John ED Renstrom
PCS Member
gravel roads dust and snow yes they do work some what. directs air down the back braking up the vacuum. blowing most of the mess in the roster tail. that way you only have a inch of power on the back door not 2
My error; I thought Mike was refering to the other photos. The deflectors shown on the station wagons were added to vent away the exhaust gases from the tail pipe. As a child I rode in the back of our family station wagons (we had a number of them over the years) with the rear window rolled down. If I remeber correctly our 1960 (61?) Dodge Pioneer had a rear facing seat. Without the deflector, the exhaust would have been sucked into the car when the window was open. The rear facing seat presented a great opportunity for waiving to truck drivers and getting them to honk their air horns; super neat stuff when you are 10 years old.
Robert... did you ever see Broderick Crawford investigating any of those accidents???
Mike - I am a Califonia native, and can remember CHP cars going back to the 1950's. I grew up in Los Gatos in Santa Clara County, which is now known worldwide as the "Silicon Valley". Los Gatos is located 20 miles inland from Santa Cruz, and my family made many trips "over the hill" to the beach each summer. Highway 17 is a mountian road and the primary road connecting the two towns. It was very dangerous, and earned the nickname "Blood Alley". In the days prior to it getting a divider, you could count on seeing an auto accident every time you drove the route. My earlist memories of seeing a CHP car was when they were still driving Buicks.
I would have never guessed as a kid that I would someday own the ambulance service that responded to accicents on the same highway, but that's how it worked out. It was common in the very early 70's not to wear a seat belt. Combine that factor with the lack of a center divider on the highway, and you can pitcure what we came accross when we pulled up on the scene. Having ambulances that could transport four stretcher patients was standard then, and we used it to capasity, as the next closest ambulance was a good 30 minutes away.
I have attached a tribute to Oldsmobile police cars, including the 1967 Delmont used by the CHP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJRfrx2Pa9M
An interesting side note is that Ted Kennedy was driving a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 when he had an accident that ended with tragic results.
I towed a 1958 Mercury Monterey CHP police cruiser today that is undergoing a restoration. It has a 430 cid engine under the hood.
Looking somewhat like the Delmont was the 66 Cotner / Bevington lowtop that I operated with my ambulance service. If you look closely, you can see the "Los Gatos Ambulance" name plate in the side window,