Police Minis

[coopersean]

As mentioned on the eBay thread, it would be interesting to see what pictures and information exists on the Police minis. I will start off with a famous one of the OKD Liverpool cars, many of which still exist, but please add any pictures or info on any cars you have seen...

[mab01uk]

Transferred copy of this from the ebay thread....

Couple more Police Minis in this story that may be of interest.......from the Met when they were located at the old John Cooper garage in Surbiton.
Previously posted here:-
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7193

Clive Abrahams adds, "I joined TDV Traffic Unit at its location at Hampton in November 1967. We moved into our new garage at Hollyfield Road, Surbiton on 1st April 1968. The new garage premises were owned by and leased to the Metropolitan Police by one John Cooper. The same john Cooper of Formula 1 fame, and the originator of the now famous Mini Cooper Car. The first Mini Cooper’s were converted from the standard machines at the premises now occupied by us."
In August 1968 we were supplied with the two Mini Coopers index numbers PYT767F and PYT768F, these replaced Wolseley 110’s, which were being phased out, these had the standard car for very many years. The remainder of our fleet at this time consisted of,

A Daimler Dart
A Sunbeam Tiger
Rover 2000TC’s
Triumph 2000’s
Land Rover 109 long wheel base
Jaguar 3.4s Type ‘s

This later car was destined to be the workhorse of Traffic Division for many years to come. However it had one major draw back. This related to the Area, which our Traffic unit patrolled. This consisted of the outer very rural parts of Surrey with fast open roads
Where the car ruled supreme and also the very urban inner part of Greater London such as Tooting, Balham and Wandsworth, where the manual clutch proved to be very hard on the leg muscles.
To this end the Mini Cooper was brought in to see if it would fill the niche as a more suitable vehicle for the inner London areas.
The main difference was how the vehicles would be used. Normal patrolling practise was for double manned cars. The mini’s would to be single manned with two vehicles patrolling the same area previously patrolled by one. Thus Whiskey 11 became Whiskey 11 and 12.
The vehicles were purpose built for single manned operation. The centre boss of the steering wheel, now redundant as a horn button, was replaced with a speaker / microphone with a small remote transmitter switch on the steering column. This enabled the car to be driven at speed without hands being removed from the steering wheel to transmit messages.
The vehicle had two-tone air horns and a winkless bell all under the bonnet. The standard AT calibrated speedometer head was fitted in place of the standard mini speedometer. Other then that the vehicle was more or less completely standard. We Carried minimum kit in the boot and in the area that would normally have been the rear seat which removed there was a single rotating Blue light fitted. This was mounted on a raised plinth of about 4inches; as to mount it on the roof directly would have been blow the required height for it to be legal. A single Ariel was mounted behind the Blue light. There were POLICE signs front and rear, which could best be described as number plate style. The front can be seen; the rear was above the rear number plate illumination/ Boot handle.
We kept the vehicles for about two years. There were teething trouble with gear selection and brake fade, they eventually moved on to our Traffic Unit at Bow (near the City of London) and then to disposal.
To the best of my knowledge no others were purchased despite an original order for 12. in those days policemen were much larger and taller then today so the were somewhat cramped, but extremely enjoyable to drive through heavy traffic situations.
The picture below is from the Daily Mail and it shows is Eric Molyneaux (who was 6’3”) with Edward Spinks (about 17 stone) who was about to retire after 30 years service. You can see why both were chosen for their physical attributes.





Gift Set, featuring the two Mini Coopers loaned to TDV in 1968. It is a limited edition of 2000 and were manufactured to mark the 75 years of The Metropolitan Police Traffic Division. They are supplied in a transparent presentation case, with a numbered certificate of authenticity

[Peter Laidler]

Pete says '.........This conversation is exactly why forums like this are useful for info gathering, I've got a heap of cop car pics if someone wants to start a thread. Is Dave Davies still the cop car registrar for the MCR?......' in addition to the other comments on the original thread. It's right that I've written a few/several books Dave (David Scothorn) but they're technical stuff as opposed to story books. If someone was tempted to write it all up I've got a lot of notes that I got from Merseyside while I was restoring mine and comments rec'd when it was in the foyer of the new HQ for a few weeks. But a book would need to be Mini, Cooper and S specific I feel as opposed to the others from the BL stable. That said, apart from the kit btheu carried it seems as though they were as they left the factory with specific kit added and in some forces, doors changed blue to white or white to blue or painted

Dave D is still the registrar but we don't hear much nowadays. Maybe the info has dried up!

