Visit to the Metropolitan Police Historic Vehicle Collection

[Mikep]

I arranged a visit for myself and my Dad to visit the Metropolitan Polices historic vehicle collection last night, this collection is not open to the general public but because my Dad is a retired Metropolitan Police officer they were happy for us to have a visit

It was really a reminisce for my dad as he was an area car driver in Hackney, East London during the seventies and early eighties and drove Triumph 2.5 PI's, Rover SD1(2600 not the 3500, they were traffic cars only) and of course the 3500 P6 Unfortunately the P6 was off at a garage having the handbrake fixed but we got to have a good look at the other vehicles.


DSC07417 by mikeyp78, on Flickr

DSC07421 by mikeyp78, on Flickr

DSC07430 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
Moggy panda car that Dad used to drive.

DSC07419 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
A collection of BMW and Triumph bikes one of which was the lead escort bike at the funeral of Princess Diana.

DSC07431 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
Dads favourite Area Car, the Triumph 2.5 PI. These were the main car in use and if they had to go in for repairs, which could be frequently, they used to use the P6 instaed. Dad says that the Triumph wasn't as refined as the Rover but was quicker and far easier to chuck around the streets of London. Drifting into corners and 180 turns in the road were not uncommon during a 'shout'

DSC07424 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
A little bit more basic compared to the current police cars!

DSC07425 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
Dad being transported back to 1976

DSC07418 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
A Rover 827 Sterling I believe. This particular car came out of service in the late nineties.

DSC07432 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
Rover SD1 3500 SE traffic car. This actual car was the camera and back-up car on the famous Police Camera Action 'Liver Run' episode from 1987 I believe. I also had the pleasure for my tenth birthday in Dad taking me and my brother out for a blast in a 'borrowed' traffic 3500. I can remember a 120mph blast up the A1 with lights and sirens blasting and then shooting back to Barnet down the country lanes at just under a ton. Great stuff as a kid, especially when its your Dad doing the driving Dad also tells me, but I only have a vague recollection, but as a three year old I also had a trip out in a P6 police car.

DSC07433 by mikeyp78, on Flickr
This being a traffic SD1 it has the calibrated speedo on the dash.

I hope you enjoyed these as it was a great fun to see these old cars and my Dad really enjoyed reliving his youth!

 

[The Rovering Member]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

Hope they consulted Harvey on handbrake maintenance. :wink:

Nice little display.

 

[happy days]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

Would be good to see them, must be extra special to be ex plod and driven them in the past.Dad does look happy.

 

[v8guy]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

What a lovely treat not just for your dad Mike but us too thanks for sharing

 

[LeeEFi]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

Hello Mike,
Very interesting indeed!

Those pictures remind me of my two

A main point of interest is the 'Liver Run' SD1. I've always wondered what gearbox was used in that car. At first I thought it'd be a manual, but of course, the Met favoured automatics.

The 'facelift' Triumph 2.5 Pi is a rare car nowdays. Mine is an early car, and doesn't have the uprated suspension of the later saloons with the anti roll bar up front, and the revised springs. And of course, the Police spec cars didn't have the RoStyle wheel trims of the stock Pi.

I bet your Dad was in his element in that garage. Thanks for the pictures Mike

 

[Mikep]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

Thanks for the comments guys Lee, loving your PI that's is the other car that I have always wanted but as you say they are very rare now It turns out the 'Met' one is a little crusty underneath and needs quite a bit of welding, I even said that if they want I would take it off their hands :wink: but I don't think they are getting rid of it. I'm told they were a sod for hot starting and in hot weather a bag of ice in the boot over the fuel pump would help. Dad says that the PI's made a distinctive whistle when accelerating?

As far as the gearboxes on the Met cars my Dad says, certainly in his time, that all the cars were autos as they were doing a lot of heavy stop start driving in London traffic and they were more practical. To give you an idea of the abuse the cars got my Dad got an average of 6mpg one Friday night driving a 3500 P6 and one area car PI had its front brake pads changed after 4 weeks!

 

[LeeEFi]

Re: Visit to the Metropolitan Police Histroic Vehicle Collection

Thanks for the comments guys Lee, loving your PI that's is the other car that I have always wanted but as you say they are very rare now It turns out the 'Met' one is a little crusty underneath and needs quite a bit of welding, I even said that if they want I would take it off their hands :wink: but I don't think they are getting rid of it. I'm told they were a sod for hot starting and in hot weather a bag of ice in the boot over the fuel pump would help. Dad says that the PI's made a distinctive whistle when accelerating?

Hi Mike,
Yep, my Pi was really a write-off when I first bought it. It would have made more sense to re-shell it, but I fancied a challenge :shock:

To this, with a little more metal put in to it

It's currently off the road with, yep, you guessed it, fuel pump issues. Its running a Bosch set-up at the moment which I'm not happy with at all. So I'm having to source an original Lucas pump and filter for it after having relingquished the original

I've never noticed the whistle on acceleration...perhaps I'm not trying enough

6 mpg in the P6 V8:shock: Now that is serious full-throttle driving

 

[JVY]

That is excellent stuff Mike - thanks for sharing. Real shame you can't remember the P6 ride back in the day (should have been paying more attention, you naughty little boy ). Would it be possible to get a return trip when the P6 is back? The Triumph does look tasty in pre-jam sandwich livery. Wouldn't be surprised if you could get one of our classic car mag's to publish your story as it's something special that public don't get to see?

