In my February issue of the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) There are couple of good articles...

1. 10 greatest cop cars....???? But the first car listed is a 55 Buck Century 68....A two door sedan, made more famous by the TV show in the 50's with Brodrick Crawford...HIGHWAY PATROL.

Only 270 were built..135mph with manual transmission..and 135mph with automatics. Not bad for a big ole boat back then.

I won't list all of them here, but I should have been a German cop on the Autobahn..They drove Porsche 911's back in the 60's....Same for some of the Dutch...Porsche's' were also driven up into the 90's.

A 69 Dodge Polara 440, Plymouth--1968-1970 Belvedere Pursuit

3 Chevy's...1975-79 Nova 9C1.....1991-2002 Camaro B4C, and the 1994-1996 Caprice 9c!..?????? (that is listed as one of the all time best??????...Who wrote this article anyway?)

A 1982-1993 Ford Mustang Special Service Package.....


I tell you what...the old Fords weren't worth a tiddly's . XXXX

With a 390 in a 4dr sedan...The brakes would fade bad after about three hard stomps in a pursuit.....Plymouths were pretty good with the 318.....But I'm not a Plymouth fan.


Further back there's this months Buyers Guide for handguns,shotguns and rifles.....The Para Ordance P-14, I already have...Heavy sucker.....It mentions the S & W performance center RoundButt SW1911, the Taurus 709, among a couple of others.....

Rifle..Winchester 1873 20" round bbl in .357/38...(Hmm I might even have to look into that one myself)...The Rock River LAR-47 CAR A4 ....And the Windham Weaponry sight ready carbine with the MrA4 flatop design with a Picatinny rail.

Shotguns Stoeger M3500, a Remington Versa Max Sportsman .

Anyway, not here to promote any of this stuff, just some good reading in the Feb issue of the FOP Journal..

Pretty good article about the attacks on LEO's world wide, not just here in the US. I think we've all been reading that in the papers lately.

Well, stay alert out there, not just with the guns, driving, and food you eat.....


WuzzFuzz

I was never in early enough to drive some of the older V8 cars, but I can remember going with my father when I was about 6 or so when he had to go get one of the new town PD cars. There were three cars for the whole town, two patrol and one was the chief's. His was blue the others were white. We were getting a new Diplomat, not sure of what it had, probably a 318 but I have seen a couple old county sheriff cars that were specially ordered with a 360 and they would move. Anyway I remember helping my dad put the decals on the doors when we got it home. Just a big version of the Rouses Point PD badge. I remember when my mother was working and we didn't have a babysitter I would ride along with him. Imagine doing that now? I remember going to a couple of brush fires. That car was fun to ride in and I loved the old sirens.
The first old PD car I drove was a retired county sheriffs Crown Vic that was given to the jail. What a heap. It went from the sheriffs, to the county nursing home, the health department, then us. It has 120,000 plus miles, the steering wheel had a chunk missing, and I remember the cage falling out of it once and the brake pedal slammed into the floor once when I was driving it. If it was a horse it should have been taken out back and shot.
Later on we were given two more ex-patrol Crown vics but they were newer and not as beat up. I loved driving those, one morning I got stuck on a hospital detail and ended up getting relieved late, and I had to work that afternoon after 17 hours and I was an hour away. So I got in that car stayed in the left lane and thumped on it. I was impressed at how well those cars would handle at high speeds. Later we got plain jane Crown Vics with a nice paint job because they were brand new, but they were standard V8's, no performance package. They drove and handled ok, but nothing like the ones with the little Interceptor badge on the back. I always wanted a Dodge Diplomat PD car because I wanted to recreate the old Rouses Point PD car that my father and I picked up, I would rather have one of those than any of the newest and fastest cars now. Something about riding on that big bench seat with the siren wailing that did it.

__________________
Vaya con Dios

I remember the 63 or 64 440 Plymoths 2 door intercepters...Now in Cincinnati the average beat car wouldn't pull a sick***** out of bed b ut for some reason the Covington Ky.traffic unit got one of those....Got a lot of guys in trouble...Most cops back then were red blooded early 20's types and could not resist the temptation....Remember the darn apple that got us all in trouble???Well that darned car was worse than that famous apple. We would meet them on the bridge aqnd it was always a new officer...When asked what happened to so and so? you would get the same answer....Driving on the Interstate at 120+ He is now working the night shift......possobly forever....The car didn't last very long. as it was hard to transport a prisoner in a 2 door. Or so they said!!!

Only in Alabama would ya find an AMC AMX/Javelin Police Interceptor!



Swingin'!

This brings back some old memories. When I first started on my first PD, we had a 1967 and a 1968 Chev Caprice. The headlight dimmer switch was on the floor under the brake pedal (everybody remembers those I'm sure). Next to it was another foot switch that activated the siren. You would hold it down with your foot and the sound would go up in pitch and then lift your foot off the switch and the sound would drop slowly. There was no A/C or am/fm radio. We were allowed to take a transistor radio in the car only on night shift to keep us awake. Ah, the good old days.

__________________
Dennis
He's got a gun!

Dave...See what you started back then with your dad????? The original "Ride Along Program":

MKK41...The AMC was mentioned..Not the AMX, but the AMC Matadore Enforcer.....1972 with the 401 cu...255 hp....LAPD had a fleet of them...Article goes on to say that the movie's got them...The A Team...Rockford Files.....Then they were good for being used in the pursuit/crash scene.....They were expendable then!!!!!!

Hey, that AMX was a Hot car in it's day...A very underrated car.....But it had "American" on the hood, which was mostly associated with the Rambler........


