One Of The Coolest Police Cars Japan Ever Had Isn’t What You’d Expect

Sporting a monstrous big-block V8 engine, it’s safe to say that not many miscreants in domestic vehicles were able to outrun Tochigi prefecture’s furious pony. The Japanese Mustang police car is a 1973 Mach 1 Cobra Jet, one of the few examples that were legally exported in the ’70s, according to Hagerty. Ford North America manager Mark Wilson suspected that the Mustang Mach 1s came into the country around 1972 to 1973, and were likely marketed towards American troops staying there after the Vietnam War. As for the oddly foreign Japanese police car, it was apparently donated to the prefecture, according to local news outlet Asahi Shimbun.

After being in service for more than a decade, this pony is now tied down at the Tochigi driver’s license center exhibition room in Kanuma — and it’s not the only American automobile in the showroom that fulfilled its duties abroad. A Chevrolet that had been in Tochigi prefecture’s service for over two decades — which was even used to escort the emperor — is parked right beside the celebrated Mustang. Of course, that doesn’t mean Japan’s police cars mostly consist of American muscle; there are also some beefy JDM stars in its lineup.