Narco Camaro

What in the Sam Hades is a NarcoCamaro? Well Kojak, it's a nasty black '98 Z28 Camaro that is narcotics-duty ready and prowling the streets of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area by the friendliest narcotics officer this side of the Rio Grande. You see, not all police Camaros started life as the regular production option (RPO code) B4C. For 1998, the B4C option was almost identical to the Z28, but only available for fleet orders. If a department decided to order multiple cars and supply the factory with line drawings, their fleet could have the doors and hood painted a secondary regular production color. From a mechanical standpoint, other than different rear trailing arms and a power steering cooler, not much difference existed. Sure the Z28 emblems were removed and you got the low-rent vinyl steering and standard radio, but the real weight-reduction items, such as power windows, locks and mirrors, cruise control, and power hatch release were all retained. When Officer Kevin Oginski of Arlington, Texas, threw the motor on his Northlake Police Department Crown Victoria cruiser in July of 2003, he was ingenious enough to present the police department with a way to both save money and, better yet, actually catch cars on the interstate that would outrun his tired Crown Vic. Just imagine the ridicule you would face if a SUV or import wasted you on the highway. Forced with the options of either rebuilding the Vic or using a '03 Vic, but having to remove and reinstall the back seat on every shift for his four-year-old Belgium Shepard Brando, Kevin suggested that the department find a clean, used, LS1-powered Z28 and lease it for his patrol duties. In September of 2003, Kevin located a black '98 Z28 in Houston that was owned by an airline pilot. Not only was it clean, but also came nicely equipped with the optional Eagle RS-A tires and power-steering cooler. Having never seen the rain and used exclusively as a weekend toy, this bone-stock, auto-equipped Z was the perfect canvas to create the ultimate police interceptor.

With the car back home, the first duty was to bring it up to police standards. This was no easy task because custom mounts were fabricated to install many of the parts, including the front-end bull bar and police lights. After the whirlwind makeover was complete, the car was equipped with the mandatory police lights, sirens, and bull bar, along with radios (both 400 and 800 MHz units), radar, siren control center, public address system, in-car video, and a public address system. Whoops, almost forgot the custom rack on the inside rear deck for the Remington 870 police shotgun! The lightweight Camaro became portly, tipping the scales at almost 3,900 pounds with driver. Clearly stock power, so for that matter, handling would have to be addressed if NarcoCamaro was going to successfully chase down suspects. Kevin addressed both issues by discussing a sponsorship strategy with his chief of police, Terry Fiene. What if the city of Northlake allowed Kevin to display sponsor graphics and promote the sponsors in return for parts and labor for the Z28? The chief bought into the plan and Kevin attacked the Camaro's mods with a vengeance. According to the owner, the goal of using the Camaro as a pursuit vehicle was two-fold: to have a dependable vehicle capable of running down suspects in very modified cars, and to bring positive attention to the department and the car sponsors. This would help the public's awareness that the aftermarket vendors and shops are fully behind efforts to stem the flow of drugs and illegal street racing in the communities!

First up was the suspension, as triple-digit speeds and the stock suspension weren't very compatible, especially with the added weight. LG Motorsports came on board and sponsored the suspension pieces. Want to run fast and hit the corners? How about LG's torque arm, upper and lower control arms, and a Panhard bar? All parts utilize spherical rod ends for maximum control. Round out the suspension with LG's front and rear sway bars equipped with poly bushings and you are just springs and shocks away from a road-race-capable high-speed police pursuit vehicle. Lowering the car wasn't a viable option (envision Smokey and the Bandit as Sheriff Buford T. Justice busts ass through a grass median to chase the Bandit going in the opposite direction). So Kevin replaced the springs with Moog replacement Camaro SS units and rounded out the package with Camaro SS shocks. Wolfe Race Craft stepped up and installed its weld-in subframe connectors and, for added safety, put in a four-point weld-in rollcage. After all, the rollcage was just for safety--what police officer would take his daily driver to the track for some smack-down action?

Engine and drivetrain modifications came fast and furious with a set of headers starting the parade. Pacesetter jumped on board and supplied its Armour-coated 1 7/8-inch-long tube headers. Geoff and Angie Skinner of Thunder Racing supplied a TR224/224 cam and 918 valvesprings. After replacing the plug wires, adding a TR high-flow lid, Holley Blue air filter and 160-degree thermostat, TR tuned the car and Kevin was ready to turn his attention to lightening the car and upgrading the tires. SLP jumped in and supplied one of its sweet Ultra-Z fiberglass hoods. The addition of Yokohama AVS 100 tires in the stock 275/40/ZR17 size was just the recipe because the stock tires were getting thin. The original 10-bolt houses 3.23 gears, an Eaton posi, and a TR aluminum cover with girdle support. With dyno-verified 400 rear-wheel horses, it's a potent package.

