Police Cars on the History Channel

[lt93lover]

Anyone else catch this show? It was about Police cars through the years-very cool and informative. I grew up with the police cars that had the 'bubble gum machines' on the roof.

Made me remember other things, like cars that had wing glasses-Lord, remember those? Any car we had, once we opened the wing glass, they would leak anytime it rained! The coolest car my folks ever had was a 52 Chevy...

What other cool or weird things do you guyd remember about the cars of our past?

[The Don]

Anyone else catch this show? It was about Police cars through the years-very cool and informative. I grew up with the police cars that had the 'bubble gum machines' on the roof.

Made me remember other things, like cars that had wing glasses-Lord, remember those? Any car we had, once we opened the wing glass, they would leak anytime it rained! The coolest car my folks ever had was a 52 Chevy...

What other cool or weird things do you guyd remember about the cars of our past?

I caught that show they were showing a 1929 or early 30's police car with a shotgun mount that was bolted to the floor and the shotgun was a 1890' model browning pump action.The top was a Rag top with running boards on each side of the car!

[duckfan]

I DROVE the police cars with the bubblegum machines on top! When I started, we had mechanical sirens too!

Here's a list of the cars I had the pleasure of taking on patrol.
'68 Plymouth Fury (Slant 6 NYPD)
'69 Ford (351 V8)
'70-73 Plmouth Fury (360 V8)
'74 Plymouth Satellite (360 V8)
'75 Pontiac LeMans (350 V8)
'77-79 Plymouth Volare (318 V8)
'80-89 Diplomats (318 V8)
'90-'94 Fords (5.0 litre FI V8)
'95 Chevy (350 Lt1 FI V8)
'96-00 Fords. (5.0 litre FI V8)

I left the NYPD and went to a neighboring agency in 1969. I really didn't have enough time in the saddle with the '68 Fury to make a valid evaluation but I found that it was adequate for tooling around Manhattan. It was rare to be able to do over 50 even on a "gun run" there. The 96-00 Fords were the most comfortable. The '95 Chevy was the fastest. The Plymouth Satellite was a close second, but it was too light in the rear. That made the handling a little scary.The Pontiac LeMans was the worst piece of crap I ever drove. It was rare to make it through a set of five tours without having it towed in for repairs at least once. All the Plymouths after '75 and the Dodge Diplomats were slower than hell. They had trouble breaking 105 on a down hill with a 20 mph tail wind. When you took off from a dead stop, you'd swear you had the emergency brake on. I'd have to say the best overall car and my personal favorite was the Crown Vic.

The Blues Brothers car was a Dodge Monaco.(similar to the 70-73 Plymouth Fury). If it had a 360, it was a dog. If it had a 440, it would blow the doors off anything out there (and get about 5 mpg).

Does anyone here remember the hand spotlights we used before the introduction of the alley light? Does anyone remember the burn holes on the passenger side of the front seat(no buckets then) from when the switch was left on the spotlight? The damn thing would burn a hole right though the vinyl. Ah, yes. The good old days!

[Delta784]

Here's a list of the cars I had the pleasure of taking on patrol.
'68 Plymouth Fury (Slant 6 NYPD)
'69 Ford (351 V8)
'70-73 Plmouth Fury (360 V8)
'74 Plymouth Satellite (360 V8)
'75 Pontiac LeMans (350 V8)
'77-79 Plymouth Volare (318 V8)
'80-89 Diplomats (318 V8)
'90-'94 Fords (5.0 litre FI V8)
'95 Chevy (350 Lt1 FI V8)
'96-00 Fords. (5.0 litre FI V8)

Minor point, but the Fords had 4.6L engines from 1992 forward.

[e-man]

Even in my limited 10+ yrs I remember the handheld spotlights, very nice, could almost light a cigarette with that thing
I drove the 1992-4?-Delta 88s,
1993-94 Pontiac Bonnevilles, one word ARM REST. The siren box was on the damn center tranny hump under the dash, Gotta loooong reach to hit the siren.
1995 or so Chevy Vans, they had the metal box between the front seats, couldnt talk to your partner without yelling they were so frickin loud.
1995 Ford Tauruses OH the Humanity, they were crapola, breaks all went by 3K miles and trannys by 9K
1997 and on Luminas- Oh those Recaros were stiff as boards, and the steering wheels would break in half.
And now the chevy Impalas. They are ok in my new palce as they dont get the hard use the city gave them. Not that big though.

[totalchaos]

Minor point, but the Fords had 4.6L engines from 1992 forward.

actually that would be 1996 and forward

[Delta784]

actually that would be 1996 and forward

No, 1992 and forward.

http://www.automotive.com/1992/09/ford/crown-victoria/

The 1992's sucked, as many first-year models do. More than one cop was killed because the 1992 CV's had a nasty habit of losing power steering right after hard braking, which isn't good in a pursuit.

I almost fell victim to it myself, but I was able to correct at the last second to avoid going over a traffic island during a pursuit.

[duckfan]

You're probably right. I stopped driving marked units and writting speeders by that time. I stopped looking under the hood. I forgot about the power steering problem but the CV was still my favorite. (as long as no one hit you in the a55.)

[duckfan]

Even in my limited 10+ yrs I remember the handheld spotlights, very nice, could almost light a cigarette with that thing
I drove the 1992-4?-Delta 88s,
1993-94 Pontiac Bonnevilles, one word ARM REST. The siren box was on the damn center tranny hump under the dash, Gotta loooong reach to hit the siren.
1995 or so Chevy Vans, they had the metal box between the front seats, couldnt talk to your partner without yelling they were so frickin loud.
1995 Ford Tauruses OH the Humanity, they were crapola, breaks all went by 3K miles and trannys by 9K
1997 and on Luminas- Oh those Recaros were stiff as boards, and the steering wheels would break in half.
And now the chevy Impalas. They are ok in my new palce as they dont get the hard use the city gave them. Not that big though.

Taurus and Lumina? Good gawd man! Do you work for some type of third world PD? How did you go from Delta's and Bonnie's to Lumina's and Taurus's (Taurai?)? Did someone lock up the Mayor?