Keith...that sounds like an awesome car! Any Chevy cop car from 1974 is rare. Most were Belaires, and I think I've only seen one photo of a Chevelle cop car. You can hijack this thread and post pics and info on here. What engine and options does it have, where was it used, and what condition is it in? Does it still have its original Blue Dot spare? Those tires would be impossible to find now, I'm sure.
Harry Hammond said that he and Jim Ingle were under the gun time-wise to build the Nova police car prototype. They were given the job around the middle of Jan '74, and the LASD wanted any cars that were going to enter the '74 police car tests to be ready by the end of Feb (I don't know why that was a stipulation, but it was). The ban on radial tires for police use was a hit on the car's performance, but not a big one, as it still was able to generate .8 Gs on the skid pad at the GM Proving Grounds. After the Feb deadline passed, they had another 2 months to play around with the suspension and dial it in as best they could. The photo from the beginning of this post shows the Prototype at the skid pad at Black Lake and the car is relatively flat on a high speed turn. Harry said the car handled like a Z28...it was essentially a 4-door Z28.
My car still has all of its F41 stuff underneath, and it's all in good shape. It also has some factory paper stickers from the assembly line in place (the result of being from sunny LA). The rubber bushings are shot and will be replaced this winter. The bushings are identical to a Z28's, but I think the rear sway bar is slightly different.
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