Inside every adult male is a little boy hiding. The little boy inside the owner of this car came out when he was browsing the internet and came across an ad for a 1970 Mercury “California Highway Patrol” car. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to buy the car, but it did spark a desire for a retro police car.
The person selling the California Highway Patrol car actually made a living restoring old police cars and then selling them to private individuals and Hollywood movie studios. So, to his luck, there were a few more police cars for sale.
And all of a sudden, he was the owner of a 1968 Ford Custom “real” California police cruiser with all of the right equipment that actually works. The car is a ‘clone’, but it was built exactly as they looked in San Francisco in 1968.
Since this is a city police car, it has a 302 V8 with a 2bbl carburetor and single exhaust. Cars used by the highway patrol would have come with a 390 V8.
If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Bullitt’ with Steve McQueen, the film was shot in San Francisco in 1968. About 25 minutes into the film there’s a San Francisco police car that looks 100% similar to this one in the background.
