Police Cars.....

[Shortround6]

Nice Maria! I like the older bike. Don't have any idea what it is though.

Ariel Square four?

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Thank you Shortround, I have not ever heard of or seen one.

 

[BikerBabe]

I have.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

You don't say.

 

[Matt308]

Actually on the Saturday or Sunday I watched a US movie called "Smokey and The Bandit" and I reckon that they would have had about eighteen to twenty different colours on the Police Cars in that movie! That figure is not including police bikes of which I think there were about four or five different ones featured! So there you go. Odd fact.

Not unusual in the States. Typically every city, town, county and state patrol has completely different livery on their vehicles. That is with respect to color only. Within each of those entities there might be variations as fleet models are phased out and perhaps even some impounded cars are confiscated into undercover. I've even seen a Chevy Suburban, lowered with oversized wheels and completely window tinted out with an internal light bar and no outside indication of being a low enforcement vehicle on my local highway. With the drug seizure laws this is becoming more and more common.

 

[Lucky13]

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Lucky13]

Pics of '49 Mercury police cars, seem to few and far between...

 

[GrauGeist]

Pics of '49 Mercury police cars, seem to few and far between...

The Mercury was between a Ford and a Lincoln in price range and features, so finding any Mercury from any years will be a rare occasion.

The same can be said for the other manufacturers that law enforcement agencies used over the years. They used Dodges and Plymouths, but not Chryslers and they used Chevys and Buicks (and occasionally Pontiacs or Oldsmobiles) but not Cadillacs. Even the other manufacturers used were the base models like the AMC Matador, Eagle (4WD sedan/wagon) or Ambassador (Nash or AMC) and not premium models.

I used to own a 1955 Buick Special that I was going to restore but I discovered it had been originally a CHP cruiser, so we restored it to it's original CHP livery. The interesting thing about this, is that the CHP were using the Century as thier standard so we were surprised to find that they aquired a limited number of Specials for trial purposes.

 

[Lucky13]

CHP??

 

[Milosh]

CHP??

California Highway Patrol

 

[Lucky13]

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[Old Wizard]

I remember the big bulky Nash cop cars from 1950s TV shows and movies.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Good stuff guys!

 

[Airframes]

Was it one of those, or, as I think, the Chevrolet Impala, used in the early 1960's TV show 'Highway Patrol', starring Broderick Crawford ?

 

[Lucky13]

Wasn't the Jaguar Mk. II, used as a police car as well old bean?

 

[Airframes]

It certainly was old chap. There were also a few 'specials' used back in the 1970's and 1980's, which were basically Police versions of rally cars, such as the Lotus Cortina, and the Sierra Cosworth RS 4x4, and, of course, the odd 'super car' recently - on being the McClaren if my memory is correct !

 

[Lucky13]

Aaaah......the Lotus Cortina....droooool....

 

[GrauGeist]

Was it one of those, or, as I think, the Chevrolet Impala, used in the early 1960's TV show 'Highway Patrol', starring Broderick Crawford ?

Terry, the show ran from 1955 to 1959 and the cars used early in the show were mostly Buicks, in the later episodes, you saw Fords and Dodges used for the cruisers