1974 Nova 9C1 COPO Brass Hat Police Car

[9C1Beater]

Thanks to all. Yes, that is the original air cleaner. It has a painted top instead of a Z28's chrome top, but is otherwise identical. The build sheet's air cleaner box has a "DY" code, but the sticker on the side of the air cleaner is "DW" (it's the very faded original sticker...not a reproduction). One of the guys at the Super Car Workshop bldg. in Carlisle said there were 2 versions of the dual snorkel air cleaner in '74...one for a points-type distributor (DW code), and one for an HEI distributor (DY code). My car was probably one of the last to get the points distributor, hence the switch to the points-style air cleaner which had a smaller indentation in the back than the HEI air cleaner. Harry Hammond said the L48 Nova's single snorkel air cleaner was starving the carburetor for air at maximum throttle, so he used the Z28's dual snorkel air cleaner to solve the problem. The right exhaust manifold on the engine has a provision for a heat tube to an L48 air cleaner, but since the Z28 air cleaner did not use a heat tube the heat stove sits on the manifold without a purpose.

The last photo in the first group of photos is Rick Mahoney presenting the first Nova police car to Lt. Bill Kirtley at the LASD headquarters in mid-June 1974. It's hard to see, but the car wears Goodyear Polyglas E70-14 raised white-letter tires. My car still has its original Polyglas RWL spare...the same tire as delivered on all 17 '74 Nova police cars. The 15 police cars ordered by the LASD and the City of Fountain Valley did not have 350 engine badges like the white prototype and the gold demonstrator because the police didn't want them.

The top 3 photos in the second group of photos are of Harry Hammond seeing the car at his country club in Fenton, MI in July 2018. The next 2 are Drew Hardin of Muscle Car Review magazine photographing the car, and the last 2 show the car car wearing its new reproduction Goodyear Polyglas RWL tires. The gas station in the next-to-last photo dates back to 1929 and is still owned by the same family that built it on a small state highway about 25 miles north of Columbus, OH.