(first posted 2/16/2012) The smartest move I ever made was moving to California in 1976. It was then still truly the Golden State; I just couldn’t believe how incredibly beautiful it was, and all the opportunities it afforded me: nude beaches, mountains, deserts, beautiful girls, career prospects. And near the top of the list: driving fast, otherwise known as speeding, essentially with impunity. All one had to do was recognize this shape in the rear view mirror at great distances. I don’t like to brag, but I don’t think anyone outdid me in that regard. It was a skill finely honed as a kid, and now it finally paid off. “Coronet dead behind, at 440 yards, closing quickly”.
It seems positively quaint now, but the CHP (California Highway Patrol, for you non-Americans) did not start using radar on California’s Highways until 1999! (Why do you think I moved away a few years before then? I knew it was coming). It’s not that radar was legally banned per se, but the Legislature never authorized the expenditures necessary to buy radar equipment. Talk about self-interest, of the best kind! That and a very effective trucking industry lobby.
Blame it on the feds: they started making money for speed enforcement more readily available around the end of the nineties time, and there was some growing concern about the very high average speeds on the freeways, especially those away from the densest urban areas. I remember being “on the conveyor belt” in the left lane at no less than ninety; meaning everyone was rolling at that clip. Pretty amazing.
Curiously enough, there are still legal restrictions (at least as per the article I linked above) that make radar difficult for the CHP to use in the vast network of secondary county roads and such. California has (had?) a “speed trap law” ban, and a speed trap is defined as just about anything that guarantees speeders will be caught. I’m not sure of more recent developments that might have changed that. Back to the seventies…
When I arrived in 1976, the ridiculous 55mph convoys were already a thing of distant memories. I can’t find a picture, but when the double nickle was imposed federally in 1974, the CHP would get on some of the long-distance freeways like the I15, straddle the two lanes, and drive at exactly 55 the whole way to the Nevada border. That’s why I didn’t come sooner.
By the the later seventies, gas was cheaper and plentiful again, but the double nickle was here to stay, for what seemed like decades yet. So one almost had to speed; it was a way of living, getting by and staying sane; the question was how fast to go, and how to avoid the cops.
The main speed enforcement by the CHP was just sneaking up on folks, and then they had to tail them long enough to get a reading on their calibrated speedometers. A favorite trick was to “play the ramps”; they’d swoop down the on-ramp with gusto, hoping to quickly catch a speeder in the left lane. So one just had to get good at spotting them before they spotted you.
I always kept a constant eye on the rear view mirror, looking for the distinctive shape of the Dodge Coronets that were used during this era. Our featured Plymouth Fury is essentially identical to the Coronet, except for some obscure details of the grille. Now there was another boon to living in California: nobody drove these cars except the cops. I mean almost literally nobody, except maybe some bureaucrat in a state motor pool car. Regular folks just didn’t. This was California, after all. American cars fell out of favor a long time ago, starting with dull bland sedans like these. Thankfully! It was so annoying to have to slow way down, and wait for an eternity to find out that it was just some ag agent or such.
The CHP had been a loyal devotee to the Dodge Brothers brand going back some time.
But there’s little doubt that the Coronets were the best Dodges they ever had, and the best cop cars until the very modern era.
I’m not exactly sure which year the CHP switched from the last of the big Polaras (above) to the mid-sized Coronet, but it may well have been when the new Coronet/Satellite (CC here) body style came out in 1971, or shortly after. A great move, since the Coronet was not only lighter, but much more aerodynamic, with a slipperier shape and a substantially smaller frontal area.
But the same nasty 440 big-block was still under their hoods. In 1971, that was still a high-compression unit rated at 370 horses or so. That number slid throughout the eight-year run of these cars, due to switching to net ratings, lower compression, and smog controls. By 1977, that was down to 195 hp. I may be wrong, but I believe that the cop cars were still getting some goodies to make their 440s a bit punchier right to the end. But even 195 was a lot more than most cars had at the time, and the 440 still packed a mean torque wallop. Especially in comparison to what followed them.
The Coronet and Fury had their last year in 1978, and the much-maligned R-body Dodge replacement was the St. Regis. And in CA emission tune, the 318 four barrel was rated at 155 hp. Nothing more was available. These cars were a disaster for the CHP; the word was soon out that the big boxy St. Regis could barely hit ninety or so. Now impunity meant just driving away from them. Took some guts, and a decently fast car, but let’s just say that some of us had both back then. My ’83 Turbo Coupe was good for 120+, and the 300E that followed did 140 rock solid. Bye – bye!
