Best looking police cars

[Arran]

Re: Best looking police cars

Rover SD1s seemed natural as police cars, especially the ones with 3.5 litre V8's.

Supposedly the Metropolitan Police liked them so much they bought up a job lot when production ended.

They look like they were designed to be a police car from the outset. You could fit more road cones into the cavernous boot of an SD1 than any other police car at the time.

Sadly the Rover 800 with its FWD did not have the performance and handling that matched up to the RWD SD1. Damn Honda. The original 800 was RWD and used the same mechanicals as the SD1 and the 3.5 litre V8 engine but Honda insisted that the Legend is FWD. This marked the beginning of the end of Rovers as police cars.

[Davie3door]

Re: Best looking police cars

Love that x cars clip.
i had a Silver Sierra Sapphire a cosworth same as the police car in the clip, great cars.

[mark1970]

Re: Best looking police cars

[staffslad]

Re: Best looking police cars

The worst thing was that I was taking driving lessons at the time and I knew that if he bought it then I would get to drive it. It was white with leather seats and a wooden dash if I remember correctly. As he was looking round it, I was already planning where I would take my girlfriend in it...but it wasn't too be.

Re: Best looking police cars

I was so disappointed when he didn't buy it.

i know how you would have felt buddy. happened to me on more than one occasion when i used to go car hunting with my dad. i tried to get my dad to buy a daimler double six, but he just walked away from it. :cry:

[staffslad]

Re: Best looking police cars

I really like the old Rover P6. Very classy car. My dad went to see one when he was looking for a new car and I was so disappointed when he didn't buy it.

Re: Best looking police cars

They were before my time but does anybody like the look of the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2500? Popular traffic cars of the 1970s.

yes, i do. great looking cars and, despite the lack of power steering, they were good to drive.

[Arran]

Re: Best looking police cars

They were before my time but does anybody like the look of the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2500? Popular traffic cars of the 1970s.

Re: Best looking police cars

Re: Best looking police cars

remember that time when the police bought these...


and not long after this beast was released. it caused a bit of upset at the time because of the speeds it could reach.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Best looking police cars

Morris Minor 1000

[Hair Bear]

Re: Best looking police cars

Not your usual SD1 action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN5X4JZFjU

[Arran]

Re: Best looking police cars

Thames Valley was the first British police force to use BMW back in 1972. It was an E3 3.0Si. Designed for the German Autobahns with no speed limits it output 220bhp with a top speed of 132mph. More than a Rover P6 powered by a V8 engine.

In 1979 City of London Police adopted the E12 BMW 525 as their traffic patrol car. Hampshire, Thames Valley, and West Mercia also used E12 5 series.

The Metropolitan Police resisted BMW until the early 1990s when they bought a yellow E36 BMW M3 as a traffic enforcement car along with a Porsche 968 Club Sport. They only started using 5 series as traffic patrol car after the E39 came out in 1995.

[Hair Bear]

Re: Best looking police cars

The 3.5 V8 in an LDV was available as a standard listed engine option, as was the 3.0 V6 in the transit.
I was told, although I don't know the truth behind it, that the Jag was the preferred motorway car over the BMW because although they were comparable in performance the Jag could go very much faster backwards down the hard shoulder for queue control(!).

[Richard1978]

Re: Best looking police cars

Apparently police started using Cosworth's because the crims were using them just like when police changed from Commer & Thames vans to Transits to match the crims in their's

The same with the police using Jaguar Mk2s in the 1960s, as they needed to keep up with criminals using them.

I've heard of LDV Sherpa vans being fitted with Rover V8's for police work, hopefully for extra lugging ability rather than speed.