Instead of the normal photo shoot, Chief Fiene invited GMHTP to take an official ride-along while Kevin was on duty. Since Brando was furloughed due to budgetary cuts that temporarily stranded him back at Kevin's residence, at least I got to ride in the front seat! Sure, it would have been great to see a fully certified narcotics K-9 in action, but without a flak jacket, how close do you think I wanted to get to a makeshift meth lab out in the woods? Instead of following up on narcotics tips or busting meth labs, we settled into Kevin's normal patrol area, I-35 in Northlake, starting a mile south of the Texas Motor Speedway. A few minutes into the cruise and an '04 Dodge Sebring sped by us traveling over the 65-mph posted speeds. Kevin instantly noted that the car had an expired 2004 registration sticker and flipped on the lights to pull it over. After retrieving the pertinent information from the driver, Kevin called in the license plate and registration to dispatch and it was determined that the individual had a suspended license for not maintaining insurance on the car. After a few minutes of discussion, where the driver explained the situation and offered a current registration and insurance, Kevin let him go with a warning to go down to the Department of Motor Vehicles and dispense with the paperwork necessary to get right with the state. The poor person had allegedly been a "victim of identify theft" and was still trying to wade out from under the problems that it had caused. We then cruised over to the convenience store to get a Dr. Pepper and even before hitting the door, we were called back to assist as backup on a moving violation. A fast exit from the store and a few minutes later we pulled in behind a department cruiser and the vehicle they had stopped. Yep, an LS1-equipped Trans Am! The car was pulled over for speeding and the youthful owner was doing his very best to be locked up by being belligerent to the officer. "What the hell are you pulling me over for? I wasn't doing anything wrong; go do your job and fight crime instead of hassling honest citizens," he huffed.

"Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes people exceed the speed limit," Kevin says. "The towns that issue speeding tickets get very little revenue from them, as approximately 90 percent goes to the state if the violation is on an interstate. We are tasked with enforcing the law; it's our job. The best way to get a ticket is to be a jerk to the officer; be respectful and honestly answer their questions and you may be rewarded with only a warning." Yep, the kid managed to stay out of jail, but he walked away with a hefty speeding ticket--another one for his collection, I might add. After several more routine speeding stops and an assist in a traffic accident, the sun set and after dinner, we hit the highways again. A few minutes had gone by and, as we were traveling southbound on I-35, a late-model Suburban was clocked on the radar heading northbound at 89 mph. We quickly slowed down to around 40 mph, and to my astonishment, did a power slide through the grass median and shot northbound. In no time we were up to 140 mph with the sirens blaring and the lights pumping out high-voltage multicolored strobe patterns. The motorist saw us closing at a rapid rate of speed and wisely gave it up and pulled over. Kevin took out his police-issue flashlight and carefully proceeded around the passenger side of the car. A few minutes later he came back to the car, put the paperwork on the dash and dropped a fully loaded Glock Model 22, .40-caliber handgun on the driver-side floorboard. I sure could have used that flak jacket. According to Kevin, "one in approximately every 20 vehicles that is pulled over is carrying either legal or illegal firearms." In this case, the owner had a valid Texas carry permit and told the officer that he was carrying a firearm and carefully pointed out its storage location.

We were out on a two-lane road talking shop with the police lieutenant, Brian Harpole, when, out of the blue, a Tahoe raced by us at high speed, skidded to a stop about 200 yards down the road and dumped two people out. The lieutenant took off after the Tahoe and Kevin went to see what was going on with the people who were dumped. Now understand, this happened just a week after a nationally publicized murder investigation concluded, not more than 1-mile from where we stood, with the result being two bodies buried in shallow graves. It turned out that the driver of the Tahoe just plain got tired of her stoned kid's mouth and dumped he and his girlfriend on the side of the road to fend for themselves. The young gentleman gesticulated wildly at our approaching car, and it required Officer Oginskis' demands over the PA system for the suspects to drop down on the ground before we could safely approach. He was clearly jacked up, but if they were carrying drugs, they tossed them as they saw us approach. Without Brando on duty, the search through the tall grass proved to be fruitless. The mother who dumped the kids didn't get ticketed; she already had enough on her hands.

When not patrolling the streets, Kevin and his wife Ellie are avid car people. Her ride is a '00 Camaro SS with a heads/cam package. At the Thunder Racing Shootout in Louisiana, Kevin entered and competed in the brackets. The Camaro ran very respectable 12.60s at 108.73 mph. Since then he has been continuing to modify the car, with the most recent additions being the OE Concepts Z06R wheels, FLT Stage 4 4L65E transmission, FAST intake, TSP 233/239 cam, and the Nitrous Express NXL and MAF nitrous systems. Although the nitrous hasn't been activated yet, you can bet that Kevin will let her loose as soon as he gets an upgraded fuel pump and injectors to support the additional 375 hp. With the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, a second project has been undertaken. A stripper '93 Z28 was located in Miami, and transported to Clark Brother's Paint & Body in Arlington. While there, a late-Fourth Generation front end was put on the car along with a glass-like black paint job. That's right, Kevin is preparing a strip-only replica of his patrol car with a goal of running low-8s. With the help of BMR, Procharger, Wolfe RaceCraft, Real Performance Motorsports, and others, he is hopeful to have the car race-ready sometime during the 2005 racing season. So the next time you decide to exceed the speed limit, pray a tired old Crown Vic trails you, as the combination of a nasty fast 775hp Z28 and a police radio are hard to beat!

Special Thanks
The City of Northlake and Officer Oginski wish to thank all of the fine sponsors of the car for their enthusiastic support.

Baer
BMR Fabrication
FAST
Finish Line Transmissions
LG Motorsports
Nitrous Express
O.E. Concepts
Procharger
SLP Performance Parts
TCI Transmissions
Texas Speed & Performance
Thunder Racing
Real Performance Motorsports
Synthetic Designs
Wolfe Race Craft

GMHTP would like to thank the city of Northlake for the ride-along and offer our sincere thanks to the officers on duty who made our outing memorable. A special thanks goes out to Jeff Chase for letting Randall hang out the window of his Crown Victoria cruiser to take action shots without ticketing him for not using proper restraints!