 

[Mikep]

Blimey Lee you have done a lot of work there! But as you say these cara are rare so its definitely worth saving.

Thanks for the comments JVY. I actually saw the P6 at the Petworth Rally earlier this month, thats how I managed to arrange this visit. It would have been nice for dad to have had a sit in a Police P6 but we have a P6 and he hasnt seen or sat in a Triumph for over 30 years. My dad remembers the first 'jam sandwich' cars coming in around 1980/1981 and they were were SD1's, when David Mcnee became commisioner he decided that police cars had to be high visability, but Dad says this made it harder to creep up on the toe-rags in knicked cars because you stood out a mile! The Triumph does look good just in blue and they were also in green. That is an idea about getting the story in a mag 8)

 

[ksclark3522]

Just to clear up a couple of loose ends:

A152 SUW was not involved in the Liver Run - A536 UJD was the camera car and backup vehicle, A738 UJD carried the organ.

Both were Metropolitan Police Rover 3500 Autos - traffic cars, fitted with the bog-standard GM180TH gearbox, as per "ordinary" models.

The camera car is still on the road, owned by a serving officer - and was used recently to apprehend a couple of villains while they were en route to a show in it.

The lead vehicle was last taxed in 1995, so can be assumed dead unless anyone knows different.


Great photos, and I bet your Dad was thrilled to get up close and personal with some of the hardware he used to drive.

 

[Mikep]

Just to clear up a couple of loose ends:

A152 SUW was not involved in the Liver Run - A536 UJD was the camera car and backup vehicle, A738 UJD carried the organ.

Both were Metropolitan Police Rover 3500 Autos - traffic cars, fitted with the bog-standard GM180TH gearbox, as per "ordinary" models.

The camera car is still on the road, owned by a serving officer - and was used recently to apprehend a couple of villains while they were en route to a show in it.

The lead vehicle was last taxed in 1995, so can be assumed dead unless anyone knows different.


Great photos, and I bet your Dad was thrilled to get up close and personal with some of the hardware he used to drive.

Thats interesting information which I shall pass onto my contact, the car that I viewed is still currently owned by the Metropolitan Police along with all the other vehicles in the collection and are currently stored at an active police station in west London. The historic collection is looked after by volunteers who are either serving or retired Metropolitan Police officers. I am told that one of the reasons this particular SD1 has been kept is because of the significance of being involved in the liver run. I can only comment on the information given to me by our guide that evening but when at shows this car has a history plate informing the public of its involvement in that well known clip, I'm told that this information is based on the vehicle records the Met have on this car in addition they have the Royal protection P6 and the lead SEG bike used at Princess Dianas funeral. I will pass on this information to the guys down there but they are pretty knowledgable on the history of their cars and im sure would disagree, either way it was a treat to pay a visit and Dad did enjoy reliving his youth Probably just a mix up but A536 UJD is the car that is privately owned and was in the papers about aresting some villians :wink:

 

[ksclark3522]

interesting - and as you say, their information ought to be more reliable than mine, given their meticulous record-keeping - if you do speak to the guys at hampton again, i'd be interested in their reply. at least so i can correct people with the correct information in future :roll:

i'm sure i've seen A536 UJD displayed with a history plate similar to the one you mentioned, detailing it's use in the run - maybe they just put it on the wrong car that day:?:

if the camera car was SUW, and they saved it because of it's significance, even though it was never seen in the film, i wonder why they didn't save the lead car? it was taxed until 1995 - the police having run the sd1 out in 1990 (except the preserved examples), suggests it went into private ownership before it's demise.

i suppose i've blown my chances of ever getting a guided tour round there now

all interesting stuff anyway, from what is a great piece of footage from when police cars were proper british cars 8)

 

[Mikep]

if the camera car was SUW, and they saved it because of it's significance, even though it was never seen in the film, i wonder why they didn't save the lead car? it was taxed until 1995 - the police having run the sd1 out in 1990 (except the preserved examples), suggests it went into private ownership before it's demise.

Speaking with the guys up there it is a bit of a battle with the powers that be to have these cars saved. I can only surmise that the lead car had gone before it was decided to preserve an SD1 and SUW was the next best thing.
I'm told that the collection is only given £12000 a year to keep all eight cars and six motorbikes running, that includes all servicing(done by a local garage), fuel, MOTs, tax and any other unforeseen costs. The Diana escort bike was going to be sold after it was retired and one of the volunteers fought to have it saved; they have a 1948 Wolseley that a chief Superintendant wanted to sell for banger racing! And the Triumph has a lot of welding work that needs doing but a massive chunk of the budget would be eaten up. Another sad aspect is the sheer amount of old police memorabilia and old photos and manuals that are dumped in old boxes because the volunteers don't have any space to have then sorted and displayed.
They even have a Rover V8 engine and gearbox mounted on a trolley that has been professionally cut away for instructional purposes, this was donated by Rover to the Police driving school at Hendon in 1970 but is now gathering dust in a corner covered with paperwork and boxes

 

[ksclark3522]

yep, it's a shame - particularly when you see so much money being wasted elsewhere. still, such is life :roll:

 

[JVY]

It is a shame to hear that it's such a struggle to keep the collection maintained. I sometimes think that we are often not very good at preserving history/heritage in this country? Tragic if it was seriously suggested the Wolsley should be flogged for banger racing. There isn't much that really winds me up but banger racing classic cars is one of them!