One "Vanishing Point" Police Car

[Mike999]

Found this over at the Allpar site:

"One 'Vanishing Point' police car by Hemi Andersen

The 2 featured “cops” were the ones parked on the bluff as Kowalski drove by on the road below. They quickly jumped into their 1970 Plymouth Belvedere, powered by a 318 engine and A-904 Torqueflite with front disc brakes. Sorry, I don't have the VIN any more.

That car was damaged when chasing the Challenger over a narrow bridge in some small town. The driver of the Belvedere overshot the bridge turnoff, sliding off the road and slowly rolling the car onto its left side in the ditch.

I bought the running gear from the car in the fall of 1971, for parts, at Frontier Auto Wreckers in Sunland, CA. I never took the body but spent two weekends unbolting all the useable parts and loading them into my 1963 Plymouth Belvedere station wagon, originally owned by Petersen Publishing Company in LA. (They do Motor Trend among other magazines.)

...The Chrysler factory rep that gave me the 360 told me about the movie and the 1970 Belvedere, which was not supposed to be wrecked in the story. It was brand new when it was leased or loaned to the movie company and had around 2,300 miles on it when I bought the parts."

That Belvedere became an organ donor for several other Mopars, as the rest of the story tells:

http://www.allpar.com/history/movies.html

 

[kruleworld]

It's a cool story. I've heard that the challenger itself was returned to Dodge and has never been identified since.