I worked for a Taxi company many years ago. anyway... the boss and I would go to police auctions out in Suffolk and pick up old police cars for taxis. We picked up two 74 Dodge Dart 4 door with 360 engines, big orange dual snorkel air cleaner and 727 trans. One needed a carb gasket and a trans and the other ran perfect. Dual exhaust that sounded better than stock(like a small cam with a little more duration) Anyway we got em both running pretty good and we raced each other up and down Herzel blvd.We sold them privately since he thought the taxi drivers would tear em up. They were fast!!!
My older brother had a 62 Ford 2 dr sedan police special.It had the 390" solid lifter "interceptor police special" engine with low rear gears and O/drive 3 speed on the tree....It was a scaryfast sonofabitch...that coming from an lifelong avowed Chevy guy,so take it however ya like.... A friend was a mechanic for the Missouri Hiway patrol in 1960's he said the 409 engines in the patrol's cars were deadly fast. They also had a tendency to cavitate oil in the pan during hi speed pursuits and blow them up fairly often as well.....
That's what I meant... fast for the times. Maybe I should start another thread for fastest Bad Guy cars.
The green and white job is a 61 Plymouth, Sheesh you guys are young. Our county Sherriff department had a few pursuit vehicles in the mid 50's. They were 2dr Ford Crestline sedans. They were pretty striped down with only a radio, a unity spot and one roof bubble gum light. They wore 6 ply 8.75 X 15 front tires and 9.25's on the back. Under the hood they had paxton supercharged 312 T bird based engines and a three speed standard. Dual exhaust with very healthy sounding mufflers. Regular partol cars were Oldsmobile dynamics (the model under the 88) Seems the Sheriff's Father in Law had this Olds dealership, and some how got the contract from the late 40 through the late 50's. In about 59 they switched to Plymouths as they could piggy back of the State Police contract deal. State police ran Plymouth Belvederes, with 4bbl 318's and torqueflites. Thruway (I 90 toll road) had in 62 2 door Savoys with single 4 bbl 413. City police used 6 cylinder Chevies. (but there were a metric shit ton of them) That guy Broderick Crawford Drove Buick Specials in 57/58 on the Highway Patrol TV show.
In my wasted youth, I had a 1958 Ford Victoria 2dr. , with the 352 Interceptor engine. At the same time, the county Sheriff dept. from my home town had a 1963 Ford 2dr. with a 406 and 4-speed tranny. They thought this thing was the living end. I outran this car on open road several times. The last time we ran, my rear end let go at a little over a hundred and I was f@$cked. That officer is still alive, and we have laughed about it many times. However, that '58 was a dog compared to an ex-Wisconsin State Patrol car I got at auction. It was a '66 Ford with a 428 side oiler engine. These things would go. And for the era, they didn't handle too bad. Rode kinda shitty, though...Ole Pork
Very rare cars, but ford did put a hot 427 in a few 1963 Galaxie four doors for law enforcement. I believe they did this with some 406 motors in 62 as well.
I believe in about 55, Buick put the big Roadmaster engine in the 2 door Special. Sold 135 of them. All to the CHP.
I don't know if this is about the first factory type production 'fast' police cars, or if this is about the 'first fast' police cars. If it is the latter, then you've got to go back to the old bootlegger days and talk to the likes of Junior Johnson and other southern pioneers of NASCAR racing. Back in the day, they'd take one of Henry's 30s and 40s Fords, and they'd drop in a new Cadillac motor out of a wrecked hearse or ambulance, and the 'revenuer's couldn't keep up with them. These cars got so hot that if they could be caught, the gov't agents would capture them, repaint them, and then use the captured cars against the bootleggers. There was an article in HOTROD mag awhile back about a guy who was a 'reformed' bootlegger and was showing off some of his collection of old cars. He had a '40(?) Ford that had the Caddy engine in it (if I remember correctly) and he says he had it well up over 200 (again, if I remember the article correctly) due to the updates to the engines.
When asking a question like that, we should put it in perspective. Are we asking about cars in the 60's, the 70's, or in history? During the 20's Studebaker sold a small car with the engine from a big car and called it the 'Sherriff" model. Ab Jenkins used one for speed records and hill climbs all over the country. Check out the book "Ab Jenkins and the Studebaker Connection".
Then theres Charlie Sheen's buddy..... from that car movie (???) Only real fast cop cars needed antlers....
I think what it boils down to is that the Police used what ever was top dog at that time whether it was 1920's or 70's, that is if they wanted a top dog for a specific reason. Such as LAPD's 57 Olds J2's for freeways or regular Fords for the street.
1963 Ford Fairlane 4 door, came from the factory with a Nascar Spec 428 FE Big Block, only 6 or 7 ever made and distributed only to sherrifs never intended to be a patrol or interceptor type of car. Saw this on American Muscle Car on Speed channel one day and found it very interesting so I took a mental note.
