Unfortunately, due to rising gas prices and the government enforcing new emission regulations, the beloved muscle cars were slowly dying and by 74’, they were pretty much all gone. On the bright side, former police cars of the era, specifically 1970-1973, had the bones of those muscle cars. They had to! In today’s video, I go over 4 police cars from each manufacturer (AMC, GM, Ford, and Chrysler) to see which cop car was best for carrying out its duties. I’m not a specialist by any means, and the ‘70s is difficult for me as it was so long ago. So, if I happen to mess something up, please feel free to let me know in the comments down below! Thank you all for watching😊
CHAPTERS:
0:00 -Intro
1:15 -Time period (1970-1973)
1:44 -Cop car equipment/overview
3:30 -Car 1
4:44 -Bonus
6:19 -Car 2
8:13 -Car 3
9:35 -Car 4
10:45 -VOTE NOW
10:58 -Outro
source
"Itss got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks." LOL. Great vid Hawk!
Growing up in Los Angeles during the 60s/70s, I'm a big fan of the Adam-12 cars, the Plymouths and the AMC. My favorite though is the 1969 Plymouth Belvedere.
Tough call. I'd take the 440. I had a customer, former Chicago cop, had a Coronet 440. He said he couldn't believe he got paid to drive that car.
Dennis Collins just sold a beautiful Javelin at Barrett Jackson
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry “My Top End is unlimited “
My brothers John had a 72 Galaxie 500 police interceptor, 429 V8 4bbl holley.and a C6 transmission with a high speed rear-end, was INDENTICAL to Burt Reynolds car in White Lighting, was c a great car, But im partial to mopars, So the polara and Monaco and fury gets my vote 😊😊😊
Plymouth Gran Fury
“My top end is UN-limited!”
It is really amazing that they did use the Chrysler product in the movie otherwise who would have remembered Sports Fury, Monaco…….junkyard stuff…gotta love the Blues mobile
My Dad was a car dealer in the 1970s for awhile, one time he bought a 1971 Plymouth satellite with a 383 moter at a police auction. It was a retired state patrol car. But it could get up go if it had too.
In the 70’s Seattle Police used a bunch of Dodge Darts with 318’s. In 1977, we Substation Operators had a couple of old police training Darts. Power MUCH better than our 6 cylinder Darts, and they had A/C. But they were geared for in-town quick acceleration, and were would tight above 90 mph. Good city cars, I guess. With good suspension, power, gearing, and dump the massive 1974 bumpers, the Dart could be a good pursuit car.
I had a 1970 Mercury Monterey California Highway Patrol special. It had a 429 4bl and could fly.
71' Galaxie with P-Code 429 when it was still hi compression and the mid 70's 440 Mopars
If I'm not mistaken most late 60's/early 70's Ford vehicles had questionable brakes, brake boosters or the master cylinders weren't up to heavy duty use.
I know all about these cars. It doesn't make me feel old. Makes me feel wise.
Best ever the 1978 Plymouth Fury midsized design used the last of the 440s. Your lunch could ate by a 78. It looked good to………………..
Mopar always made the fastest and the best
383 engine would be my choice in a satellite or coronet and some brochures show a 4 speed opt
Salut my friend super car super video subscribe subscribe
That would be odd to fit criminals in a two door cop car.
In calgary, spotted a dual quad 440 full race cam fury to run down anybody who wanted a top end run on those brilliant prairie highways!
Bla bla bla, talking too long to get to the topic suggested by the video name. At 3 minutes I’m giving up and not watching any more.
There was an AMC dealership in my hometown. Consequently, we had all AMC Matador or Ambassador Cruisers. It was the early seventies. Eventually, the Ford LTD replaced them.
Hands down best Police car 1972 Dodge Polara 440 mag 4bbl. Looks, power, handling. I learned to drive in the Polara also a 1970 Ford 429 4bbl police package (actual police cars). The Ford was a touch faster but as stated the brakes were crap had terrible brake fade. Polara I learned in did not have power steering. I went on to buy a retired 1970 XL 2 door undercover car with the 429 4v. Had it for 2 years, great car bad motor mounts and coolant systems and of course dreadful brakes. Thanks for the video that was fun!
So, back in 1981, as a teen, I bought at police auction one of their used Interceptors for $500. It was a 75 Torino with 460 Interceptor engine. 4 Door, but was highly factory modified with what they called SVO and DSO options. None of the suspension or over sized brakes and bearings were same as regular Torino. 9 Inch rear, beefy tranny, 140mph speedometer, extra cooling systems such as engine oil cooler, hydraulic, trans, 4 row radiator the whole works. Package was called Desert Rat cooling from Ford. Ride height was very high. Used to dirve down dirt back roads and mountain forest roads in Arizona at speeds well over 90mph, jumping cattle guards, railroad tracks , ditches and much of the dukes of hazards in this thing. Could pull itself up the grades north of Phoenix at 130mph without over heating. Learned to drive in this car. Got pulled over a couple times by Az Highway Patrol, not for speeding, but because they loved the car and was curious who wound up with it. AZ apparently only bought about 4 of them for the whole state just for hunting down high speed chases on interstates. So, if I was to vote, the best was the 75 Torino Interceptor.
I've actually owned two of these.
1971 Ford Custom ex Maryland State Police. 429 4V. It came off Kennedy Expressway duty and had a really high rear axle ratio. A total dog to about 35 MPH and then it came alive all the way to the top of the 140 MPH speedometer! Interestingly, it had a factory Rochester Quadrajet carburetor. The Ford 4300 piece of crap carb wasn't able to provide enough CFM to feed the beast.
The other was an ex Alaska State Trooper – 1972 AMC Matador 401. Originally equipped (converted) to run on propane. I converted it back to gasoline. Great car. Handling was excellent!
1971 Ford Custom 500 for the first 6 months of production it came with a 429 Cobra Jet. The 429 PI wasn't ready until mid-production for 1971.
Used to work on mid 70's Mopar police vehicles. What junk, with their lean burn 400's and the front ends that would not stay aligned!
Mopar made the best cop cars in the 1970's
My grandfather loved the Dodge Polaras 440 for his patrol cars / he was the chief for a small west Texas town
AMC Matador and AMC javelins .the Georgia state patrol had 3 AMC Javelins
dodge with torsion front end no fun to drive all day get seasick ford better riding as ford was known for that
1971 moters are mostly identical to 1972 .It was the way they rated the hp. It changed from gross hp. to net hp. 250 net is about 325 gross hp. 73-74 are just a little detuned and alot hevier ,in 1975 you got catalytic converters thats when you lost alot of power.
Growing up in Maryland in the early 70's, we didn't see as many Mopar cop cars. It was pretty much all Fords for the local and state police, until Chevy Caprices started popping up in the 80's and well into the 90's.
Back in 1970, Bridgewater NJ had Mercury Marquis with 460 c.i. engine. Plus vinyl roof option.
The Indiana State Police have a museum in Indianapolis with several units from different decades. I haven't visited it yet but I have seen videos and photos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwmzB4CML5Y&t=662s
In real life 70 440 look out😮😮😮😮