Last week we watched a chase scene from Hunter. This week, let’s watch a stranger chase from a more obscure show. L.A. Heat went for two seasons in 1999 but enjoyed far greater success in Europe – it even beat Baywatch in the ratings in Germany! It seems to be a pretty cookie-cutter buddy cop action series but it had plenty of chase scenes. Here’s an odd pairing: a Porsche 911 up against a Mercury Monarch, set against a beautiful Californian backdrop.
Gee, the Porsche driver must have really sucked if he was struggling to keep up with a Mercury Monarch. I was utterly surprised the Monarch didn’t explode when it crashed. Come to think of it, have car chase explosions decreased over the years?
The Mercury actually did pretty well considering it was never intended to be driven that way.
Actually if they had been ordinary crooks driving that Monarch they would have lost it the first time their rear end came out from behind. I seriously doubt they would have known to steer the front in the same direction as the back.
Which goes right back to my original point that a skilled driver can make those cars do what they were never intended to do.
Looked like it was on ice all of the sliding around it was doing.
An explosion probably cost a couple thousand dollars so the accountants nixed it.
You’re not a very successful bad guy in LA in 1999 if you’re driving a baby blue Monarch…I love though that you found an American show with German overdubbing and are showing it back over here.
I don’t think that 993 ever had to get out of second gear. Some chase. The box got thrown out of the car and pretty much just dropped to the ground, period. It’s almost surprising the Monarch wasn’t just flat stopped by the bush that ostensibly caused it to flip.
Yeah I don’t think “chase” is really the best choice of words here…. perhaps car “follow” would be more accurate. In the one scene where the Porsche closes in, the driver’s problem becomes obvious: what is he going to do if he catches that Mercury?
Better to loaf along behind and wait for it to crash, which seems inevitable.
Thinking about it, was there an American car of that era that could run away from or even run with that Porsche on that road?
In 1999 when that scene takes place, I can think of three American cars that could run with that Porsche on that road:
1) Dodge Viper
2) Chevy Corvette
3) Chevy Camaro B4C (police package with LS1 V8)
If you were thinking of a sedan, I’d say (big) maybe 1996 Impala SS
I think the chase ended when the Monarch driver’s Dramamine wore off and he went into a undulation-induced retching fit and lost control.
And were not those wheelcovers on the Monarch the most horribly generic set of factory-issued-optional-equipment wheelcovers out of Detroit during all of the 1970s?
Clearly the “not advised for under 10 years” warning was referring to that stretch of road, the Merc was older than that which is why it handled it!
But yeah, there’s nothing that shouts “we’re gonna end a chase with a car crash, maybe an explosion” to the viewer than an old RWD heap. Usually it’s a Caprice/Impala or Crown Vic, though.
You can tell in a few of the action shots that the frame rate is sped up significantly to make that wallowing marshmallow look impressive. That’s my biggest peeve in any car chase scene, like botoxed lips it never looks good.
When the Monarch flipped, I did notice the single exhaust joined by a “Y,” which leads me to conclude that it was probably a 302 with one of FoMoCo’s notoriously odd 1970s horsepower ratings. No more 100, 150, 200, 250, etc. More like 129, 137, 141, 148, 151, etc.
Ryan, I am going to guess that those weirdly specific horsepower numbers came about in the early 70’s because of the (mandated?) change of U.S. automakers from advertising SAE (Society Of Automotive Engineers) gross horsepower numbers to the use of SAE net horsepower ratings.
The gross ratings were generated using engines with all power-sapping accessories removed running under idealized conditions (under a full moon with the horsepower fairy running the engine dyno). Oddly enough engines were sometime under-rated for various political reasons (no GM car could have more power than a Corvette) so in short since the ratings were WAGS (wild-ass guesses) anyhow nice round ratings numbers like 100, 259, etc were close enough since the numbers were only vaguely accurate anyhow.
The implementation of SAE net horsepower required testing with the alternator, air conditioning, and power steering pumps hooked up, and so the resulting tests were actually comparatively accurate, hence the odd numbers instead of the previous rounded ones.
However – finding the exact impact on American engines when the ratings were changed from Gross to Net is difficult because at the same moment pollution control requirements were introduced and so compression ratios, etc were lowered and smog controls added, muddying the picture.