CHIPS...

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
 
CHP Pioneers

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: If you lived in CA during the early 60's era.... you may recall the very first (RME's.... stands for "Roving Mobile Enforcement") CHP Commercial Officers with portable scales in the back.... had (All White) Dodge Pioneer's with twin spotights... left side being STEADY RED, passenger clear and (side by side) Red and Amber Single Lights in the upper left, inside rear window. As the CHP Commercial Pickups and All-White CVPI's & Chargers are now..... very hard to spot. MM
 
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.
 
Robert... did you ever see Broderick Crawford investigating any of those accidents??? :yankchain:
 
Robert... did you ever see Broderick Crawford investigating any of those accidents??? :yankchain:


Here are the opening scenes from the "Highway Patrol".


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCPqlwxibMo&feature=related[/ame]
 
Brodrick Crawford as Dan Mathews with a public safey message. He ended each episode with one of these.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJg6gtJ4RSM&feature=related[/ame]
 
Chp cars

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.

At the risk off starting to be way off-topic and having Paul pull up in his slanted-stacked-four headlight CHP Chrysler Enforcer with a ticket book...... YES in our family Broderick Crawford's (original) Highway Patrol show was a "must watch" every week, and I even had in my 1964 High School Senior Year book that I wanted to be a Highway Patrolman upon graduation, at least partially because my Cousin was a Highwy Patrolman at the time and our family was good friends with a lone Resident CHP Officer in Fallbrook that had one of those Chrysler Enforcers. I did a lot of ride-a-longs with him and other Officers when the town started growing including in the one year only of the '67 (I believe) Oldsmobiles that basically were beefed up Delta 88's (without power steeering) but called another name for police use that I can't think of right this second. When our 1989 X-CHP "SSP" Mustang (now Hewy & Ruths) was first restored we toured the state during the CHP's 75th Year Anniversary attending area office celebrations along with the CHP Director inviting the copcar.com members to a very special event at their EVOC at West Sacramento (Bryte, CA) where their "selectively saved" cars were brought out from storage for all of us to view. We also watched an hour or more high-speed speed driving from the academy's instructors with a fleet of matched CHP Camaros (with roll bars) working with a Helicopter and often just inches apart at well over 110 MPH. During our different stops that year, we would often get retirees attending special luncheons, etc. Whenever I would have the chance I would ask them what their favorite CHP cars were...
it seems most often it was the 1969 Dodge and the 1949 to 1950 Rocket-88 Oldsmobiles. The specially built 1955 Buicks Robert referred to... they said that they were OK by the time they were worn out from manufacturer-dealer updates, but initially they didn't have very good suspension or brakes. Same problem with the '67 Oldsmobiles..... however they had plenty of power like the '69 Dodges. They said that both the Buicks and Oldsmobiles had a beautiful "soft ride" but no good for responses or pursuits over 90 MPH, and the brakes would fade easily.... same fading issues on some other years of the Dodges. (*) I understand former Governor Jerry Brown's (infamous) gray slant six Plymouth with no air, no power accessories and "three on a tree" is in the same CHP warehouse who is running again this year for Governor.... so we (may) see it surfacing again soon too? MM
 
I have attached a tribute to Oldsmobile police cars, including the 1967 Delmont used by the CHP.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJRfrx2Pa9M[/ame]

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.
 
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Thanks to Robert and Russell!

MANY THANKS to Robert and Russell for sharing the videos and memories... "Apprehender" was the term I couldn't remember that Old's tagged to the police specials. It seemed like most other makes also tagged special names to their police brands that were different from essentially the same civilian model. MM
 
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,
 

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Monterey's Police AKA: "Guardian"

I towed a 1958 Mercury Monterey CHP police cruiser today that is undergoing a restoration. It has a 430 cid engine under the hood.

Rick: Additional police car trivia..... "off and on" over the years Mercury has called their (police package) Monterey's "Guardians" even though they were badged Monterey's. Other names used by some of the manufacturers were "Marshal's" by Studebaker and AMC "Enforcers" that was also used by Chrysler during the slanted / stacked headlight era and "Apprehenders" by Oldsmobile mentionned already. From 1952 forward... Ford used "Interceptor" with the current models of course being known as CVPI's
 
Nice ride!

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,

Do you have a shot of the '57 in the background, or any other rigs you used to operate? Please post in the appropriate thread by make...can't wait to see 'em!
 
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