Most vintage police car ad images are pretty ho-hum, but this one is good. It’s hunkered down a bit and on the go; it almost has a stock car look. Not seeing any 390 or 428 badges on the front fender though…surely it’s not got the 240 six.
Vintage Ad: 1966 Ford Police Car – Nice Image
– Posted on January 12, 2022
Pretty cool .
Was Ford really the #1 police car in America in 1966 ? .
-Nate
Well on Quinn Martin productions series like The Fugitive, The Invaders, The FBI Dan August and later Cannon and the Streets of San Francisco Ford was the #1 police car. 😉
Mopar ruled in 1966 for most of California. CHP and all the agencies that bought with the CHP, LAPD and LASD. Other states, Ford may have dominated.
I have read—though I haven’t substantiated with original documents or dependable references—that for some period of time the City and County of Los Angeles would only buy Chrysler products because they were the only ones that met the CCoLA’s especially stringent exhaust emissions requirements for publicly-owned vehicles. I don’t claim to know everything about the emission control strategies employed by the American automakers at that time, and their relative successes and failures, but I do know enough about the subject to find this idea at least sturdily plausible.
I don’t have any facts, but that doesn’t sound all that plausible to me.How could LA County have their own emission standards? By what power? CA state had an exemption to have their own, but I’ve never heard of any local jurisdiction do so.
LA County only bought vehicles for county affairs/business, not for LA City and all the dozens of other cities within LA County. The county is really only active in unincorporated areas and those cities that contracted with them for police service (LA Sheriff Dept.)
Even if they had that jurisdiction, how could they expect any of the manufacturers to meet their unique regs?
What period of time are we talking about?
From my perspective, I don’t remember Chrysler having emission controls that were any better than the others. I seem to remember Chrysler struggling, more so than GM, due to the lack of resources.
I’ve never heard anything like this before. I’m always open to change my initial reaction, but it would take some hard facts to do so.
Chrysler were the first automaker to bring forth an emissions control system that met CA’s specs and worked reliably without spoiling driveability or making other problems. I think the source of that line I was remembering the other day might have gone away with the big de-accessioning, but in the process of digging for it I’ve compiled enough sturdy material to make an article on the subject, so…stay tuned!
Interesting. I know the major makers were going to put emission control devices on their cars in 1967 but then advanced the date to 1966 after the Pollution Control Board approved devices made by independents. They wouldn’t be able to equip all cars but definitely most of their cars. Apparently GM and Ford pursued the same idea of air injection while Chrysler went a different route with engine modification of some kind.
Oddly, VA for years used Mercury. Talk about an unexpected choice.
Ford was #1 in the US in 1966. Plymouth dethroned Ford in 1968. It wasn’t until the last of the rear wheel drive Mopars that the title went back to Ford. After Plymouth had the title for a few years, they began advertising it just as Ford had.
There was no Photoshop in 1966. Nevertheless, I think it is a professional artist’s expert craftsmanship we see. IMHO.
Definitely more alluring than the somber photo Ford used for its 1966 police and fire vans.
A lot of the fleet-type images from this period have the car pictured with just a solid-color, or white background. I feel it’s that blurred background scene that really makes this one jump out — great job by the artist involved.
As a local law enforcement officer put it ” a 289 is just fine, have seen anyone out run a radio”
XR7 :
I hate to burst your bubble but folks out run the radio on a regular basis .
I’ve done it more than once when I was young, my son was a street racer for a few years and got very good at it .
To me, this is nothing to brag about, I know better now .
Sadly, what the Troopers and other LEO’s want isn’t often considered as much as initial minimal co$t is .
They didn’t have Photoshop in 1966 but they sure had airbrushing and plenty of other tricks or the trade .
-Nate
I wonder if police package vehicles skipped the engine callout? If I had been a state trooper, I think I would prefer to keep everyone guessing about what was under the cruiser’s hood. 🙂
Engine badges were as per retail versions-The one exception being 1969 models with 428 PI engines. Since there were no retail units so equipped, it wasn’t feasible to tool up such a small number of plaques. Therefore, these cars will have the same Ford crest ahead of the marker light as 240-302 versions had.
Ford did away will callouts altogether in 1970, except for a few early 429 cars that had a rectangular 429 plate ahead of the door, behind the wheel.
It is an excellent picture.
Is that a photo/watercolor mix?
I don’t know how artsy stuff is done but my son is an illustrator and does stuff like that on his computer now.
If your son is old enough to have been taught the technique or has some passing knowledge of how it was done “back in the day,” he may have a better answer.
But I believe the brochure photo was a composite of at least two, maybe three real photographs (or their negatives). The background looks like a simple time-lapse shot of lights and neon signs at night with a still camera moving horizontally past the scene. The police cruiser is a separate shot alone, probably shot in a darkened studio where they could craft the light exactly the way they wanted. There seems to be one more layer of time-lapsed lights streaking across the lower part of the car and the street below it.
I am not an artist, professional or otherwise, so any or all of this may be wrong. However, I’ve been around photographers and was in marketing, and spent 40+ years in broadcast media and video production. So I’ve been close to this kind of work on many occasions. FWIW. 😏
Deejayq,
Thanks for your insight and taking the time to share it.
Plain clothed officers at that.
That lack of callout was bugging me so much I fixed it on my own copy of it.
As you can see here, the 240 was available in police packages. Large cities such as Chicago and NY routinely ordered them since in traffic choked urban settings, more power was just a waste of money.
The one in the passenger seat seems like he has a very tall hat on.
“The cops are coming. And they’re Quakers!”
-or-
“The Fashion Police are coming! And they’re FANCY!”
Richard Kimble was just spotted working at a burger stand in the next town, they’re on it.
Sometimes you can outrun the cop radio, especially if you have a fast car, are willing to take dangerous chances, and have a route with a lot of hiding places, like an urban streetscape. Of course it also depends on whether the cops got a license plate number, or a good description of a distinctive car and driver. Alsom if there were any additional units in the area that could make an interception.
In movies and on TV there are always those situations where the hero has to make a high speed run across town to intercept the bad guy. Why don’t other closer units just respond? It’s called drama. The same way the hero always ends up going mano a mano with some baddie. If you’re always going mano a mano, you’d better improve your tactics!
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon were perfectly happy with the performance of their 1967 Ford Fairlane 500. The vent windows were often pointed inward so I assume no AC. Did it have the 120hp Sentry six? I bet it did, and it probably worked just fine in the city.
You can see the callous on the fender in almost any episode. I saw one where the 390 numbers were visible.
Thank you for sharing all the great detailed info ! .
In the 1960’s the NYPD used 6 cylinder Valiants, easy to run away from .
I moved to So. Cal. in 1970 and there were lots and lots of used late 60’s MoPar cop cars for sale for under $400 ~ most were in VGC and have V8’s .
-Nate
A ’66 Custom saw service in the Andy Griffith show. Could’ve sworn it would’ve been a 6, given Mayberry’s low demand for hot pursuit, but looks like the fender’s sporting a V8 emblem, either a 289 or 390.