{"id":346,"date":"2011-06-09T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/?p=346"},"modified":"2012-12-03T21:37:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T21:37:43","slug":"the-other-side-of-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/the-other-side-of-the-law","title":{"rendered":"The other side of the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Almost anyone I am around more than once a week will tell you that I am Trans Am crazy.\u00a0 Add in the fact that I love talking about them and you’ll see why everyone tells me about every second generation Trans Am they see.\u00a0 When a new friend or stranger asks me about my Trans Am, it is usually accompanied with “what do they look like again?”.\u00a0 It is then apparent that the person listening to me doesn’t have a clue and I calmly ask; do you remember Smokey and the Bandit?\u00a0 Immediately a smile comes across their face and is followed by comments about speeding, beer, the funny sheriff or just “I remember now”, which is the most common reply to my question.\u00a0 It has become very clear to me that almost 99% of the non-Trans Am population stereo types our cars with law breaking and all out spirited fun.\u00a0 Except for occasional blast to 100mph from time to time, they are usually only right about the spirited fun.<\/p>\n

I’m sure it’s also safe to say that on the other side of the spectrum Smokey and the Bandit stereo typed law-enforcement as slow bumbling fools.\u00a0 For the sake of not offending the men in blue for whom I respect and have great appreciation for; I’ll just say in 1978 one Sheriff took great pride in dismissing that perception.\u00a0 The method in which He went about it put the Trans Am in a whole new light for me.\u00a0 His name was Sheriff J.D. Stewart of Catoosa County<\/a> Georgia and he just happened to be a true blue Pontiac’r.\u00a0 When most law enforcement departments were ordering big Ford and Chevy patrol cars, Sheriff Stewart called up Pontiac and ordered Trans Ams outfitted with the W72 performance package and WS6 suspension.<\/p>\n

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In the time of Bandit wanna be’s running up and down the highways of the country, this Sheriff figured the best way to catch someone was to have the best car on the road.\u00a0 But, a Trans Am as a patrol car?<\/p>\n

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One day TAC regular Ken Allenback of Canada submitted two photo’s taken from a magazine.\u00a0 I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the above pictures.\u00a0 At first I had no idea about the article or that Trans Ams were even used in law enforcement.\u00a0 In a day of ‘DARE’ and ‘Beat the Heat’ programs its common place to see a Trans Am or sports car outfitted with decals, lights and sirens.\u00a0 But, just imagine what it must have been like seeing one of these intimidating cars in your review mirror.<\/p>\n

The actual article from the 1979 Car & Drivers
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At the start of the article the author describes the moment when he first saw a Catoosa County Trans Am.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure this is what he saw.<\/p>\n

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Thanks to Dennis Padgett for allowing TAC to use the two above images in this article.\u00a0 He holds the\u00a0copyright to both images and written consent must be obtained before use will be allowed.\u00a0 Please click here<\/a> to contact him for legal permission.<\/p>\n

All of the Trans Ams used by the Catoosa County Sheriffs office were non-ac W72 400-4spds coupes without hood birds\u00a0at a minimum.\u00a0 They were all cameo white with carmine red standard interior.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve read there were 6-8 ordered originally, which are the 78 year model obviously and followed up by 4 more in 79.\u00a0 Pictured below were 8 plus 3 lemans.\u00a0 From what I’ve been able to research the Sheriffs 78 was stolen at one point and totalled and another was wrecked.<\/p>\n

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Exactly when the first TA was purchased could be debated without sales invoices and you can’t get that without PHS and you can’t get that without the VIN.\u00a0 So,\u00a0I digress.\u00a0 From the pictures accumulated on various internet sites the 78 TA’s were equipped with rally II’s and not the WS6 snowflakes.\u00a0\u00a0In the picture below you can clearly see the rims and one oddity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When the 79 models were ordered the only apparent change seems to be the addition of the WS6 wheels and I would assume 4wheel disc brakes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the point where I’m writing this article these Trans Ams must have seen some action that required repairs, as the 78 pictured above\u00a0appears to be wearing front wheel flares from a 79 model.\u00a0 The 79 appears to have a fuel door from a 81 model.\u00a0 Perhaps these items were\u00a0lost\u00a0in\u00a0high speed pursuit.\u00a0 Whatever the case these officers had style and took law enforcement to the next level.<\/p>\n

Once these pieces of Trans Am folk lore were brought up the community as a whole came to one consensus.\u00a0 We wanted to find one.\u00a0 Sad to say that has never happened.\u00a0 It was rumored that the Son of the late JD had his fathers 79 in his posession, but that has never been verified.\u00a0 Sometime in 2010 a TAC member posted a craigslist link to a Trans Am that was supposedly a old catoosa county TA.\u00a0 The ad was removed within hours and all chances of its verification and subsequent restore were lost once again.<\/p>\n

That brings up another question.\u00a0 When will someone clone a Catoosa County Sheriffs Trans Am?\u00a0 To do it right wouldn’t be difficult, but up until recently the interior was a mystery.\u00a0 Here is a picture I discovered along with many more that shows exactly how the interior would appear.<\/p>\n

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So there you have it.\u00a0 A piece of Trans Am history is out there waiting to be discovered.\u00a0 There were other law enforcement agencies that utilized Trans Ams, but none with such character and personality.\u00a0 The reading of this article begs to challenge, what was more intimidating….the cars themselves or the men driving them.\u00a0 They both commanded and received respect.<\/p>\n

To the late Sheriff\u00a0JD Stewart we tip our hats to you.\u00a0 You will forever be remembered for your service and style.<\/p>\n

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Special mention to www.kirbycarmichael.com where some of these irreplaceable pictures were found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost anyone I am around more than once a week will tell you that I am Trans Am crazy.\u00a0 Add in the fact that I love talking about them and you’ll see why everyone tells me about every second generation Trans Am they see.\u00a0 When a new friend or stranger asks me about my Trans … Continue reading The other side of the Law<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/transamcountry.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}