Cop Car Friday Finale: Hot Rod 1953 Fords And Hemi Chryslers (And Other Vintage Oddities)

Paul Niedermeyer
by Paul Niedermeyer

There’s lots of places to find old cop car photos, but I was perusing a 1953 Popular Science at bed time the other night, and remembered a story about the just-opened NJ turnpike and its new fleet of cop cars. Here are one of each of the fleet of 23 Fords and stealthy Chryslers. The Fords came with Mercury engines installed; their 255 cubic inch flathead V8s had a whopping 125 hp instead of the stock Ford 110 hp. The also had dual exhausts, “souped up rear ends”, and heavy duty cooling systems. The ten unmarked Chryslers “are capable of 120 mph”, which I wouldn’t question given their 180 hp hemi engines. Three “portable” radar timers (roadside, not hand-held) were also in the arsenal. And every trooper was trained in auto mechanics as part of the training; they would have known how to stop their runaway car.

Old Popular Sciences are a treasure trove of the bizarre and curious, reflecting American’s folksy inventiveness. I couldn’t resist scanning just two of these and sharing:

This one is a real gem; why didn’t I think of that! A table saw you can drive to the job site! Looks like he stole his kid’s pedal tractor. Which would probably be just as fast, as the top speed of this conveyance is four mph in high gear.

This one doesn’t need any commentary. Have a nice weekend!

Paul Niedermeyer
Paul Niedermeyer

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  • Buzz Buzz on Mar 13, 2010

    NJ Turnpike opened in 1949 and used Chrysler New Yorkers and Saratogas for many years, both marked and unmarked! They used Fords on regular state highways.

  • BuzzDog BuzzDog on Mar 13, 2010

    Google Books has a treasure trove of past issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. And they're easily searchable for that article you remember from the mid- to late '70s: Popular Science Popular Mechanics Alas, I've spent far too many rainy weekend afternoons perusing these pages...and a few sunny afternoons, as well. EDIT: Paul, I just read the article about the NJ turnpike patrol, and almost spewed my coffee when I read, "...there are 10 sleek, unmarked black Chrysler sedans." I suppose the term "sleek" is relative, but one I've never felt applied to Chryslers from the K.T. Keller era!

    • Disaster Disaster on Mar 22, 2010

      Curse you, BuzzDog. I went to your first link and got sucked into wasting the next two hours. Found an article on one of my first Japanese cars, the RWD Mazda 626. Hilarious to read about the revolutionary Chevy Citation....and more....and more.....

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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