Police Car Factory 440 V8 - AC Super Tropper Cop Car Restored, Six-Pack!

Wow, this factory-ordered 1977 Plymouth Gran Fury Police car is really one of a kind. Fully restored with the original 440 V8 with an added 6pack setup. Restored by Totally Auto In PA at a cost of over $50,000 who specializes in Mopar restoration. Original ordered with the Brougham package which gives the added options like power windows, carpet and upgraded material seats. During restoration some items where added/changed like the round side markers lights which give it an awesome look. Show quality exterior finish and is laser straight. Featured in Mopar Magazine. A true must see!

Mopar Magazine Write Up: Lou Sitars, in Southeast Pennsy, is fairly typical among Mopar enthusiasts, in that he's a fifty-five-year-old guy who remembers when we were buying these things as nothing more than used cars and paying nothing more than used car prices for them. Obviously, those days are gone. Like us, Lou started buying hot Mopars as playthings in the late seventies, and continued buying them as toys and as collector's items as their values increased steadily throughout the eighties and nineties. Through the decades, he's had everything from Road Runners to "Cudas to Challengers, and just about everything in between, and like many of us, having grown up around these cars, and having been surrounded by them for the last forty years, you start to reach a saturation point. It's not a matter of not liking the cars anymore, that's hardly the case, but we know a lot of hobbyists who look at something like a '70 GTX (for example), and having seen zillions of them, remember the days when you could pick them up for $2,000 in decent shape, and you just have a hard time wrapping your head around dropping $35K to put that car in your driveway, knowing there will be a hundred of them at the next big Mopar show you attend. Yeah, you still like the car, but there's just a struggle between the ears about 'em that's hard to overcome when it comes to going out and buying one. That's pretty much where Lou's head was back in 2005 after selling his last muscle Mopar, and he wanted something different. Thinking and thinking about what should come next, Lou was drawn back to something he'd been fascinated with in his childhood years, and all of us around his age know good and well what he's talking about - cop cars. Back when we were kids, the world of cop cars was very different than it is today. Every department had different types of cars with different paint schemes, they usually upgraded or changed cars at least every two years, and even within each department, there were a dozen variations of the cars themselves depending on what they were intended. There were the posher police chief-type cars, the high-speed interceptors (which honestly sometimes had hood scoops on them), and the general run-of-the-mill cruisers or "beat" cars. Lou was fascinated with them when he was a kid because his town got new cop cars every year, and it was always fascinating to see their new cars and check out the latest lights and gadgets, the old-school sirens just sounded cool, and when their carbs opened up, there was no mistaking that deep and sudden roar that came from their generally less-restricted dual exhaust systems. Yeah, we know a lot of departments use the new Chargers these days, but if you were around back then, you already know, cop cars were cooler back in the sixties and seventies. So, that got Lou into the mindset of thinking he should look into buying an old police car for his next hobby machine; it would be a lot of fun, fulfill childhood fantasies, and it would be darned affordable compared to most other options, and that's how the search began. In the beginning, he didn't have any particular year or model cop car in mind, but shortly after the search began, he ran across an ad on the interweb for a 1977 Plymouth Gran Fury that was reportedly a former North Carolina State Police cruiser. The car was still in North Carolina, it looked decent, and the price was more than reasonable, so Lou took a trip south and met a guy named Tony Graham, who happened to know pretty much all there was to know about the car. In an unusual twist of fate, Tony was the big Plymouth's second owner, having acquired it directly through a state surplus auction in 1980! He'd bought it for his wife, and she had used the Fury as her daily driver for the better part of the next twenty years, but with the car just being rather old, it was time to let it go. He had a decent amount of paperwork with the Fury, and it's a very unusual car in that it was definitely a North Carolina State Police car when new, but it was delivered new with a solid black paint job, rather than their customary silver-and-black, and it had the deluxe Brougham package on it, which gave it a posher interior and a bit more trim than you'd find in a regular cruiser, and power windows, too. Both Tony and Lou could only speculate, logically, that this had been a troop