With heavy hearts, police retire their Red Rocket
Some think it’s a museum piece, but that old Crown Victoria made some lasting friends
Thirty-six years after Crown Victoria Interceptors became the most recognizable police car across Canada and the United States, Hamilton’s last one — a big burgundy boat nicknamed “the Red Rocket” — is coming off the road.
For Hamilton police Const. Mike Lacombe, the last officer assigned to the car for the past two years, the retirement on Wednesday is bittersweet.
“It’s kind of an end of an era, this car is built for police work and we love driving it,” he said, but added it was time.
Car No. 148 has been on the road since 2011 — the last year Ford made the car — used by traffic officers working in the central region of Hamilton. Its odometer surprisingly only reads 104,000 kilometres, but Lacombe said it probably has one million hours of running time — mostly doing traffic enforcement.
Lacombe said he is stopped all the time during shifts. People will ask him if he took the car out of the police museum; some car buffs or those who remember the cars from their childhood want pictures, some don’t believe it’s a real police vehicle.
Just recently, Lacombe was doing speed enforcement on Highway 6, near Concession 5, when he was approached by an OPP cruiser.
Turns out the OPP officer was responding to a call for a fake police car, giving out tickets, after someone mistook the Red Rocket for a fake.
“We had a little chuckle about it,” he said.
“It’s not the first time someone called in saying there is a fake police car.”
The maroon colour and lowresolution markings also make it inconspicuous and a good vehicle to drive to catch people using their cellphones while driving, or other traffic safety infractions, Lacombe said.
The four-speed automatic transmission car with 239 horsepower and 4.6-litre V8 engine has a lot of power, and officers often fought over who got to drive it.
Even its police vehicle number is a bit of a legend because 148 also happened to be the badge number of the first officer who drove the car — retired Const. Tom Chalmers — who liked to say the car was named for him.
Over the years, the car has been in a fair number of crashes. Lacombe joked that there were more replacement parts than originals.
On Friday, Lacombe took the car for its last car wash and said he was going to take some pictures for memories, then the traffic unit will say so long. It will be put up for auction.