Vintage Vehicles

[Steve]

More from a show I went to a few years ago, not sure what they are, I think the Police sign on the car is a spoof.

[Malcolm G]

No1 - 1950s Guy Vixen? - London Transport rural bus (Green Line?)

No3 - MG TA - If it was real Police car it would have a bell!

[McCloggie]

I believe that you have to be carful with ex-police cars and certainly modern ones cannot be taken on the road! TV show restored a Rover police car and was sold to Afford Museum in Aberdeen but could not be run on the road normally.

McC

[billyboy]

No 2 is a bulk cement carrier.probably from long itchington depot by the registration.Nice ERF possibly with Gardner 180 engine.

[Farmer John]

It is surprising what cars the Police have had, the Daimler Dart would never have sprung to mind, but apparently so.

[Ron Stringer]

Originally Posted by Farmer John

It is surprising what cars the Police have had, the Daimler Dart would never have sprung to mind, but apparently so.

While on leave from a tramp ship, some time in the early 1960's, I came out of a bank having just drawn out some cash for a night out in Manchester. On the opposite side of the road was parked a white Daimler Dart with 'Police' signs front and back, top down, with a very attractive, blonde-haired, young policewoman sitting in the passenger seat. Standing at the rear of the car, searching for something in the boot/trunk was a police constable of about my age.

Sunny day, open sports car, spending the day with a blonde in the passenger seat and being paid for it! I remember thinking that I had made the wrong career choice.

I don't know if the car belonged to the Lancashire or the Manchester force but I was jealous.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

My first car.

Holden (GMH) Australian made 1948 - 1952. I got it secondhand in the mid 1960s aged about 19 and drove it for about 10 years.

Looking back I still cringe at that car - by today's standards (and probably those of the time too) it was unsafe at virtually any speed. Cross ply tyres, drum brakes, lever action front shockers, vacuum wipers and 6 cylinder OHV engine.

It would go but the steering was terrible and the brakes worse. An emergency brake application and there was no telling where or in which direction you would end up.

I still shudder when I think about that car.

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Farmer John

It is surprising what cars the Police have had, the Daimler Dart would never have sprung to mind, but apparently so.

The Essex Police had some black Daimler SP250's on the force. They had a nice big shiny chrome plated bell on the front. (Daimler had to drop the name "Dart" because the American company Dodge complained and insisted that it clashed with their own model named Dart.)

When I worked for Ambersil Ltd, I was chatting with the MD, who was an Essex boy himself, about seeing them on the A127, Southend Arterial Road. He said his Dad used to drive one of them.

When William Lyons took the Daimler Company into the ownership of Jaguar Cars, he dropped the SP250 as it was competition for the E Type, but used the V8 2.5 Litre engine in a Daimler version of the Jaguar MKII saloon.

[Farmer John]

I really love the look of the Daimler, but not everybodies cup of tea. Just watching an American car programme tonight, they showed a Sunbeam Tiger. A friend of mine had one, that thing was a brute. The suspension was a special build, but they sometimes got replaced with the stuff from an Alpine. They were then described as "lethal".

I had all sorts of old cars (Austin 7 open 2 seater, BSA Trike and 4 wheeler Scout amongst others) but alas I never had the money to get them done well and usually had to sell them to buy the kids new shoes or some such.

[McCloggie]

When I worked for Bluewater I was based in the Netherlands and my flat in Haarlem came with a lock up, so come the summer I brought my 1959 MGA across on the ferry from Newcastle having driven down from Fife.

I did not use the MG every day, but when the weather was good I took the car into work as I had a parking space there as well.

Like a lot of Dutch companies, Bluewater had a Friday Bar in the office and everyone would go at 1700 on Fridays. It was actually a good idea as you often met people you needed to speak to but who had been away or busy.

So, I am at the bar one Friday and Bluewater's owner Hugo Heerema asked me about the MG and told me that he too had old cars - mostly Bentleys and Mercedes! He then said that there were a lot of classic car owners in the company, suggested that we could have our own Classic Car Run and that I was just the guy to organise it. What can you say when the owner suggests this?