Remember those...The Rambler was the best xxxx car on the road....The seats laid down into a bed....But you best have that little prong adapter that was supposed to be kept in the glove box. That was put under the back of the front seat to keep it all level

Back when...The 1958 Ford, with the 352 Police Interceptor engine was a hot car back then...All black with the white doors....I can't remember now for sure, if the speedometer read 150 or 160...But later on in the years, when you saw a 4 door sedan for sale in the used car lot, you would do a double take and look at the speedometer to see if it had the Interceptor package....Those were the ones to buy used........60 Fords??? Not so much...61's 2's 3's and 4's, Lots of those...Seems like 60 4dr sedan Chevys were the ones for 1960. Or at least back in the area I came from.


WuzzFuzz

From 1980 to 2003 I drove Dodge Diplomats with both 318 and 360's, good once they got a couple model years under their belts and worked the bugs out, Ford Crown Vic's, they all sucked, Chevy Caprices and Tahoes. Hands down the best patrol cars I ever drove were the 94-96 Caprice Classics, best handling, fastest, cop-friendly of all of them. They weren't the prettiest or sportiest but for day to day patrol they were top-shelf.

The AMC engines were great reliable motors and the 401s are hard to find. Pluck a stock 304 out of a CJ and drop in a freshened up 401 with Edelbrock Performer Package (aluminum heads , intake cam and carb) and you have an 12sec Jeep.

Our cruisers had the old stand up shotgun in it's rack, right there in the center.....Yes, we were supposed to take them out and check them each time before we left assembly...Most did...but a person had to. Gum wrappers, little wadded up pieces of paper...those candy corn things you get around Halloween time....You'd get all kinds of stuff coming out the end.

You had to take the gun out, point it away, pull back the slide to the open, and manually take out and count the shells. Put them back in and none in the breech....

More than one person didn't...Messing around, and pulled the trigger while the gun was upright in the rack......Woops there's a hole in the roof.....Now how did that happen? That was a no brainer,,,the guy didn't check his weapon like he was supposed to...."But..But...But...But...Sarg, I did check the gun before I left assembly"


It wasn't me...but one of the day shift....Got a brand new cruiser..Check out is 7;15...By 8:00 KER-BOOM

Officer went out of service...took it back to the dealer, had them put a new top interior in. Repaired the roof...Got it all done before 3:30.....Of course he had to pay for it out of his pocket.....But Brand New


WuzzFuzz

For you fellows that aren't LEO's or Ex LEO's...Look out that car with the out of state license plate might be a un-marked car...

Our dept would confiscate a car every once in a while...Usually a drug runner car....That car might get swapped out with a car from another state. The the out of state car could be used by the under cover officers to do their thing...Who would suspect a guy in a out of state car....

What was it?????It was either a Pontiac Tempest, or a Olds 442, I can't remember now. But it was about the time, they just came out. Ohhh, that had to hurt losing that one


Change the subject...have you ever went to that Gov web site, when they have those auctions of confiscated stuff.....Cars, airplanes, jewlery, boats..you name it. from the DEA, IRS, Treasury Dept.....Some is pennies on the dollar, some you have to watch out for.

I bought a Airplane at auction...But I had some help...The airplane was confiscated by the DEA...Got the airplane, and the log books....The log books were kept in the safe at the DEA...No one knew about that...Buying a airplane without the log books (History), well you don't know what you're getting....


Well I've got friends in low places....He told me where the log books were....I bought the plane for far less than it was worth. After I got legal possession of it, then my friend at the DEA, got me the log books...Hee..Hee..Hee...

But that's a good place to find stuff.


WuzzFuzz

Back in the day, as the saying goes, Bucyrus was the Friday/Saturday night cruise-in capitol of central Ohio.
The town had a couple of Studebaker Larks complete with 6 cylinder engines for cop cars.
Kind of a joke with all the cruisers.

Myron

"Rifle..Winchester 1873 20" round bbl in .357/38"

The FOP Journal did a review on a '73 Winchester copy...WOW!

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Back in '74 our Dept. ordered new Fords with some serious specifications. It became known as the "Elyria Ford" and was built at the Ford Assembly plant in Lorain, Ohio. It had a massive engine with some serious horsepower, and the transmission was locked out of 1st gear, to reduce breaking traction on acceleration. We heard stories about the workers having a real good time driving the cars off the assembly line.

When I was an Army MP we had what must have been the most underpowered patrol cars ever made -- Plymouth Reliant "K" cars. The Army got stuck with them as part of the first Chrysler bailout. They were so bad we envied the guy in the traffic unit that got to drive a twelve year old Ford Galaxy 500.

One of my rides from days past.

Don't you just love those big ole light bars from yesteryear?????



Before I forget......YOU LEFT YOU LIGHTS ON.:



WuzzFuzz

1977 Ford LTD II. Four months after this picture was taken I totalled it out, hit a guy that turned in front of me at 55 mph. That big front end could take a lot of punishment.

Attached Images

Patrol Officer Norm Miller LFPD#169 Oct 1978.jpg (25.2 KB, 13 views)

I drove a 1971 Ford Galaxie with 429 cu in engine. Need premium gas and had to take it out of town once a shift and floor it to burn carbon out. One time it backfired and blew airbreather of top of carb. !!
Spent a lot of time in full size Ford LTD models with 302 engines not
fast but easy to get in and out of.

I had the Polara. It was a rocket. I was a resident deputy sheriff in rural NV and had an huge area to cover. I pretty much lived in that thing. I remember that being a great car, although not uncommon to need refueling twice a day.