It wasn’t just me either; this became a state-wide embarrassment/opportunity, with plenty of press. Around this time, Californians were well-past fed up with the double nickle, and civil disobedience on the freeways was a fact of life. What’s a cop to do when there’s an endless conveyor belt of cars all doing 75 or 80? Frankly, they all thought it was a joke too.
Now I did get a few tickets during those years, but never once going really fast, which I did most of the time. I got nailed once or twice driving home from work on the Santa Monica Fwy, because I was distracted and doing 68. But it’s a bit hard to be distracted at 110.
I also got nailed by the “Bear In The Air” twice. The CHP had a little fleet of Cessnas that would putter along over some nice long straights, like I5, and radio ahead the speed and descriptions of the cars to a big passel of patrol cars down the road. Sometimes they just stood on the side of the highway, pointed at you, and waved you over. You! And You! Game up. Times change. I took to turning my driver’s side outside mirror skyward on those kind of roads, which actually worked. Nobody else flies a Cessna 172 182 right along a highway at 300 feet.
But it was all a sportsmanlike cat and mouse game, and one couldn’t be sore on those rare occasions. Got to let them win once in a while; almost felt sorry for them. But NOT when doing 115 or so. That might have been a bit of a problem. Keep those eyes peeled on the rear horizon; check every ramp as you whiz by; scan the sky; and full speed ahead!
Now I’ve hardly talked about this particular car, which is all-too obviously an ex-cop car. The most telling sign, after the lack of front door molding, are the slotted wheels and the drilled-out hub caps. Man, did I love it when those came along! Brilliant. Why not just a slotted steel wheel, with a little center cap? No; we’re going to punch holes in our dog dishes, so that nobody will ever be tempted to use them as actual dog dishes. Call them strainers.
I was curious as to what this Fury was packing under the hood. Could it be the vaunted 440? I kinda doubted it, given the single modest-sized exhaust. So I did what I just finally started doing after all these years: took a shot of the VIN plate, and deciphered it. Sure enough; it’s got a 318 two barrel, big wheels, tires and strainer hubcaps notwithstanding. Oh well. But then it is a Plymouth…
A little postscript: the St. Regis debacle had to be dealt with, and the CHP did the unthinkable: ditched Dodge and ordered a bunch of Mustang LX 5.0 notchback coupes to augment the fleet; the only thing that would do the trick. And a nasty little trick it was indeed. Not only were they fast, but the Mustang GT was a very popular car at the time, even in California. So they were stealthy too.
My regular Sunday morning drive up the 280 (America’s most beautiful urban freeway) from Los Gatos to San Francisco was normally taken at 110; four lanes, almost no traffic (that time of day on Sunday, back then, anyway). But I learned to slow down right about where that shockingly ugly statue of Junipero Serra is, pointing down accusingly at the speeders on 280. Up there on the connecting road to the rest area always sat one of those Mustangs, driven by a young female trooper, just waiting for a date with me. “My girlfriend” Stephanie used to call her. That’s because I always slowed down and waved to her.
Late to the party here, but was fun reading about the methods we used back then to avoid tickets, Paul and the posters brought back the memories. One time on the harbor freeway going about 30 mph a motorcycle cop zig zagged between 6 cars (of which I was one) and pulled us all over for “following too closely” and proceeded to write 6 tickets to all of us. Another time I was on the 14 freeway near Palmdale about 6:00 am on a Sunday morning with almost no traffic, my 79 GMC Caballero I had recently bought had been driven for a long time with a burnt plug wire on 7 cylinders and had a plugged cat conv. I bought some fuel additive and removed the air cleaner and floored it for about 20 miles. It slowly regained power and eventually pegged the 85 mph speedo and started to regain it’s power. After it was running well for a few miles I slowed to 55 (this was around 1986) and was in the right lane between two trucks. A few minutes later a CHP going about 100 mph speeds past, then slams on his brakes, gets next to me, points to me and pulled me over. He said he was trying for 15 minutes to catch me and not making progress. He must have had a slow car, the GMC only had a 305 4 bbl. I had the additive and air cleaner on the floor of the car and explained what I was doing and picked a low traffic time to do this. He calmed down and wrote me up for around 70 mph. Another time in my $100.00 68 New Yorker I was with a couple of co workers on the 210 freeway also early morning when I decided to give it a quick blast from 55 to 100 mph then braked quickly back to 55. The only other car was a CHP watching from an overpass. Think he wrote me up for around 75. It was a much more even playing field back in those days.
