Cops and Robbers: The Story of the British Police Car. Ant Anstead

      This picture of Woolwich Police Station yard in 1968 shows the eras changing, new Escort panda cars coming in to replace Anglias, but an S-type area car still being used along with a Hunter, Rover P4 and Mk2 Cortina.

      Think Jaguar and most of us will think Traffic car; whether it be a 1960s Mk2 or the latter XJ6 range, we generally remember the big cats for cruising the country’s motorway network. But the Metropolitan Police decided that the S-Type Jaguar would make an ideal area car – and who would possibly argue? Certainly not the boys tasked with driving them! Probably one of the best-looking saloon cars of all time, the S-Type Jaguar still stirs something in most of us, and in police trim it looks positively fabulous. The Met employed these cars as both traffic and area cars, with the former painted in white and the latter in black. These cars were produced on a separate production line – but only at the weekends – and were some 33 per cent cheaper to buy than the standard production car, but then there were some significant changes to facilitate that reduction that makes these cars unique. For starters, the 3.4-litre engine was changed in favour of the more powerful 3.8 unit, which was married to an automatic gearbox and a low-ratio Power-Lok limited-slip differential. There was no power-assisted steering and the tachometer was removed. But it was the interior where most of the savings were made, by removing the polished walnut veneer dash and door cappings so often associated with the marque and replacing them with very cheap wood painted matt black. Out came the deep-pile carpet and in went rubber floor matting. The door cards were plain black vinyl affairs with no door pockets or arm rests. In total there were more than 150 changes made to each car, and between 1966 and 1968 the Met Police bought 266 S-Type Jags, making it the single-biggest order for one model ever made. Of those 266 units, 183 of them were black area cars whilst the remaining 83 white cars were designated as Traffic cars. It must have been quite a thrill to drive one, on a shout with the Winkworth bell chiming away through the streets of 1960s London, although it’s doubtful whether it was possible to get anywhere near the car’s 120mph top end very often. A total of only five police-spec S-Type Jaguars have been saved and restored to their former glory, with three of them being area cars. As a restorer, personally I think it’s a shame that more of these cars were not saved.

      Prior to the Met buying S-Type Jags, their area car of choice was the Wolseley 6/110. The big Farina cars were powered by a 2.9-litre straight six engine mated to a 3-speed gearbox. They were all finished in black and carried a large PA speaker on the roof. The cars were good for just over 100mph and the officers who crewed them rated them as the best area cars they’d ever had. In most other forces the cars were used as Traffic cars, with the last ones still in service as late as 1972. Their subsequent success on the banger racing circuit (big BMC Farinas were the banger of choice in the 70s and 80s) oddly required much the same qualities as those needed in a police car. Shame so many got destroyed, though.

      Rover’s foray into the police-car market didn’t really begin until the introduction of the P6, but with it came instant cult status. Prior to the P6’s introduction a couple of forces had dabbled with the P4 – namely Cheshire, who had an entire fleet of them in green! Like the Wolseley 6/80 and the Jaguar Mk2, the Rover has become an iconic police vehicle revered by many, especially those officers who were tasked with driving them. Although many forces used the 3500 V8 as a Traffic car, with some using the smaller 2200 as an area car, only the Met sought to use the V8 as an area car, taking over the role from the outgoing S-Type Jags. They were all finished in Zircon blue, with a single blue light and a couple of Mickey Mouse spot lamps adorning the roof, and they will no doubt be remembered by Londoners of a certain age. You know who you are …

      However, in 1975, when Rover replaced the P6 with the all-new SD1 3500 V8, the Met’s area car crews were all reduced to the 2.6-litre model. Out went the spot lamps and blue paint, in came white cars with orange and gold stripes along the sides and little else to distinguish them from Traffic cars save the single blue light instead of twin beacons. Both the P6 and SD1 served the Met brilliantly over a period of 15 years, and that aforementioned cult status isn’t a label applied lightly – although elsewhere in chapter eleven you can read more details about the SD1 and why the choice of the 2.6-litre, 6-cylinder over the 3.5-litre V8 made by accountants backfired spectacularly.

      City of London Police Triumph 2500 Pis at speed.

      Rover’s biggest challenge came from Triumph, when it launched the 2000 range at about the same time that Rover introduced the P6 in 1963. Another big four-door saloon with a decent engine, it was seen by many forces as a Traffic car rather than an area car, and in later Mk2 Pi trim, even more so. However, some forces did utilise the Mk1 Triumph 2000 as an area car, including the Stoke-on-Trent City Police, Somerset and Bath Constabulary and the Nottingham City Police, who had their cars finished in black with the city coat of arms placed on the front doors. The Met Police used the Mk2 2500 TC as area cars about the same time as the Rover P6 models. They were painted in either Delft blue or Pageant blue and were said to be lighter and easier to drive than the Rover but did suffer from engine overheating when in heavy traffic and from a number of other niggling faults. The City of London Police used the Mk2 saloon as area cars, all of them finished in white to differentiate their cars from neighbouring Met vehicles.

      A Rootes Group publicity image from 1970, taken to publicise their range of special police vehicles.

      The Rootes Group, usually using their Hillman badge on smaller cars and Humber on larger cars, produced some ideal cars to fulfil the role, especially with its Hunter and Minx saloons. For a decade from 1966, the company produced this solid four-door saloon with a 1725cc motor capable of achieving 95mph. It had dependable handling and was a tough and solid car. It was everything an area car should be, and those officers who once crewed them remember them with a fondness not afforded to other cars. Many forces utilised the Hunter and its round-headlight twin the Minx, including the Sheffield and Rotherham Constabulary, Durham, Hampshire, Surrey, the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police. Developed under the internal code ‘Arrow’, the Hunter range is often forgotten now but it achieved an enormous amount in its quiet understated way, not just with the police. Not only did Andrew Cowan, Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle win the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon in one, but it also remained in production, latterly only as a pick-up, until 2015 in Iran where it was known as the Paykan, which is, apparently, Persian for Arrow.

      The later Hillman Avenger was even more popular with forces such as the Avon and Somerset, West Yorkshire, Sussex, Dorset and Kent Police. Although it had a slightly smaller engine, at 1598cc, it was almost as quick as the Hunter/Minx and, being the younger of the two models, was obviously a more modern drive. Its styling wasn’t to everyone’s

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