SSP Mustangs at Ford 100th Anniversary Celebration, June 12-16th 2003, Dearborn, MI.

    We had a pretty good turnout of SSP's for the 100th show. Six altogether, including 3 TX DPS cars, one '92 Michigan State Police car, one '93 Missouri Highway Patrol SSP, and my '86 Fire Chief vehicle. I gotta hand it to these guys, they really put a lot of effort into their cars and it showed! Lots of attention to detail and equipment, and many people stopped by to check out the vehicles during the show.

    We had a great time not only at the show, but cruising around the general area. More than a few heads turned driving down Michigan Ave. in Dearborn and back and forth to the hotel in Livionia crusing with fully marked SSP vehicles. I know many in the area are used to seeing unusual vehicles near Ford's HQ, but they sure seemed surprised by us!

    It was nice to finally meet some of the others from the web, hopefully we can make the get togethers at least yearly as a group. Here's some photos of the group:

Thursday proved wet and kept the crowds down. From left, Joe Horvath's '87 Texas DPS, Dave Colvin's '93 MO HP car, my '86 Fire Chief vehicle, Tony Scharp's '88 TX DPS car, Darin Putman's TX DPS '93.

MSP Trooper Mike Lee 'met' Tony and Darin the night before, showed up the next day to keep us out of trouble!

The DPS hit a local Cruise night, take in a bunch of local hoodlums!. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

Even the State Police wanted in on the act!. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

Friday brought us better weather, and also one more SSP, Bruce Howard's '92 Michigan State Police model, next to mine.

Dave and Joe had nice displays with info and photos of their cars..The one to the left of Joe's hood shows a pic of the actual DPS trooper who drove the car!

Tony's, Darin's, Dave's and Joe's rides make for a nice display. Notice the tent behind us..A $10 bargain by Dave that was a lifesaver on Thursday!

Nice shot of Bruce's car, with Tpr. Henry of post 25 ready for a test drive! My '86 Fire Chief is on left, Darin's '93 on right.

Sgt. Shaw and Tpr. Henry of Post 25 ready to grab some of those reckless Model T drivers...Notice the smile as Sgt. Shaw goes for the ticket book!

With Tony and Darin in front, we head to the Proving Ground on Friday for a 12:30 run. We had to tour all the way around the grounds to get out, so lights and and occastional siren blip were in order!

Mounted deputy decides to join along with us, of course he's a few horsepower short! Notice the lineup of display cars, this was near the front of the grounds.

Here's a different kind of Mounted Patrol, this Wayne County Sheriff also wanted to tag along..Did you notice the police taking a particular interest in our cars?

Tony and Darin cruise up Michigan Ave toward the Proving Ground run on Friday...Driving around the city was a blast!

Couldn't pass this photo op by!

Darin's '93 ready to test!

Here's a sight the general public doesn't get to see very often..Yahoo!

Once on the track, we were limited to one lane, 35 MPH...chuckle.

There's actually several tracks at the Proving Ground, the high speed one is on the inside. Note the hill on the right, this is a model of a San Francisco street.

Whizzing by Ford's HQ off in the distance. As you might expect, things are fairly close together.

Tony takes a curve with a Marauder in tow..

Here a Cobra is on the way in..I'm sure he kept it at 35!

Lineup at the end of the track..DPS Trooper hats complete the look!

Here we are getting yelled at for being out of our cars during the photo op..it won't be the first time!

Nice shot by Don in front of the Ford Museum. Darin on left, Tony center, Mike right. I think we got yelled at twice parking here for this photo.

Tony poses with the Ford 100 logo up front. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

Tony's SSP in front of the Experimental area. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

And at the Ford museum. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

Emil Loefflerand the SSP group. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

Emil Loeffler, involved in the SSP program for 10 years, poses with Mike's '86. Nice guy with a lot of good info on the cars.

Back at the show, nice shot of Dave's Missouri car. Joe's checking out his interior.

Shot of Tony's trunk. No, the shotgun's not real but it sure looks it! Nice detail, and you gotta love the license plate frame.

Better hit the brakes if you see this is front of you! All the Michigan SSP's were slicktops.

Here's a look inside Bruce's '92..Talk about detail, even the styrofoam coffee cups have the MSP logo on them! Black interior only used by a few states.

A look inside Dave's 1993. Nice! Note 160 MPH speedo, full power, also cruise control, red interior, not very common SSP options.

Here's Joe's pristine '87 inside, complete with hat and TX DPS gear. These cars had the 140 MPH certified speedo.

Darin's '93 with super detail, working electronics. These guys sure put me to shame!

Tony's DPS with correct Bee radar, dash strobes..awesome. Smokey D. Bear gets to make the shows. Cruise control here also..

Eric didn't quite have an SSP, but his '98 Crown Vic was a pretty cool 'Demo' vehicle nontheless.

Some SSP owners pose with their rides just before sundown, which during June in Dearborn  is about 9:30 PM!

Lights on!

Nice light show from the rear..

We hit the 50's McDonalds Saturday cruise night, Telegraph Road, Dearborn Heights. There's a Krispy Kreme next door, where we scored some free donuts...

Neat place, built with the retro style look to it..One of several cruise spots in the area, there was a steady stream of mostly American muscle coming thru all night.

MoTown in the background..SSP in front!. Thanks to Tony Scharp for photo.

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