[spoon.450]

I was wondering what happened to an ex cop mini....OKD ??? that a mate of mine had in the late 80's. Gary Shaw, from Alderly Edge. It had been re- shelled into a new mk3 shell and painted red with a black roof........loads of expensive extras too. I'll look for some pics and hopefully remember the reg.

[spoon.450]

Here's another that belonged to a mate in the 70's

[ivor badger 2]

Were the first batch of Liverpool Police Ss not E reg with code EPK ***E

[goff]

Here's another that belonged to a mate in the 70's

Dave i had a S ex police car , But a Granada 3000 litre S , When it went like shit off a shovel , flying machine until i put a Perkins 4108 in it , Then it's flying days were over , 0-60 in 1 hr 45 minutes Cheap motoring , I was once asked what it did to the gallon , answer 60,000 in 3 years , YEP , i leave it at that.

[Peter Laidler]

I've never heard of a EPK series of S cop cars from Liverpool. Could be of course but no one ever mentioned them to me.

[coopersean]

Some more of the OKD series cars

[coopersean]

SKD series cars:

[Time Bandit]

Here's one taken at the Cumbria Classic Show in the '80s, VKA 303H. Also have a pic of VKA 290H, also taken at one of the early Cumbria Classic Shows, this one was just in OEW/Black without any of its Plod markings etc, haven't got this pic scanned yet.

[Peter Laidler]

Any of you number plate experts tell us where EPK XXX E originates from as in Ivor's post (previous page). The survival rate of the OKD and SKD's is relatively high. Not so the others I'd say. Liverpool were still hand painting the POLICE sign onto their cars into the mid 90's until they got wise to stick-on fablon letters.

[Simon776]

EPK is a Surrey registration but EPK was not issued with an E suffix.

I thought the first big batch of Liverpool cars was registered KKD - E

[coopersean]

Also VKA310H is still around

[coopersean]

EPK is a Surrey registration but EPK was not issued with an E suffix.

I thought the first big batch of Liverpool cars was registered KKD - E

Think you are right - found these pictures:

[Peter Laidler]

Like one of those nice Triumph 650 saints..., yes please! That was probably the whole vehicle fleet in 1967. Buckinghamshire had an unmarked Cooper S PPP962D too

[olddave]

Like one of those nice Triumph 650 saints..., yes please! That was probably the whole vehicle fleet in 1967. Buckinghamshire had an unmarked Cooper S PPP962D too

Leeds had Velocette "noddy bikes" and a couple of Daimler SP250s to chase the fast boys.

[Peter Laidler]

A small gripe is that there are so many pictures of the original correct markings, why don't the restorers take notice and put the signs on as they were originally. BMC were quite ruthless in their discount policies. If you were ordering (60 rings a bell....?) a lot, such as the SEB, Army, the AA, NHS etc etc you could negotiate with BMC. Below that you were at the hands of the local BMC agent and his swing with BMC factory sales.

Discount policies.......... To be honest, when I went to buy my last-of-the-line Mini RCS500, the sales girl at nearby Hartwells, wouldn't give me 1 penny discount for cash, no trade in , not registered, no finance, don't care about the colour - no nothing. I'll take it home on a trailer. She told me with a straight face that these last mini\s were flying off the shelves and I should grab the opportunity to get one while I had the chance. Over a year later the following summer and after mini production had long ceased the local Oxford papers showed almost 1000 unsold MGRover cars including hundreds of unsold and unloved mini's and Coopers lined up on the old USAF runways at Heyford, with grass growing up to the bottoms of the sills. So much for selling like hot cakes and flying off the shelves. It was reported that a large Mini tuning centre/garage bought a lot of them at a discount they were already rusting out where they stood!

[spoon.450]

The only photo I have of Gary Shaws re-shelled cop car OKD 706F taken in 1987 on a Derbyshire region MCR trip to Beaulieu. Probably not much of the original mk2 left. I wonder where it is now ?....and Gary ?.....anyone here remember him...looked a bit like Freddie Mercury

[ivor badger 2]

PK is a Guilford reg. I am doing the number from memory and everyone referred to the car as EPK. The car was definitely an ex police car and was told it came from Liverpool. Definitely a Mk1, but well hacked about.