The NZCC team travels down to Wellington, visits The Surgery and checks out an unusual police cruiser
It’s probably fair to say that, with a family history than spans back over 120 years in the car restoration business, Mike Baucke has petrol running through his veins.
As a youngster, Mike learned to drive in 1934 Chevrolet Junior which he had actually restored himself, and he spent his holidays touring around the countryside in the family Model A, so you can pretty much say that he had the bug from an early age. Nowadays Mike – along with his partner, Irene van de Coolwijk – provide the motivational force behind The Surgery, driving a proud bunch of dedicated craftsmen who are simply world class in their restoration abilities.
Mike and Irene have always been passionate about ‘different’ cars, and have owned an impressive array of classics over the years, including a 1934 Chevrolet, 1936 Plymouth, 1929 Essex, 1969 Pontiac Firebird, 1958 Morgan, 1965 Mk2 Daimler, several Mk2 Jaguars and BMW 2002s, a 1973 911 Porsche and a BMW M5. They have currently downsized their collection to a 1972 Lancia Fulvia coupé and a 1985 Mustang Interceptor, but you never know, Mike and Irene are deadly keen enthusiasts and are constantly looking for exciting and unusual classics.
As well as being one of the country’s leading classic car restorers, The Surgery has been the chief sponsor of The Surgery Intermarque Sprint Series (the longest running series of its type in NZ) for over 10 years, with six rounds every year at Manfeild and an average of 80 to 90 competitors at every round. The concept is a low key, low cost, professionally organised, track-based introduction to tarmac motor sport, which is fundamentally a standalone series for those drivers who wish to try their skills on the race track.
It also offers a competitive series for those who wish to pit themselves against others in their class, in the format of a dual car sprint, typically with no more than eight cars on the track at any one time; and an opportunity to enter into more competitive, serious forms of motor sport, for example Clubmans or Classic Racing.
The Surgery Intermarque Sprint Series is often frequented by many drivers who use it to hone their skills for other classic meetings, such as the Whittaker’s MG Classic Motor Race, MG Charity Classic and Central Districts Classic Car Club closed meetings, all in a format designed to be fun with friendly competition.
Cop Car
Mike and Irene are well known for their tight tussles with each other in their BMW 2002s in The Surgery Intermarque Sprint Series, and Mike concedes that Irene more often than not leads the way on the race track.
However, after 12 years of accident-free motor racing, Mike and Irene finally came to grief, with both cars coming off a little worse for wear after Irene was taken out by another car and with nowhere to go. Caught up in the on-track tangle, Mike had no option but to plough straight into Irene’s car. After piloting the BMWs for 12 years, Mike decided to repair them and began looking for something a bit different, that was more challenging and with more power. When he eventually found what he was looking for, the BMWs were sold and Mike purchased a 1985 Ford Mustang Interceptor.
This Mustang was taken out of service with the California Highway Patrol in 1987, and came to NZ that same year.
Back in the early to mid ’80s the California Highway Patrol was faced with the nation’s highest percentage of super-fast cars, due mainly to the increased importation of high performance cars from Germany, Italy and Japan. All this in a large state with oodles of space to run and hide from the law. Embarrassingly, American iron was simply being outrun, and the California Highway Patrol was faced with both a severe performance deficiency and a burgeoning wimpy image problem. It seemed that the only place the cops out-ran and actually caught the bad guys was on TV!
Severe Service
The Mustang Severe Service Package (SSP) was originally released in 1982 for limited use by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to test in high-speed pursuit conditions, and despite popular belief, there were actually only minor differences between the SSP Mustangs and their civilian counterparts. Both were equipped with identical 5.0-litre V8 engines and four-speed manual transmissions.
Also at this time Ford was re-entering the ever-competitive power battle with its arch-rivals Chevrolet and Dodge, with the new 5.0-litre HO Mustang. The lighter weight Fox-bodied Mustang boasted the free revving 5.0-litre, 302 V8 engine, impressing the Highway Patrol so much that it quickly decided this car was the answer to its dreams, and considered it necessary for catching the bad guys. Wanting a piece of the action, the CHP placed an order for 400 vehicles with ‘beefed up everything’ in typical fashion.
