We’ve always been intrigued by police cars, especially if you’re a gearhead. It is Dan Akroyd’s ‘Elwood’ character declaring “It’s got a copy motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters, so it’ll run good on regular gas,” that have become movie trivia. It was those three sentences from the 1980 hit movie The Blues Brothers that have been embedded into every car enthusiast’s memory banks. With the visuals of an ex-Mount Prospect 1974 Dodge Monaco police car flying over bridges like Evel Knievel, charging through a shopping mall like an angry bull in a China store, and partaking in one of cinema history’s most epic car chases and crash scenes with untold carnage, this film made an indelible impression to millions. Brothers Jake and Elwood, along with their tattered Dodge Monaco, have been a part of American Pop Culture for decades and the duo with their trusty ride are recognized all over the world. It’s no wonder that finding a running ex-police car in decent shape from the 1960s or 1970s is harder than unearthing a 1969 Charger Daytona or 1970 Challenger R/T with a 426 HEMI® engine. Police cars were ridden hard and put away wet by the departments that abused them chasing down the bad guys. When their shift was over for good, ex-police cars headed off to get sold at auctions for civilian life which were usually taxi fleets or private individuals with abusive driving habits. But how a very nice 1977 Michigan State Police Plymouth Fury powered by a 440 is a tale that must be told.
It begins with Ross Urtel and his business partner in crime (pun intended!), Eric Laesch, who owns Chase Classic Motors in Clinton Township, Michigan. The two share a passion and appreciation for retired police cruisers. The 43-year-old Urtel from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, Michigan, fell in love with police cars at a very young age when he was watching the movie The Blues Brothers at his cousin’s house and was mystified at the 1974 Dodge Monaco ex-police car leaping over bridges and doing other supernatural things. “I remember watching that black and white Monaco jumping 95th Street drawbridge over the Lake Calumet canal. That scene is indelibly ingrained in my mind and ever since I’ve had a love of Mopar® police cars,” said Ross. “As a kid of the 1980s, I watched a lot of television and there were many reruns in the afternoon that featured police chases with numerous Dodge and Plymouth police cars. This just stuck with me throughout my teenage years and influenced me to pursue a career in law enforcement. Eventually, I left law enforcement, joined the Navy, and now work for the VA (Veteran’s Administration) but my love of police cars never went away!”
For Eric, he has the same passion for these machines that led a hard life and whose sole duty was to help law enforcement do their job. He’s also 43 and currently works as an electrician but this former automotive instructor has found his calling working on cars he admired as a youth glued to the movie screen or TV set. “As a kid, I also loved car chase movies. They were so cool, especially seeing all the Mopar police cars that were used in many shows and films. Now, I get to work on these machines and give them a new lease on life it’s awesome. It’s sort of like meeting my childhood heroes!” Eric also owns a 1984 ex-Michigan State Police Gran Fury that he takes to many parades, car shows and events.
How Ross ended up with the 1977 big-block Michigan State Police Plymouth Fury is an interesting tale. He had been searching for a mid to late 1970s Dodge of Plymouth B-body police car for most of his life and being a collector of police cars, he had to have one. Ross knew of this 1977 MSP Fury five years ago, but it got away from him. “I had assumed all the big-block Mopar Michigan State police cars were destroyed, but I knew of this one. Like many other deals, this one just never happened. Then later on, I had heard of it coming up for sale around 2019 or 2020 and it was located in a barn up in Mackinaw, Michigan, and it was published on Facebook,” noted Ross. “I did more research and found the car had been sold back in 1999 or 2000 to a cab company owner in Cleveland. He partially refreshed it then sold it to a pilot from Maryland who happened to have a summer house in Mackinaw. His neighbor, a young enthusiast, knew about the car and the pilot sold it to him. But owning any old car can be a daunting task and once again, the Fury was sold to a man in Boston, and we missed out. After a while, he called me to see if I’d like to purchase the Fury as it was too much for him and we jumped at the chance.”
The Fury was built at Chrysler’s Detroit Lynch Road plant in April of 1977 and assigned to the Grand Haven, Michigan, Post. Despite being saddled with increased emission equipment thrown at the automakers in the late 1970s, the Fury’s ‘E86’ code High-Performance 440-cubic-inch V8 powerplant still managed to hustle up past 120 mph in a hurry and maintain those speeds for long durations. Those old enough will still recall the unmistakable sound of the engine’s Carter Thermoquad carburetor’s secondaries being flung open in anger when there was an emergency call, or when a speeder had to be reeled in. Chrysler didn’t mess around with their Police Pursuit Packages and went all in.
Along with the 440 engine, heavy-duty cooling was included along with special suspension that had bigger front and rear sway bars and heavy-duty springs were added. The unique 15X6.5-inch vented steel wheels and traditional ‘Dog Dish’ hubcaps complete the Fury’s no-nonsense exterior appearance. Chrysler’s Police Pursuit Package also included heavy-duty brakes and an automatic high-pressure cut-off switch to protect the air conditioning during long periods of idle an automatic high-speed cut-off switch would disengage the compressor at high speeds to reduce engine load and prevent over-speeding of the compressor. There were also oil coolers for both the transmission and power steering to keep their vital fluids at a happy temp when the going got tough. On the inside, the Fury Police Pursuit received a calibrated 140 MPH speedometer along with heavy-duty cloth/vinyl seat covers for those long hours.
These days, the ex-Michigan State Police 1977 Plymouth Fury is no longer on call chasing down bad guys and law-breaking motorists. It’s in the care of Ross and Eric and their duties are preserving and maintaining this rare example of a 440-powered Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit. When we asked Ross about all the Mopar police car carnage in The Blues Brothers movie and that iconic scene in which all the police cars are piling up near Lake and LaSalle Street on Lower Wacker Drive, he had this insightful response. “It was painful but fun to watch the demise of those cars on the screen but remember, in Hollywood, all those ex-Mopar police cars died for our entertainment. It’s also a shame more of them don’t survive but remember, police cars we designed to be driven daily, driven hard in all sorts of environments, beaten almost to the point of death, while being used for the public safety of the community. Police cars were never intended to live a long life. They were soldiers who had lived fast and died young. But their legacy will forever be preserved on film!”
Here are a few more shots of this unique and scarce 1977 Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit that protected and served the community for many years.
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