1978 Chevrolet Nova 9C1 - Jay Leno's Garage

kind of old equipment, it's getting harder, yeah. As the years go by it becomes very difficult to find some equipment, like when the police put these things out of service, do you as police officers take them away or is it okay, yeah, okay, very cool and they have old school radio, yeah, and take it? weapons mounted on the seat, well where does the seat move, the shotgun holder moves too. No, I said the shotgun was full, so now you're actually riding a shotgun. Yes, yes, okay, very good, did they have emissions or were they exempt police cars in the 70s?

I think they were exempt wasn't that something something tells me yeah yeah there was a little break from the state okay so you could have had over 100 any 5 horsepower engine did they seem fast to you at the time? yes, because they were much lower than the previous police cars there they were, they were smaller, yes, which made for a great turn because the center of gravity is lower, so taking a Kearn to make a fabulous U-turn, Did you ever have to do a lot of chases in one of these, well you didn't do this one, you drew which one you were driving.

I came out, we had the Malibu, no, Malibu, okay, and then for a while, you had the AMC Matadors, is that right? Yes, from 1972 to 1973 we had the truck and what was the idea there? The guy you were chasing would laugh so hard that he was in a matador that he would hopefully go off the road with probably thanks no, actually the matador was a good car during the Matador Club. Do not write to me. a letter just makes a stupid joke famous Leno is the president of an associated American matador you know, I'm sure it's a good car now, what was it?

Have you ever had a really big high speed chase? Did you have a lot of those when you're around? an officer just a few, just a couple, yes, yes, but how high did he have to go? Remember? There were about 100 of them and we chased them almost to the border with Mexico, really from where Temple City, what was it? Thinking he was going to cross the border, I don't know, it was a carjacking, oh, we almost got to the border and he decided to turn around and with the mail he returned to Monterey Park. Wow, so that's what's haunting us.

It was long, well, it was long, okay and I hope you run out of gas, we probably expected, but he didn't, yeah, yeah, okay, very cool, very cool, power steering Anan, power steering, how is it shaking the publication? Did they have air conditioning? in '78, yeah, okay, 'cause I remember a lot of the earlier cars didn't have air, right, I went in and in the mid '80s, something like that, no, I had it before that, okay, the '70s, they just break some front drums in the rear, yes it does. There doesn't seem to be much room there, not when they finally went out to serve, it was comical at some point because if you had two big helpers there, their shoulders were almost touching, yeah, you look like a circus bear, right, it was funny. and then it seems like the most uncomfortable seat, there's a lot of talk about a bench and it doesn't support you, you just slide around very uncomfortable, yeah, I guess they don't want you to get too comfortable in the car. in the back, boy, that's real quick, I mean, have you ever found yourself telling them like really fat guys that you just can't fit them in there?

Yes, you ask them to come in, please, and you ask them: I will come in, please, how much work? with this to restore this took about five years, how many sheriff's departments are there across the country and I mean, I think of Los Angeles, I mean, what makes it different than the city police sheriff, I mean, some States don't have sheriffs, hmm, what makes you lieutenant? clean can answer that, you know, the sheriff's part is responsible for all three, we have three main responsibilities, one is to patrol the unincorporated areas and the 40+ cities that contract with us for police services, we provide security in the prisons to which we provide security.

We courthouses in Los Angeles County have a lot of other jobs too, from the Kern County line to the ocean, the railroad lines, Community College, we have a lot of different jobs, okay, and a ticket from the Sheriff's Department is the Exactly the same fine from the Highway Patrol or the Los Angeles Police Department, it's like that. If you get a speeding ticket from the sheriff, you go to a different court than you would go to the LAPD or Highway Patrol, you go to your standard court, you will have people who have received tickets from the CHP LAPD any other yes, I try to get one of each because I don't want to have favorites so I want to make sure I have a ticket from each department if you have one of us here oh no recently no it's early I'll have time but no the fines are the same the different formats but the fines are the same because you're looking at the same judge right okay oh so okay well we're good okay cool cool so it's something we could take running absolutely cool now you can find one of my friends and run him over, let's do it, that has some acceleration mhm, the tires still squeal when accelerating in one second, another, yeah, but boy.

This is pretty uncomfortable sitting, it's just nothing, there's no support or padding, it's thin yes, but people are certainly polite when you ride this thing, yeah, stay away, isn't it fantastic, well after a while you get used to it the bells, yes there are FP noises, where did you do it? Meet the guys who actually handled this card. You know, you know where it came from, what division. I have what we call the birth certificate. Yes, and it's a five by eight card. He says what equipment to put on him. The enrollment. engine anything that's important what kind of radio to put in but where it came from was a division near you was you no no that's the only thing is you didn't say where you were stationed throughout your career so I wish I had information on the mermaids today that is totally different than the ones they have now.

The old sirens are on the right side, so when you were in a chase or rolling code three, a lot of times you couldn't hear yourself, yeah. It's wrong just to say employ it feels like the Thunder of the 80s or 70s. I thought these Novas were weirder than that. I thought they only made a few of them. I thought it was like they had those Fox Body Mustangs for a while it was booming, yeah yeah those 5.0's, did they ever have them? Oh, okay, I guess the Highway Patrol is more of a chase than you guys would be right and they travel continuously, yeah, there are the highways, all in pairs, non-stop, so, cool!

I want to thank Bill, thank you Bill, thank you very much, the woods are the brushes that buy the shells, how they used to catch guys like me in the old days and where is Lieutenant Bob, Lieutenant Bob, thank you sir, thank you, a little bit of history, now that it is. Both pieces of the story here you have. I'll see you next week in a mountain jail.