AUTONEWS

Absolute rarity: Kenny Brown “P2 Panther” 1998 Ford Crown Victoria

This is a rare P2 Panther version of the Ford Crown Victoria built by Kenny Brown and his team in Indianapolis. It’s a supercharged version of the Crown Vic with a slew of other upgrades leaving it capable of a 5.2 second 0-60 mph time.

Kenny and his team built three key versions of the Panther, the non-supercharged P1, the supercharged P2, and the supercharged and bulletproof P3. Of these, the P2 is the quickest and generally the most desirable with collectors today.

The reason the humble Crown Vic has been so popular on-screen is because an astonishing number of them were used by both police departments and taxi cab services. As a result, whenever an American film or TV show has a taxi or a police car on screen, it’s likely to be a Crown Vic.

And a vast number of shows include either taxis, police cars, or both.

The Ford Crown Victoria, and its close sibling the Mercury Grand Marquis, made their debut in 1991. Unlike the vast majority of production cars at this time, the Crown Victoria was a body-on-chassis design rather than a unibody vehicle. It was also the largest sedan marketed by Ford in North America, and the only one to come as standard with a V8 engine, a full-length frame, and rear-wheel drive.

During its 1991 to 2012 production run, the Crown Victoria became the most common police car in the United States. The police version was initially named the Crown Victoria P71, this was changed to the Police Interceptor from 1999 onwards.

The car was powered by the Ford Modular V8 in 4.6 liter form, with a single overhead cam per bank, mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission sending power to the rear wheels.

The police versions of the model received heavy-duty suspension, bigger brakes, a larger alternator, close-ratio gears, and a modified ECU for better performance. The steering was also modified and an engine oil-to-water cooler was added.

The real pièce de résistance of the P2 Panther lay under the hood, the original 4.6 liter Modular V8 was given a supercharger and an intercooler, sending in 7.5 lbs of pressure and boosting output to 350 bhp from the original 235 bhp, and 400 lb ft of torque rather than the original 276 lb ft.

Performance was brisk, with the 0-60 mph time dropping to 5.2 seconds and the 1/4 mile time sitting at under 14 seconds.

Kenny also offered a less costly P1 version of the Panther, which came without the supercharger, and a more costly (and more heavy) bulletproof version called the P3 Panther.

The car you see here is one of the original Kenny Brown-built P2 Panther versions of the Crown Victoria.

Inside you’ll find a split front bench seat with fold-down armrests, the original AM/FM/cassette stereo system, a certified-calibration speedometer, and pillar-mounted auxiliary AutoMeter Pro-Comp gauges for boost and fuel pressure.

It’s finished in Gloss Black over a gray interior, and it’s fitted with matching Gloss Black wheels with a Black nudge bar up front. As you would expect it has four-wheel Brembo brakes, and that Eaton SVT supercharger with an intercooler under the hood.

The car currently has 15,420 miles on the odometer and it’s now due to roll across the auction block with Mecum on the 11th of January in Florida.

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