commander's car, or some such thing, as it was only used from '78 and retired before 1980 when it turned up at the auction; it had a lot of non-standard deluxe features, it was non-standard solid black, and the mileage was very low in 1980 (somewhere around 30.000 miles). Without a speck of rust on it and an immaculate original interior still in place, Lou wasn't going to pass this one up and returned home with the biggest Mopar he'd ever bought in the late summer of 2005. For those first few years, Lou just enjoyed cruising around in the big 440-powered beast, which ran pretty darn good and drove well enough. The car was wearing an old black repaint that looked to have been done just prior to the auction, but nothing else major had ever been done to it. Lou put a push bar on the front, started collecting cop car lights and light bars, and eventually planned to do something with the Gran Fury, but he didn't want to stop driving it long enough to do too much - it was also a bit of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, because the car wasn't that bad as it was. By 2014, however, the police wagon was starting to show its age and needed some attention if it was going to be a reliable, fun car. Having met Dave Ferro at local car shows years before, Lou began talking to Dave about bringing the car over to Totally Auto for a revamping, and they finally came to an accord when Lou brought Ferro the Plymouth and pretty much told him to "Go nuts," with only one major request "Just don't paint it black." Having a lot of black cars Through the years, and being tired of trying to keep them clean, Lou was leaning more towards some type of gray or silver metallic - obviously, the customer always knows best! Thus, the project began as a side-burner bit of work by Totally Auto and Ferro's crew not long after Carlisle 2014, and about every six weeks or so, Lou would take the forty-five-minute drive to Dave's shop to see what was going on, bounce ideas off each other, see what Dave had come up with, and every so often, drop off a check. So, it went, for the next two-and-a-half years, since there wasn't any particular hurry to get the thing done. This is a good thing, and a bad thing, because if you know Dave Ferro, that gives him too much time to think, but it also results in some spectacularly well-done work where no little detail gets overlooked. Things started off innocently enough, with Totally Auto shaving almost all the trim and emblems of the car to give it a cleaner look, then he revamped the push bar up front, adding another bar in the middle, then he set about working on the Fury's suspension to get it sitting lower and make it into a better handing machine; this entailed changing out the rear springs and rebuilding the front suspension, cranking the torsion bars down into the dirt. Then, one day when Lou went to pay a visit, there sat his Fury wearing a gleaming fresh coat of black paint, shining like a black pearl. Initially taken aback, a friendly visit in Dave's office and several laps walking around the car convinced him Ferro had been right in defying his initial request because honestly, the Fury just wouldn't have looked right in any other color but black. Once Dave laid on the gold leaf "Fury Pursuit" graphics on the roof pillars and above the grille, they added multiple coats of clear, Lou was seriously happy that Dave had insisted on black. As the old expression goes, "Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission." With that minor point settled, Ferro and his crew, in collaboration with Lou, worked steadily, transforming the big Plymouth into what you see today. The reason it has '68 side marker lights in it is quite simple; Dave thought the factory markers were too big and distracting. There's a bigger trick with the little round dots. however, that you'll not see looking at these photos. Digging through his collection of cop car lights and light bars, Dave settled on the one you see here, which they cut down so it would fit closer to the roof, then installed the classic red "bubble gum" lights on each side. Flipping the switch to turn those on also activates the side marker lights (which are all four red LEDs) which now flash in sequence with the revolving lights atop the roof! Sticking with the red-and-black theme, they decided early on the car should wear redline tires, but the wheels were a moving target until Dave finally just hit upon painting the stock cop car wheels black, installing chrome lugs and vintage polished stainless trim rings, and plating the dust covers on the wheels up front without the customary dog dish hub caps in place, and with the rear wheels widened an inch, the end result is striking and shows that less can genuinely be more. They added a pair of road lights up front, powder coated the grille black, polished and powder coated the headlight trim rings, ditto that for the bumper guards, then Dave delivered the coups de' grace by going through the original 440 and painting everything under the