I once broke down in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere (Country Victoria, Australia) in a '34 Plymouth hot rod, when I was about 18. I had taken this girl out, and supposed to have her back by midnight. My car just stopped, and by the light of a cigarette lighter, I found the problem. The main terminal had lost it's wire (not my work!), so I had been running on battery power until it all quit. I re-crimped and re-attached it, but now I needed a jump start and had no leads. Pitch black, and no idea where the nearest town was (and long before mobile phones), we thought we would just wait until (maybe) we saw a car, and I would flag it down and ask for help. After about an hour, we can see headlights a few miles away, heading towards us. There was no need to flag down the car, it was the Police from a nearby town (Ballarat), and they stopped. I explained that I needed a jump start, but they didn't carry leads. They did offer to go to nearest roadhouse and buy a set and bring them back, so I gave them some money, and they returned with the leads, jump started the car, and we would be on our way home. By now it was after 3.a.m., another hour to get her home, and I was ready to be confronted by her dad & shotgun! The police officer gave me his badge number and name, and said if there was any problem with the father he could call the station and get the facts! While we were thanking them for all their help, one of the officers has his head under the dashboard and was looking at the back of the instrument panel with his flashlight. I thought he was looking maybe for a stashed joint , but it turned out that he was also building a '34 Plymouth and needed to see some details on the dash panel.! After all their help, I couldn't refuse him a poke around at my car! (And I did get her home in 1 piece, and her father was OK with it. We got married a couple of years later!)
Hello, It is nice to know someone who’s dad is a CHP patrolman. When he is out on patrol and we need someone to help us, our other friend’s dad was a Long Beach policeman and we all knew him personally. It helped that he was a sports fanatic and his son was a football player on our team, too. The odd thing was, both teens did not have hot rod sedans. They had used cars like most of us, but those remained relatively stock in appearance. Jnaki Both of those teens were always the brunt of teenage rants about police and enforcing the lowered car rules and loud noises. And, another name for drag racing down the dark streets of Bixby Knolls. But, it was all in jest, just because their dads were CHP and LB policemen. The good thing was in knowing them. Several times we had to have our cars ok to “write off” a ticket fix. One time when we were going through mufflers and I had on a set of Corvette Tubular Mufflers with short exhaust outlets, it was illegal as the outlets were directly under the car. So, as I got the fix-it ticket. I had the muffler system run over the axle and out past the back bumper. That was how it was supposed to be, as our muffler guy was finishing up the system. So, after the system was done, I drove over to the LB Policeman’s house and had the dad look at my 58 Impala and certify that it was fixed, plus legal to run. It was fun as the dad was impressed with the way the Impala sounded and looked. He was not a hot rod guy, but the son was a good athlete and the dad liked all of the hot rod sedans we all drove…YRMV Note: It was odd to wave Hello and Goodbye as we arrived at our friend’s houses. If the dad was outside washing his family car(s) it was a common greeting. The return greeting was one of big smiles… But, we never waved to other local law enforcement folks, when we were out riding around in our teenage cars. Thanks, @themoose My Impala with Buick Skylark Wire Wheels was always looked at with teens inside. It was low enough to be legal, but with teens, looked lower, good enough for a ticket. But, at the curb, with a different police car measurement and us standing on the curb, the Impala was legal height. Ha! 3 teens lower the car, but, no teens make the height above normal... YES!
retired after 32 years as cop, 1940 Chevrolet coupe kind of street rod, another 40 chevy coupe building a g***er, restored 50 Crosley, restored wife's 81 vette, and just bought 62 King Midget ,had to retire to get enough time to work on them
Pete Malloy and Jim Reed from an Adam 12 episode where Reed raced a 54 Ford. I really liked this show for the car spotting.
Here in Suffolk County, the PD brings their highway pursuit cars to the car show. They’ve got a Mustang and a Camaro with some goodies and looking sharp. Sorry I can’t post a pic.
The Aussie police have done similar over the years, aiming to encourage kids to "take it to the track". You get the opportunity to run your vehicle against police cruisers in a controlled environment. This is current New South Wales version, based around motorkhana: Beat the Blue | Supporting NSW Police Legacy Western Australia got pretty serious about this for drag racing, with modified Police vehicles being fronted (including a 2004 Pontiac Goat). Beat The Heat (WA) Inc - The Cars I wonder if similar schemes ran in the HAMB era? Cheers, Harv
The Jalopy Journal
