[9C1Beater]

Big Gear Head, thank you for your interest. I plan to post more photos of the springs which will include their exact dimensions and the number of clips holding them together. I believe that they are one-off custom springs that GM probably put on all 17 of the '74 Nova police cars. The fact that GM went to all the trouble and expense to have them produced indicates GM management's desire to steal the cop car business away from Chrysler (which was the leading seller of law enforcement vehicles at that time). The fact that this car's springs were built at a GM plant and shipped (probably) from Detroit to the Van Nuys plant in less than 15 days (they had to be present on the assembly line right before this car showed up) is yet more evidence of this car's importance. Under hard cornering with this car there is virtually no lean. I owned a '70 Boss 302 in 1975 when I was 18, and this car is the closest thing I have ever driven to the feel of that car.

I am 100% certain that Rick Mahoney did some tricks to its engine right after he got the car. Its engine is coded "CKD" in the stamping pad (and "KD" on the build sheet), which is a standard L48 350 code, yet it has Z28 parts. I believe he had the engine built with the Z28 parts to make it more entertaining for the cops during test drives. He had a buddy at Arrow Chevrolet in Los Angeles who probably performed the work (Arrow is also where Rick liked to have his Zone Office cars delivered). This demonstrator must have made quite a favorable impression, because the LASD ordered 75 4th Gen Nova 9C1 police cars, and another 222 in '76 (I don't have ordering figures for '77 and '78 for the LASD, but Ed Sanow said that it was basically their sole squad car during those years (the Nova 9C1 was superseded by the Malibu 9C1 in '79, mainly due to the Malibu's larger rear seat area).

PS...I will post a photo on here of me at 18 with shoulder-length hair while leaning on the Boss...the car is covered with snow and has 1975 Iowa plates (driving a Boss 302 in the SNOW...blasphemy!!!). It was just another car back then, and all the young punks were cruising around the streets in muscle cars while looking for races and chicks with Aerosmith or ZZ Top cranking on the 8-track tape deck.

BTW Kurt, 6 leaf rear springs are not "normal F41 Nova suspension" components.