That guy Broderick Crawford Drove Buick Specials in 57/58 on the Highway Patrol TV show. [/quote] actully Broderick's TV show had real CHP cars that were the Century's. a Buick Special with the roadmaster 322. in road test in 1955 the Buick did 0-60 in 9.1 sec faster than the corvettes and T-birds it was the fastest production car in the U.S. I don't remember watching the show after 1955 thats when I discovered girls were more than sissies
Just for the record they were called Century's and it was available to all. a neighbor of mine was a local T.V. star (kids show) called himself Capt. Jet used a hand signal at sign off that he said "Zoom!"had a Tri Toned 55 Century convertible used to smoke the tires every time he left the house drunk, we always use his hand signal and say "Zoom!" My brother in law had a factory stick 55 Century that was still fun in 62.
Since this thread is really not specific to what era I thougth I would say in my opinion till this day one of the fastest,mass produced cop cars made were the 93-96 Chevy Caprices/Impala SS with the LT-1. I owned one so Im saying this through experience. Underated at 275 hp well over 300 ft lbs of torque with an overdrive& 4 wheel discs to name a few performance options. 140 mph was not a problem even for a long period of time!
Summer of '69 I visited my sister in Hurst, Tx. Hanging with the locals at some big parking lot the cops would cruise through, in Chevelle 4-doors with 427 emblems on the front fenders, got to see one go after a speeder one time, pulled out of that lot and got on his ass pronto! Had a real nice set of pipes on that thing.
My dad heard rumor that there was a pair of dual quad 427 powered 4dr '64 Galaxie pursuit cars. He wasn't sure if they were ordered that way or built after delivery. My grandfather ran a Dodge dealership in north Texas. He ordered a dozen 375hp 440 / 727 / 3:54 Dana'd Coronet 440 sedans for a local police agency. He said they were the fastest cars he ever sold - and he managed this dealership from '62 to '74.
Uh......would that be Martin Sheen's buddy Vic Morrow in the California Kid?? What was the cop car? Late 50's Plymouth maybe. Gotgas, Where in north Texas was your grandfathers dealership? The Highway Patrol around here had 440 Plymouths(Furys, I think) in the late 60's/early 70's and they'd stay with most of the musclecars. My poor little 289 Mustang didn't stand a chance with them. Larry T
37 Terraplane coupes were the first PA. State cars, they were all white and called ghost cars. In 38 they painted the hoods black to cut down sun glare.
To clarify, there wasn't really a time frame in mind. I was interested in the early ones (approx. 1930's cars, roughly). I should have titled it "Let's discuss early cop cars". Some of you guys have some crazy stories. I love hearing them so keep them coming. I am aware of the 93-96 Caprice 9C1 cars with the LT1, a lot of people go after those so they can get a cheap Impala SS. A friend had a former CHP 5.0, which was scary fast with it's light weight and short wheelbase. It was no probelm doing doughnuts, or catching up to people on the highway. It was repainted when he got it so it looked like a little 4 banger that someone put GT wheels on.
The dealership was in Irving, right where Frank Parra and all those dealerships are across from Texas Stadium. I can't remember off the top of my head what the name of the dealership was back then. I'm not sure what department they ended up with, but it was probably Irving or a city close by.
Back in 1956 Rod and Custom I believe did a piece on 3 contenders for CHP cars.One escapes me but the other two were the Buick Century and th e Olds 88 K-model.Both were standard shift.I still have the issue around;I 'll see if I can dig it out. A friend of mine back around 1971 had a 65 or 66 Chrysler wagon that was an ex-Massachusetts State Police car used strictly for high speed pursuit on The Mass Pike.It had a 440 engine w/single 4 barrel.A couple of unusual features were a HUGE generator(for running all the electrical goodies;not an alternator)and extra slow steering that was limited also to turning radius;apparently to eliminate quick and potentially deadly turns at high speed.What a bear to drive around town!
I know in 1957 the police could get specialy equipped persuit cars with heavy duty suspension and brake package and a dual quad V800 318 CI motor. And then for the guys that could not handle the speed and wiped out they would send one of these.
I used to have a 1974 Dodge Custom. It was just like the bluemobile and an ex OPP highway pursuit car. It had a little sticker in the glove box that said that it didn't meet any emmisions requirements since it was built for law emforcement use. It had straight pipes, a thermoquad, and zero smog stuff. It also had a 2.24 9.25" rear and 140mph police certified speedo. The car would flat out haul ass from 50mph on up and would bury that speedo with ease. It was a strippo model and still weighed 4200lbs.
LOL! I read that photo caption years ago and got a good chuckle out of it, too. '50-53 Ford police cars could be special ordered from the factory with a 4bbl carb, dual exhaust, hotter cam, higher compression pistons, 3spd-OD, either 4.10 or 3.73 gears. But no Merc crank, so far as I know. But kids in light-bodied souped up flathead roadsters could still outrun them, as could bone stock OHV Cads, OHV Olds, 7-X Hudsons, Hemi Dodges and Chryslers, OHV V8 Packards, OHV V8 Lincolns, souped-up Mercurys, etc.) so where's the "dangerously fast" part except in the fevered imagination of a Company Publicity Hound? LOL.
My dad had bought a old wrecked station wagon that was about a 68 or 69 Chrysler or Dodge. Yanked the motor and it casted in the block "HP440" Then sold motor to a guy, that put it in a cuda or challenger. The guy said it ran pretty mean.
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