It was decided that a light box on the roof gave too much drag, and was a dead giveaway from a distance that a police car was on your tail, so they chose to use discreetly placed flashing lights concealed in the front grille and rear parcel shelf.
The final result was a two-door, tyre-smoking, door-slamming pursuit car. One Highway Patrol chief (while test driving a demo car) was quoted at the time as saying; “She ain’t the purdiest thang around but, sheeit! She don’t half go!”
He then unceremoniously lost control and crashed the car, writing it off!
However, there wasn’t much about the Severe Service Package that made it stand out from a standard Mustang really, and between 1982 and 1985, these variances included subtle changes such as relocating the remote boot release to the driver’s side, 15 by seven-inch steel wheels fitted with speed-rated tyres and plain centre caps to replace the standard 14 by six-inch wheels, a full-size conventional spare wheel and tyre, a 225kph certified and calibrated speedometer and a few other items installed, be it standard or optionally.
The CHP relished the fact the car was small, fast, and unlike the Chevrolet Camaros they had previously tested, the Mustangs were significantly more reliable mechanically. Also, with a price tag of only US$6800 each, the SSP was a bargain all around.
Subsequent to the highly encouraging results of the CHP trials, Ford proceeded with a limited police option based on the 5.0-litre Mustang sedan platform and called it the Special Service Package. During its production run from 1982-1993, these cars saw service with more than 60 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.
The most notable SSP equipment for the Mustang offered from 1986 onwards included some fairly fancy stuff in the form of standard and optional features, and when added to the items listed above, they could be combined to make a complete Special Service package which included such items as silicone radiator and by-pass hoses with aircraft-style hose clamps; engine and transmission oil coolers; a heater hose inlet restrictor; VASCAR two-piece speedometer cables; a radio noise-suppression package; heavy-duty air conditioning; a 135-amp Lestek alternator with transistorised voltage regulator; a door body-side moulding delete option; a recalibrated cooling fan clutch; inoperative door courtesy light switches; a single-key locking system; special coding for weight adjustment; heavy-duty, low-back, front bucket seats; aluminium LX wheels; the deletion of the under bonnet sound insulation; and finally a reinforced bullet-proof floor pan.
The key way of identifying an SSP Mustang is the Domestic Special Order (DSO) code, which is found on a credit card-sized plate affixed to the driver’s side of the car’s radiator core support, situated directly behind the headlight, or on the vehicle identification decal on the driver’s door. This two-digit hyphen four-digit code is unique to that particular Mustang, or a series of Mustangs that were ordered under that DSO. Each car’s DSO can be tracked back to Ford to find out the original jurisdictional customer, along with all of the unique cop stuff that was factory installed.
Surgical Mustang
Mike and Irene purchased their cop Mustang from friends at Moorhouse Muscle Cars in Christchurch a couple of years ago. Mike knew it would be an ideal project to replaced the BMWs, which would give him significantly more power whilst at the same time they’d be a little bit different out on the race track. The Mustang was taken back to The Surgery for a full check up and the removal of a few body parts. The heavy duty bullet-proof panels in the floor and doors were removed along with the shotgun mounts, which Mike reckoned were not going to be necessary at Manfeild race track. Mind you, he thought, they could come in handy!
The driver’s seat was removed and replaced with a race seat and full harness. A brake bias valve and shift light were also added, basically finishing off the interior. As for the handling, the best that could be said is that it went fast in a straight line but handled like an American cop car, lots of noise, tyre smoke and pathetic at going around corners. Well what do you expect, there are no corners in California. As Mike needed this thing to go around a race track, the suspension was severely beefed up, including a three-link rear end.
Engine improvements include a steel crank, forged pistons and performance headers providing a healthy 224kW (300bhp) on tap, coupled to a heavy duty clutch, five-speed manual gearbox and Detroit Locker diff all geared up to give a top speed of 240kph. Massive Aero Space Industries brakes take care of the stopping department.
Mike reckons the car is street legal and great fun on the track as well, complete with siren and flashing lights, and just to make things interesting, every now and then the odd 357-magnum cartridge shell still rolls out from under the seats after a sharp stop!
It must be more than a little disconcerting for other track users, and you can almost imagine Mike doing a Clint Eastwood whenever a competitor attempts to pass the Mustang – do you feel lucky punk? … You know the rest.
Words: Ashley Webb Photos: Adam Croy
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