Tom, a number of the cop cars didn't have AC. More bare bones fleet
vehicles. Can't see a Houston cop sitting in a no AC cop car today as it is
100 degrees outside with humidity so thick you can cut with knife. But I have
owned 2 LAPD police cars, authentic ones, and neither had AC.
Side note here! Down in Corpus Christi, there were a LOT of cars American
Motors sold to the military down there: Corpus Christi Naval Air Station;
Beeville Naval Air Station & Kingsville Naval Air Station....all of those
bases within roughly 50-70 mile radius. The officers usually got Ambassador,
Rebel & Matadors with air condition. The cars were painted a sand tan, or
dark oilive green, although some were a saturn blue (69) color too. If not
office, the 'regular folks' that is privates and anything less than office,
got six banger stripped out cars. I mean 69 Ambassador or 70 Rebel, 232/AT, no
radio, no AC, 'maybe' power steering, regular drum brakes, just as base as one
can get.
I can tell you that you probably had more control going around a curve at
30mph on a metal wheeled skateboard with your brother on your back than going
around same curve at 30mph in a Matador 6 Navy car.
Had a ton of chances to buy those after they were decommissioned down
there, never did....I wished I had though, as most of them still in good
shape, especially officers cars, but they usually went to gov auctions, then
car lots. Ironically about 5 years ago I was down in CC visiting family and
there was a old, retired, 76 Matador fleet vehicle from Texas' Mental Health
& Mental Retardation unit (MHMR) white wagon, blue interior, 304/AT still
had the lettering on side, the used car lot wanted $650 for it.
Back to police cars....in I believe Car Craft in 1972, a 72 stock 401
Javelin ran a 14.7 1/4 mile and a stock 72 Matador 4 door police car ran a
14.8 1/4 mile. Not bad. The Los Aangeles Police department bought 500 or so
1972 fleet Matadors from AMC....*after* extensive testing other police cars
including Ford, Chevrolet and Chryslers,,,they chose AMC because (LAPD quote)
the Matadors outhandled and outperformed all the other cars.
I'm not sure they would stand up to the rigors of modern LA police chases
one sees on tv or youtube however, but each fleet vehicle in whatever county,
precinct, has to be judged individually. Some were indeed used for state
trooper highway business, while others ferried cops around city duty. I have a
bag of NOS keys here from the Los Angeles Police Department also: GSD Fleet
Serice, Los Angeles, California, 90012, Los Angeles City Hall Phone
485-5494.....all same cut, about 50 in the bag. Not worth anything except
showing to AMCers I guess.
Here in Houston in 1970-71 Houston Police used Gremlins for downtown
parking detail for instance. No high speed stuff for the Gremmies. Of course
we also use live horses downtown Houston in 2011 also. Most of the fleet cars
(police ones) ended up rolling over in 1970s movies like Cannonball Run,
Police Academy, Dukes of Hazzard and other stuff that needed a authentic
looking 1970s cop car though. At the bottom of this older file on my site
there are some AMC police car photos also:
----- Original Message -----
Road testing is about all they were good for -
they spent about 3/4 of their time at the dealers - they were a very poor
police car - would not stand up to the rigors of the trade at all. The
only reason the OPP ever got those for police cars was the fact that the
Commissioner of the Day had one for his personal vehicle and thought it was
a great car - and they might have been for that purpose - but they were an
absolute loss as a police car unless you had just got it back from being
repaired at the dealer and were going in straight line - they were very
quick to 100 mph, but that's where it ended.. An additional somewhat
humorous aside to that as well - all those cars came equipped from the
factory with air conditioning - The OPP paid extra to have the air
conditioning removed because they though that it was too ostentatious to
have police officers driving around in air conditioned cars!!!! How
times have changed.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
The Ontario Provincial Police used to have some of those. Loved to Road
Test them, when they would come in for Warranty service at the Dealership.
Great fun when you were following some of the locals on the
road!
Vernon Christy
Motorsport 1320
32 Lake St
Picton On
K0K 2T0
Cell: 613-827-1582
To:
baadassGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxFrom:
eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There is a 73 401 Nevada Police car with 401 on ebay
right now, I just actually bid on
darned thing!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_rdcZ1QQitemZ260792611308QQruZhttpQ3aQ2fQ2fshopQ2eebayQ2ecomQ3a80Q2fiQ2ehtmlQ3fQ5ffromQ3dR40Q26Q5ftrksidQ3
dp5039Q2em570Q2el1313Q26Q5fnkwQ3d260792611308Q26Q5fsacatQ3dSeeQ2dAllQ2d
CategoriesQ26Q5ffviQ3d1
if
lead breaks, look up item number 260792611308 it ends today,
Sunday.
On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Armand Eshleman <
aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
As I'm only 40 miles away from Milford, I called the guy and
left a message. Yesterday he
returned the call. The car is indeed a 73
with a 360. I told him I was interested in the
car but couldn't come
down there until next weekend to see it. Don't know what I'm going
to
do with a 73 Ambo yet but one never knows. Really disappointed it didn't
have the
venerable 401 in it. Then it would have made a great tow
vehicle for the white Javelin or
the green Javelin when made into a
track car. yeah right, dream some more. I guess I could
swap the 360
into the white Javelin and put that car's engine into the Ambo. Give the
Javelin a little more power.Armand
http://siouxcity.craigslist.org/cto/2411057051.html'78
AMC Ambassador - $500 (Milford, Iowa)
Eddie
Stakes
713.464.8825
eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwww.planethoustonamx.com
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