See photos of the pre-production model as well as the tooling model at the Highway Patrol TV show website at http://highwaypatroltv.com/maisto/

The Maisto die-cast has no direct connection to the TV show. However, the CHP supplied the patrol cars, including the ‘55 Buick, to the show in its early years. On the show, the CHP door shield was covered by a generic shield. The Century 2-door sedan was unique to the CHP — it was a special run of Special 2-door sedans that had the Century engine and front fenders (4 venti-ports on each side instead of 3).

Be sure to cruise around to the other pages on the www.highwaypatroltv.com site — there’s a lot of interesting material there including a parody of the show that appeared in Mad magazine and a clip of Broderick Crawford being pulled over on the CHiPs TV show. The website’s host, Gary Goltz, is a real fan and even owns his own 1:1 Highway Patrol ‘55 Buick. In addition, he is a big supporter of the 11-99 Foundation that is a nonprofit, charitable organization that provides benefits and scholarships to California Highway Patrol family members. For more info, go to http://www.chp11-99.org/