I got together with Paul (1966 Ford Tanus) who knew some routes and we developed a local run and a "ball and arrow" style map. We also got sponsorship from Bluewater and we ran off our own rally plates and copies of the instructions from the office.

Come the big day, we had about 25 cars in total including an XK140 from the local hotel owner who got a lot of work from us. It was a real family occasion and cars ranged from a 1928 Model A and included an E-type, Alfa Romeo Spider, Volvos and 2 Citroen Diane's.

And so started the Bluewater Classic Car Run. It ran every year until at least 2009 when I left the company. The numbers of cars always seemed to be about 20 - 25 - but as people came and went there was always something new and the UK ex-pats would sometimes bring across cars as well for a long weekend break.

All in all it was great fun - but Bluewater really was a good company to be with as they organised ski-trips, sailing weekends, summer and Christmas parties and sports teams as well.

Although I like being in the Far East, KL is not the place to try and run a 60-year old car - especially one that is not weather tight! - and one reason for the grass always seeming to be greener on the European side of the fence is that I could get back to running classic cars again.

McC

[billyboy]

Originally Posted by Farmer John

It is surprising what cars the Police have had, the Daimler Dart would never have sprung to mind, but apparently so.

I have seen them use MGB GT's in sussex. Couldnt out run them on Motorcycles back then. 3.8 Jaguars were popular in the midlands as were triumph 2000i.

[Chadburn]

This is the car the Police really wanted

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by Chadburn

This is the car the Police really wanted

Are they still looking for it Chad?

[Chadburn]

Originally Posted by Dartskipper

Are they still looking for it Chad?

It might come back one day, you know which car it is?

[Farmer John]

It's the one on the right, isn't it?

[Chadburn]

Yes the Rover FJ.

[Farmer John]

I'm guessing it was a prototype for a development of the P6. I know they planned all sorts of things, including a turbine engined car, then they went for that evil looking abomination. The very first 2000s were very elegant.

[Chadburn]

This is the turbine engined car as far as I am aware, you will remember that the Gas Turbine was promoted to be the power plant of the future in just about everything that moved.

[Dartskipper]

The front looks like the Ford Consul Classic/Capri of 1959/1960.

[Farmer John]

I used a P6 quite lot at one time, my boss was supposed to supply me with a vehicle and a house, I got the house but his Mum got very difficult and I spent ages using whatever was in the garage unused at the time. I would hate to have to pay for the petrol on the darned thing, and it always seemed sluggish unless you booted it, when it was more interesting, but not a car for country roads. It was quite knackered and I think it had been badly abused.

[Chadburn]

Originally Posted by Dartskipper

The front looks like the Ford Consul Classic/Capri of 1959/1960.

It does indeed Roy.

[Malcolm G]

1961 Rover T4 experimental. Its performance by today's standards would be pretty tame with a 0 to 60 of 8 seconds - But good back then and the engine was used in the Rover BRM Le Mans cars

Used a modified P6 body 2 years before the P6 was first sold.

[pompeyfan]

My car in New Zealand, a 1939 Morris 12 parked outside my room at the hospital in Auckland where I worked. I bought it around 1970. Cars were very expensive in those days, so many of us had to by 'old bombs' as we called them. Although old, I drove for miles on my days off often driving up to see friends in the Bay of Islands.

[Jolly Jack]

Originally Posted by Dartskipper

The front looks like the Ford Consul Classic/Capri of 1959/1960.

I thought the same, Roy. I had the Capri version in The late 60s. When they first came out they reminded me of the American Ford Galaxie of the time, and had that double curve windscreen and flat fins. The car was a bit neglected when I saw it sitting in someone's front garden. When I asked about it, the fellow said "you can have it for 50 Quid and there's a spare engine in the boot - no MOT"!!
I got it and cleaned up, it was in surprisingly good order. I did what would be called a 'resto-mod' on it. Brand new Crossflow 1600, Ro-style wheels plus completely resprayed it Fiesta Red - it came in turquoise/white, typical '50/60s colours.
Wish I still had it.


JJ.

[Chadburn]

The Dutch used the Ford Galaxie as a Taxi between the Botlek and the town centre or in our case to a great place called the 'Dutch Barn', a rather fast trip.