A couple of Mopar cop-car related items for you--especially those of you who know what a "real" Mopar K-car is*

First--Season Two of the legendary cop drama Adam-12 will be out on DVD on September 30th, thanks to a deal the folks at Shout Factory made with NBC-Universal to distribute it.

The second season is where Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) patrol their assigned beat in a 1969 Plymouth Belvedere, the first of two seasons they used that version of the B-Body.

If all goes well sales-wise, Shout Factory may release the remaining five seasons of Adam-12 on DVD.

Season 3 has the best opening of any, with the black-and-white Belvie roaring away from a curb "Code 3," with lights and siren going and 383 Magnum roaring as it passes the camera and sound recorder. (I always wondered, when that bunch of shows first aired, if someone at my local NBC affiliate in Syracuse, NY back then wasn't cranking up the audio at just the "right" moment, or if someone at NBC's master control did...or if the show's executive producer, Jack Webb, ordered it to be cranked up.)

FYI for you cop-car enthusiasts: Season 1 (already out on DVD from NBC-Universal) had Reed and Malloy in a '67 Belvedere in the pilot (first) episode, whose 383 you can hear crank up as they head out after roll call. The rest of that season they used a '68. Seasons's 2 & 3 (and one episode of Season #5, "The Beast") have a '69 Belvedere as Malloy and Reed's ride while patrolling One-Adam-12, while Season 4 is the only one where they use a '71 Satellite. The remainder of the series--Seasons 5-7--have them in '72 and '73 AMC Matadors.  Other than the radio call sign and color scheme, all the LAPD cars that Reed and Malloy used had 727 Torqueflites for transmissions (which AMC started buying from Ma Mopar in '72 across the board).

Turning to more-recent four-door Mopar cop cars, and my pursuit of one, the latest word is mid-October availability of one of four ex-police 2006 Dodge Chargers that this dealer in Wisconsin that I've been working with is set to get in. Two will be black, two will be white...and I'll pick the one that's in the best overall shape.

* "Real" K-Cars: Through 1980, Ma Mopar used the letter "K" as the second VIN character to denote Plymouths, Dodges and Chryslers built as Police Pursuit models.