
> got it in the first place.
> 
> Ron Porter