Jay Leno goes on patrol in a 1966 Dodge Coronet police car.
Jay Leno's garage has been home to quite a few police cars. Jay has previously driven a 1961 Dodge Polara that served with the California Highway Patrol. This time it's a 1960s Dodge police car.
"I had a car like that when I was a kid, and I was always horrified when I saw it in the rearview mirror," Jay says of the 1966 Dodge Coronet police car.
"It was doing its job," replies Fred Iversen, the owner of that car and a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy. Iversen drove these cars when they were new."
Today it is easy to be nostalgic for cars like the Coronet, but in the 1960s they were simply a tool used and abused. Like modern police cars, the Coronet was only used for a relatively short period of time (about two years) but had high mileage. Like modern police cars, the Coronet was only used for a relatively short period of time (about two years), but managed to rack up high mileage.
This Coronet was not an original police car. It was a clone created by Iversen and dedicated to a San Fernando police officer killed in the line of duty.
The car is not high performance; it is powered by what appears to be a 318 cubic-inch V8 engine with a twin-barrel carburetor. The Coronet was also sold with more powerful engines, including 383, 440, and 426-cubic-inch Hemi V8s. The car would have been better without the more powerful engines.
Iversen told Jay that he recorded speeds of 100 mph during high-speed chases. In the 1960s, however, police officers could do much more than just drive at high speeds.
"They could also be in a hurry."
Liability was much easier."
Jay reviews the police equipment in the car, including a Motorola walkie-talkie, whose name Jay says goes along with the car theme, and an old Victrola record player.
Like almost every episode of Jay Leno's Garage, this episode ends with a car ride. On the road, Jay turns on the siren. The old 318 does its best and Jay says it has decent traction, but Iversen downplays the power and seems to think the car is best suited for nostalgia at a car show. We think the car is a piece of American history and it looks great."
