SPOKANE, Wash. — The greatest muscle car that ever wore a uniform is now racing toward retirement. After more than a decade as the most widely used law enforcement vehicle in the nation, the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor — the Crown Vic, as it has become known — went out of production in 2011.

And this summer, through whatever mysterious karma shapes the police universe, Trooper Randy Elkins was assigned to be the driver and keeper of the last Crown Vic bought by the Washington State Patrol. “It’s kind of the end of an era,” Trooper Elkins said from behind the wheel of Unit 606 on a recent morning during rush-hour patrol here in eastern Washington, near the Idaho border. “My goal is to keep it to the end, right to the last mile.”

Law enforcement is a practical, left-brain business of protocol and procedure. But a discussion of the Crown Vic brings out a romantic side. The traditions and symbols of life behind the badge become intertwined with its tools. Two tons of rear-wheel drive and a V-8 engine up front made for a machine that could feel safe at any speed, a reliable nonhuman partner when things got crazy.

“That was a big part of it,” said Lt. Dan McCollum, the fleet manager for the Kansas Highway Patrol. “If you had any severe crash or a hairy situation with a Crown Vic, you could become real attached to it when it performed well and either saved your life or protected you from great bodily harm.”