Yahoo News Classic Police cars descend on the Ace Café
Anyone visiting the famous Ace Café might have gained the understandable impression that they had entered a time portal, as the car park boasted two Sunbeam Tigers and a trio of Daimler SP250 Darts, all of them apparently poised to deter any would-be ton-up motorcyclist.
And these were just part of the display arranged by Police Car UK, representing a cross-section of more than 50 years of law enforcement, from the Range Rover that served as the escort car throughout the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales to a trio of Cortina Lotus Mk2s, one from the Isle of Wight and a brace of ex-Mid-Anglian Constabulary cars.
The latter two were four-door saloons specially manufactured by Dagenham, as the force’s chief constable thought that two-door cars were “not fit for purpose”.
For both cars to be still on the road is a testament to the dedication of their owners, Steve “Ozzy” Osborne and Jim Paynton.
“At shows, you do sometimes find people muttering ‘Ford never built a four-door’,” says Jim.
Slightly less glamorous but of even greater historical importance was the 1966 Volvo 121 Amazon Estate, which was one of a five-strong fleet commissioned by Hampshire Constabulary.
The Volvo was regularly engaged on rapid accident response duties and it has the distinction of being the oldest foreign-made police vehicle in the UK.
In 1965 Sir Douglas Osmond, the force’s chief constable, decided to buy patrol cars based on merit rather than their national origins; a decision that caused a degree of controversy. The Amazon’s custodian Steve Woodward, a founder of the club, notes that it “paved the way for British police forces to use overseas-built cars”.
Two of the vehicles were from the Metropolitan Police’s Historic Vehicle Collection in Hendon and their Land Rover still looks ready to tow away any stricken Morris Ital, although the fact that it was still fitted with a bell made 1981 seem impossibly remote.
The 1973 Austin 1100 Mk3 hailed from an era when a low-spec family car could lack a water temperature gauge as standard equipment and when ashtrays were regarded as a luxury. Just imagine being a sergeant on duty in a vinyl-upholstered ADO16 Panda Car during the summer of 1976…
Even the more recent cars on display were a reminder of how distant the late Eighties, Nineties and even the early 2000s now seem, from the Vauxhall Omega to the Jaguar XJ6 that was once based at the Wiltshire police driving school.
A Ford Sierra 2.0 GLS looked as though it belonged in the 1994 series of The Bill and this writer truly felt his age when he realised that he often saw the Cosham-based E28-series BMW 528 from 1987 when he was still a sixth-form student.
Above all, every vehicle conveyed a story. The 1955 Riley RMF owned by Steve Knich (“it is the seventh to last 2½ litre RM built”) was originally used by the chief of Portsmouth City Police, who took immense pride in the fact that “it could travel from one end of Portsea Island to the other in under four minutes”.
In 1969 “Charlie One”, Ernie Jupp’s Jaguar 3.4S Area Car, escorted a Black Maria containing one of the Kray twins to prison. The Met used 266 Jaguar S-types, and such were their elaborate modifications that they had to be assembled during the weekends at Browns Lane. Ernie’s car has a low-ratio axle, while the inside lacks armrests and other decadent fittings.
The survival rate of former patrol cars is often very limited and one reason is the arduous working life that they often endured. David Malone’s Ford Granada 2.8 GL amassed a vast mileage in just 20 months with Hertfordshire Police, every minor dent hinting at a cycle of almost continuous motorway policing. “As soon as one crew stepped out, another one took over,” says David.
Many of the vehicles on show were once virtual street furniture: a Velocette “Noddy Bike”; an ex-Lancashire Ford Transit that, sans livery and flashing lights, is still in everyday use; and a 1978 Mini Van that served in North Wales.
Comparatively few of the last-named are still on the road and its owner Alex Lee often finds that “it is driving in a goldfish bowl – people are always waving at me and flashing their headlamps. I bought the Mini about eight years ago and I discovered that it was used on General Purpose duties, where it clocked up 60,000 miles in three years”.
If I was forced to select a Car of the Day it would have to be the Daimler Darts, largely because of their association with the Ace Café.
At the beginning of the Sixties, this café on London’s North Circular Road was renowned as a bikers’ haven and one practice was to insert 6d into the jukebox and attempt a circuit of the North Circular before the record had finished.
In 1961 the Metropolitan Police commissioned the first in a fleet of Daimlers to act as a high-visibility deterrent to the hordes of reckless bikers. John Dorsett’s SP250, registered 551 CLU, was so famous in its heyday that it was the star of a Pathé newsreel.
The Darts were fitted with automatic gearboxes to save on clutch wear, as a squad car might be in constant usage for up to 24 hours at a time, and crews would patrol with the hoods lowered, which must have been a challenge during winter. One popular item of unofficial equipment was a broom handle, which was deployed to see if Croydon’s answer to Gene Vincent had removed the silencer baffles from his BSA or Triumph.
Throughout the day the Police Car UK line-up attracted a vast amount of attention; some younger Ace patrons were amazed by the Spartan nature of Police Specification interiors (“where’s the electric windows?”), in addition to the bells on many of the older models. And learning that the Class One WPCs who originally crewed the Sussex MGB GT were popularly known as “Traffic Dollies” really did make the early Seventies seem like another country.
Thanks to policecaruk.com and london.acecafe.com
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