hood red with various shades of black accents, not the least of which is matte black crinkle paint, which looks outstanding on the valve covers. Oh, and as you might have noticed, Ferro decided the Plymouth needed a Six Pack setup, so, they added one and notched the air cleaner to fit so the original air conditioning compressor wouldn't have any problems. With all that red-and-black under the hood, in so many shades and hues of black, you almost need 3D glasses to appreciate the depth and level of work that went into the little details, painting, and plating all over that big engine bay. Since the Rapid Transit Tour was coming up, that served as the catalyst to light a fire under the project, because Lou mentioned he'd like to take the big hauler out on the open road with Dave and his crew. Always anxious for more buddies to roll with, that prompted them to finish it up and deliver it just before Carlisle last year, where the big cruiser made its reborn debut, then Lou piled onto the Tour, wringing the big machine out more than it's probably ever been thrashed in its life, and having a blast. "It's the best riding old Mopar I've ever had, and it handles like you wouldn't believe!” And, atop that, it reportedly got around 13 mpg on the trip, which, combined with its large gas tank, meant Lou wasn't having to gas up nearly as often as everyone else. Being overpowered now with more carbs, better ignition, and a little higher compression, Lou tells us this thing floats effortlessly on the road, "You can push it up on 90 or 100 mph and it's just like you're doing 55 - this thing can fly and it'll fly for a long time!" And, so, Lou had a 2,200-mile break-in journey with his new toy before putting it back in the driveway. Because it's a former cop car, we had to ask the obligatory questions about the lights, because depending on where you live, police departments can take a dim view of anybody running around with flashing lights atop what appears to be a police car, regardless of its vintage. Two amusing incidents have thus far come to pass. After the Tour, Lou stayed in North Carolina (where the Tour ended) for a little while, which, if you'll recall, is also where this one was sold new. Cruising along, a local sheriff hit the lights, whipped around, and quickly got on Lou's tail and he figured he was done for. As it turned out, the guy was the local sheriff, and he said, "There's no way I was gonna let you get out of this town without looking at this car - I haven't seen one of these in thirty years!" They spent a good while looking over the car, and Lou was also shown the finer points of the new Charger cop car, and they were best buddies before that traffic stop was over in fact, Lou blazed the tires and opened all six barrels upon pulling away! The other incident had to do with Ferro himself. On his initial shakedown cruise near his shop, with his wife, Diane, following behind, he stopped at a traffic light and then flipped on the lights to show her how they worked and a little old lady in the car ahead of him pulled over to the side of the road! Whoops! Those two moments aside, the local police around Southeast Pennsy seem to be good with Lou's big black cruiser, and he's rolling up the miles with a lot of thumbs up" signs being tossed his way from passing police officers. So, after decades of "traditional" muscle cars, Lou Sitars is enjoying this law machine more than any car he's ever had, and he tells us it's a part of the family now. Because of all the friendships, he's made with it, on the Tour, and with Ferro in building it, this one's going to be in his garage forevermore. Everywhere he goes, he tells us people want to stop and talk, take photos, and share memories. It's more than a car, it's a smile maker - which is exactly the opposite of what it was likely done in 1978 and 1979! When you have something that's bringing you this much pleasure, and entertaining everybody from kids to grandpas, how could you possibly ask for more? When you think outside of the box, to begin with, then tell Dave Ferro he can "go nuts" with an already unconventional car, just about anything can happen.

South Jersey Classics is a 10,000-square foot classic and specialty collector automobile dealer, featuring 50+ vehicles. This vehicle is located in our showroom in Newfield, NJ. Our Dealership is on US Route 40 just off New Jersey Route 55, Exit 39B heading towards Elmer, NJ; conveniently just 40 Minutes East of Philadelphia, 40 Minutes West from the Major New Jersey Shore Points, and 30 minutes North of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Our Showroom is conveniently accessible from all major Southern New Jersey Roadways including New Jersey Turnpike, I-295, I-76, NJ Route 42, NJ Route 55, US Route 40, Atlantic City Expressway, and New Jersey Parkway. Our website is www.SJClassics.com and our phone number is (856) 521-0832. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us anytime for more information or to come to see the vehicle in person.