<VV> A Little More on Cop Cars
jwcorvair at aol.com
jwcorvair at aol.com
Wed Mar 2 08:15:09 EST 2016
I'm a little late in adding to this conversation, but I thought that this information might be of interest to others out in VV land. I have a book entitled "Chevrolet Police Cars" that covers all Chevrolet police cars from 1955 to 1996. This book has information about engine data, performance specs, and option packages available for all models of Chevrolets that could be used as police cars - including Corvairs.
According to this book, the Corvair was available with a police option in 1961 and 1962. Chevrolet billed the Corvair as, "America's most advanced thrift car -- fills a unique role in police department needs. Big cities will like the Corvair's extra-easy maneuverability in traffic ... low price ... overall economy." The car was aimed at big cities and cities with narrow tight streets, such as New Orleans. The book notes that the Corvair "was profoundly not a successful police car," citing handling and over heating as two of the biggest reasons for its lack of success.
The book is fairly accurate about the technical information on the Corvair, but it does not list any features of the police package.
The popular small Chevrolet used for police work was the Biscayne, which was available with engines sizes from 235 ci single barrel sixes to 348 ci V8s with three two barrels.
Regards,
Joe White (62 four door [coulda been a cop car], 64 Spyder [project], 66 Porvair)
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