I love those, they are my all time favourite American cars, together with the full size C body 1969-73 Plymouth/Dodges. I live in Great Britain so have only ever seen two or three.
Have a 1978 fury with 35000 miles —- was a grocery getter and has been in the garage since 1985. Any idea what it is worth?
I spotted this in a McDonald’s drive through a few years ago. I think it is the Dodge version but I’m not positive. I also have no idea what year it is.
75 or 76, the 77-78s had amber segments in the taillights
Lifetime Californian here, a few years younger than Paul and the stories are all so familiar. I remember the first times I drove out of state and realizing that you needed to look ahead, for radar traps, and not check the mirror. It’s been a few years since this post, and though I can’t cite any press on the topic, it seems like the CHP is swinging back to Mopars again, as I’m seeing far more Chargers lately than the Explorers which took over from the Crown Vics a few years ago. I have read that all the Chargers are V6, most are RWD. And after many years with Kawasaki and BMW, the motorcycles are mostly Harley now.
Sort of a CC effect: I just came across this video the other day. This guy was thrilled to get his ’78 Monaco cop car with a 440. Bland though they might have been, they were nice driving cars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blt__gezHw8
I can find (if the wiki is trusted) a 100hp drop for the 1972 from 335 to 225 hp when it’s the reality-based net rating. Is it accurate to say the 370 was net 270, or a percentage (about 250), or is there no direct formula?
There is no direct formula as every engine has different characteristics, but as a rule of thumb the 1972 net ratings were typically around 2/3 of the prior gross figure.
Oof. The face and body that sold a million colonnades. Obviously not a civilian car, but had I been car shopping in 1978, given the forthcoming x cars, the efficient, light, good handling fairmont and zephyr, the amazingly efficient omnirizon, and the downsized gm a and b bodies, this would have been a hard pick. The 78 aspen and volare were better but had a rotten reputation at this time and Chrysler was circling the toilet. The car itself is a blobby mishmash of halfhearted curves, slab sides without interesting details, and anonymous heavy details. The grille is as anonycar as it gets. The back bumper is heavy and not at all showing off the brand. Even a leftover colonnade would be better looking than this.
Several people mentioned the creaky, squeaky, rattly body and although everything in the 70s was creaky, squeaky, and rattly, chryslers seemed to be the worst.
Thanks for the explanation that these were all destroyed in movies and tv shows. In atlanta these had all disappeared by the mid 80s but the colonnades and some of the fords went on until the mid 90s.
It seems like such a ridiculous waste of money to pursue speeders. I can definitely understand, especially in atlanta, why traffic enforcement is needed. But the cops are never there when someone is trying to teach their accord to climb a crosswalk signal pole or turning left from the right lane or backing up on the freeway.
1971 has the same net rating as 72, both ratings were used in 1971 with the gross being 335. I don’t know if any 440 4bbl was rated at 370 unless that is part of police spec, it was 350 in 1970 with higher compression
Aha! I knew someone in the CC crowd would have this info.
Here’s a table of 1971 Dodge police engines, with gross and net.
Paul, here’s an early-1987 Cali news announcement (and photo) of the new Mustangs, very incognito–no light bar or paint schemes, etc: https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/photos/id/25696/rec/9
Funny, I remember the mid 70s CHP cars being Dodge Monacos. Very identifiable with the low turn signals, inset towards the center relative to most cars. 440s which fortunately were never chasing me in my aircooled VW days.
Later in the 70s before the 5.0 Mustangs, which were 5 speed manuals by the way, I heard they almost thanked drivers of BMWs, Porsches and Z cars when they pulled over they were so outgunned performance wise.
I wouldn’t say that a 318-2v would’ve been a dog of a cop car.
My 2ndcar, that I bought for $300 in 1980 was a ‘71 Plymouth Fury I wagon. It may have been a Fury II, but I don’t recall exactly.
It wasn’t an ex-cop car, but was an ex-Florida DOT car. It had the verified 140 mph speedo, an original police duty spare tire, and was a pretty much bare bones car with poverty caps. It had. AC and an AM radio, but no spotlight.
The tag on the differential indicated it had a 2.74 gear, which made it a slug off the line, but once at highway speed the 318 had good passing acceleration and was the first car I got to 122 mph. It still had more in it, but the road was wet and the tires were at best only fair, so I backed off of it.
My friends called it the “narc wagon”.