Shooter2759

One certain thing I can say about some of the patrol cars? Both Sheriff Emmett “Hammerhand” Ragsdale and Sheriff Emmitt “Spike” Loomis drove ex-CHP cars. [minus the pushbar as standard throughout the series.] The evidence is in the roof color and the TwinSonics, though Spike’s car looks like a Texas Highway Patrol car but with the hood and trunk painted black too.

Thanks a bunch on that! As a hint, the wheels used by those are the same as the ones on the Springville County PD Polaras (but of course, with the proper wheel covers from 1974 to 1977...) The patrol cars that were in ‘The Blues Brothers’ included the: 1974 and 1975 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1973 Dodge Polara (those were painted all white and given the markings of the Wauconda, IL Police), 1975 Dodge Monaco and 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco [same size but different front end which has hidden headlights.] (both used in the movie by the Illinois State Police and Chicago Police with white wheels.)

Any plans on including the 1974 Dodge Monaco “Bluesmobile”? (plus the 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco...)

No idea on that detail... According to Wikipedia, the Dodge squad cars that were used were ex-California Highway Patrol cruisers, while Plymouth Furys, Satellites (less used) and AMC Matadors that once were in service of the LAPD also filled those roles (not sure on the ’75 and ’76 ones though...)

I had seen the Code 3 XL a number of times, notably on a restored Boston Police 1991 LTD Crown Victoria... But apart from that and the 10 Million Dollar Sheriff cars, looks like Federal Signal’s lighting equipment is the one of choice for the majority of the series. And I don’t know if anyone pays attention to the more minor details, but most of the mid-sized Mopar patrol cars in the series used 1974 to 1977 steel wheels, like the ones seen most prominently on the Springville County PD Polaras... (the wheels I did see on the fanarts of the patrol cars all have the 6-slot wheels which were first introduced for 1978...)

After watching the episode "10 Million Dollar Sheriff" and seeing the comments on the lightbar. I decided to do some web searching to see what I could find. As a member of the MS Paint Vehicles community on DeviantArt, I did find a parts sheet of Code 3 Inc.’s emergency lighting equipment done by another dA artist (link is here: https://www.deviantart.com/prpfd2011/art/Code-3-Lights-419269470 ; which includes that particular lightbar from that episode which has the hexagonal sides...) And a spot of Google searching has yielded it’s result. Turns out that ‘hexagonal’ lightbar used in the episode (on Rosco’s Mopar and that Rolls Royce) is the Force 4 XL lightbar, made by Code 3 Inc. (one of the 3 ELS companies I know of best [Federal Signal and Whelen being the other 2.]) whose classic items inventory also includes a copy of the TwinSonic (as seen on the fake Roseville PD patrol car). That’s all. More discussions to be done in other comments...

Cop cars made in the U.S of A that I knew about while growing up (in order): Ford’s Crown Victoria and the LTD Crown Vic, Chevrolet’s Caprice (1991 to 1996 versions), the Impala, as well as Dodge’s Monaco (full-sized version), Royal Monaco as well as Plymouth’s Fury and Gran Fury plus Pontiac’s LeMans as well as the Dodge Charger (old and new ones.) In fact, I have a few diecast models of some of those cars in my collection and plan on getting several of the diecast cars listed there... (it includes 3 ’77 Royal Monacos [one of which is a Chicago PD car from The Blues Brothers.] and a pair of Crown Vics and 2 ’67 Ford Custom sedans...)

I’ve only been here for quite a few weeks, but all the content here is nice (mostly with the squad cars though...) But when I found out about this forum I hadn’t known about The Dukes of Hazzard (sure there was the 2000s movie but the TV series from before? Nope.) apart from the fact that several of the patrol cars used by the lawmen in Hazzard County have made appearances in other films and TV series, plus somewhat more notable cars too. Movies that I’ve watched so far: The Blues Brothers, Smokey & The Bandit as well as S&TB2, plus H.B Halicki’s The JunkMan, the original Gone In Sixty Seconds and it’s 2000s reboot and Blues Brothers 2000. (That’s all I can name here...) Patrol cars I do know that appeared in the 2005 version of The Dukes of Hazzard include the: pre-1991 Chevrolet Caprice (with hubcaps from a 1992 Caprice...) as well as the 1st gen and 2nd gen Ford Crown Victoria.

My screen name was something I came up with myself when I first set up a deviantart account, that would be Shooter2170 (also what I use on twitter), but since that number code was too mainstream, I decided on using the number from my previous house: 2759, instead. A decent amount of my classic US police car knowledge comes from various movies, plus the December 1977 edition of Car & Driver (there’s a Bear Spotters’ Guide in this issue)... My screen name however, references to my basic knowledge and interest in guns. More info to come in the Introductions sub-topic...

The NYPD never did really use the 1973 Dodge Polara, but they did use the Plymouth Fury back in 1973. Meanwhile their main cars from 1976 to 1977 were: Pontiac’s LeMans (1976 model) and Catalina (same body as the 1975 Chevy Bel Air) and Plymouth’s Fury (round headlights version and the rectangular ones. [those have 6-slot wheels])

The black Hatchapee County Sheriff’s cars had the California or Utah issue TwinSonic. (red and blue with a single rear-facing amber flasher in the left side.) Those 6-slot wheels meanwhile would be Dodge’s fleet package steel wheels for the Monaco’s replacement: the Diplomat. Early '77 Monacos used by the California Highway Patrol used Dodge’s earlier 4-slot steel wheels that were first introduced on the '74 Monaco, and they didn’t switch to those wheels until they got their 1978 cars.

I may be a newbie to this forum but I can add some details on the patrol cars from this series and from The Blues Brothers plus Smokey & The Bandit. Most of the lightbars used are Federal Signal’s early model AeroDynic, their attempt at making a still tall but more aerodynamic lightbar. These lightbars had a center speaker piece before the emergency lighting companies decided to switch to all-light equipment. The ‘squarer’ lightbars are Federal Signal’s TwinSonic, nicknamed the ‘Flying Brick’ due to their shape, and was known to cut somewhere between 5 to 10 mph of the top speed of a vehicle that had it as the lightbar. The Hatchapee County Sheriff’s Department cruiser which showed the back of it’s lightbar also ID’s the TwinSonic as being one that was used in California or Utah (their TwinSonics by 1977 were red and blue, with a rear-facing amber flasher for the red side.) while the one with 2 beacons is either Federal Signal’s Twin Beacon Ray or the Twin VisiBar TwinSonics were also used in The Blues Brothers, by the Illinois State Police (some cars had Twin Beacon Ray lightbars while the other cars including the Chicago PD Mopars had Mars’ SkyBolt.) Smokey & The Bandit saw only 3 types of lightbars in the whole movie: a Twin VisiBar without a center speaker used on Buford T. Justice’s car; CJ184 4-lens beacons used by the Georgia State Patrol plus Alabama State Patrol and TwinSonics used for the Arkansas State Police, Deeson County Sheriff’s Office, Mississippi Highway Patrol and Atlanta City Police.