UK Police Tagora

[mercrocker]

I don't know the current buying policy but when the Tagora was current it would have been down to the individual Constabulary to source and if necessary specify their own cars.   Hampshire Constabulary, for example, specified white cars for non-motorway uses, foreign makers and US style light bars considerably before other Forces....Sussex Police evolved the jam sandwich after recommendations from their own officers, etc. 

 

Cost has been a factor for much longer than might be supposed - the funding for Police has always come from local government taxation and, particularly in the 1950s/60s was the subject of much political scrutiny in Town Halls.   Value for money was insisted upon by Ratepayer Associations.   

 

I had an Uncle who was heavily involved in the trial and selection of Hampshire Constabulary cars when the county first incorporated motorway sections into its responsible areas.   An awful lot of the specifications were aimed at workshop efficiency, running costs and reliability rather than out-and-out performance or handling criteria.   The cops were expected to maintain driving standards regardless of individual car characteristics.....

[Eddie Honda]

It would be interesting to learn what the requirement catalog for British police cars was and which organisation was responsible for it.

 

There isn't one. Because different forces and whoever is down the lodge.

[martc]

 

It would be interesting to learn what the requirement catalog for British police cars was and which organisation was responsible for it.

 

All constabularies are independent, otherwise they would surely have followed Humberside Constabulary and bought vast fleets of Protons.

[Faker]

All constabularies are independent, otherwise they would surely have followed Humberside Constabulary and bought vast fleets of Protons.

Ah... but car manufacturers have cottoned on. Vauxhall produce type approved vehicles specifically for police service use, which are a general purpose vehicle for use across all forces. Google and see for yourself. Landrover followed too with a type approved armoured discovery

[Pillock]

Aye, Mk2 Cavaliers without wheeltrims.

[Junkman]

Many car makers have police, or rather "public authorities" specials in their lineup and did so for a long time.

 

When I still worked for BMW, it comprised of extra hard wearing upholstery material (read: Taxi spec), tropical spec radiator, reinforced clutch, reinforced wheels and wheel bearings, heavy duty shocks, catch band for the propshaft, appliance white paint, reinforced front crossmember with concealed push bars behind the grilles, radio, spare wheel and tool kit delete, overrider switch for the door switches, calibrated speedometer, heavy duty differential with LSD, reinforced exhaust hangers, all rubber hoses fitted with jubilee clips, no model designation badges.

 

What it didn't comprise was the engine, which had to be specced extra if more than the base one was desired, which it certainly was.

Imagine the faces of the hapless coppers at a certain Munich precinct, who thought their purchasing agent had ticked all the right boxes on the order sheet, when a batch of new 518s arrived.

[AMC Rebel]

All constabularies are independent, otherwise they would surely have followed Humberside Constabulary and bought vast fleets of Protons.

Policeshite!

[Felly Magic]

I remember North Yorks Police Scoobys at one point were built by Prodrive and shared more in common with Colin McCrash's rally car than owt that came from the showroom, and the buttery biscuit base Sierra 2.3s of WYP which had Ghia front bumpers with the front fogs, but single headlamp grilles and steel wheels minus trims. Transit meat wagons were Essex & Cologne V6s as well. I remember seeing a batch of T5 Ovlovs being prepped at Lex Brooklands Leeds for plod, all arrived minus the dash tops in prep for all the gubbins

[sheffcortinacentre]

I have an early 70s ford public service vehicles brochure it Inc

 

Police mk1 escort saloon & van, mk3 cortina, mk1 Capri & Granada, strangely no transits.

 

Ambulance mk3 cortina est, mk1 Granada est, mk1 transit.

 

Fire service various D series.

 

Council Service D series bin lorries etc,mk1 transit mini artic.

[pshome]

I wonder why no fleet order was placed. Price/purpose ratio must have been alright, one would think.

Would be interesting to find out what they ultimately failed it on.

Easy one. By the time the coppers finished testing, the Tagora was already out of production. Same happened with an order of 2000 (!) Tagora Diesel taxi for Paris Talbot rejected in spring 1983.

[Junkman]

I remember North Yorks Police Scoobys at one point were built by Prodrive and shared more in common with Colin McCrash's rally car than owt that came from the showroom, and the buttery biscuit base Sierra 2.3s of WYP which had Ghia front bumpers with the front fogs, but single headlamp grilles and steel wheels minus trims. Transit meat wagons were Essex & Cologne V6s as well. I remember seeing a batch of T5 Ovlovs being prepped at Lex Brooklands Leeds for plod, all arrived minus the dash tops in prep for all the gubbins

 

Would you like to discuss P6bS mods carried out by the GMP?

 

- 214 degree camshaft (an upgrade I can only warmly recommend to any Rover V8 owner)

- Edelbrock inlet manifold with Holley 390 cfm four throat carb and pancake paper element air filter

- Hooker tubular steel exhaust manifolds and low restriction silencers

- Dunlop SP Sports

- Chin spoilers to break the front end lift at speeds above 120 OMGMPH (!)

- Doug Nash clutch

- Ferodo brake pads

 

Mind you, only a handful of 'interceptor' units were so equipped, but man, could they intercept 99%

of what was on British roads at the time. Wonderful. Sadly none survived.

[martc]

Ah... but car manufacturers have cottoned on. Vauxhall produce type approved vehicles specifically for police service use, which are a general purpose vehicle for use across all forces. Google and see for yourself. Landrover followed too with a type approved armoured discovery

 

Coincidently, Humberside Constabulary are rapidly replacing their Protons with Vauxhalls and Peugeots. Perhaps someone at PSA tipped them the wink and they are hoping to make a killing on future commonality reducing spare part prices (not that they'll need them, oh hang on a sec...).

[Tickyturbo]

Just in case anyone is wondering, the Reg number of the police Tagora with the two officers is HWU 153Y, registered in June 1983. Last road tax expired Jan 91.

[Lacquer Peel]

Police Scotland runs a lot of Peugeots now

[JeeExEll]

I have a book written by an ex CHP copper who is a Mopar enthusiast.

He does elaborate on the purchasing procedures of the CHP, which was at the time the single biggest customer of squad cars

and even had their own proving grounds. Their decisions influenced other police departments' choices, i.e., what's good enough

for those Californian fruitcakes will certainly serve us well.

 

The specifications outlined were much tighter than one would imagine and something as trivial as the wheelbase being half an inch

too short would catapult an otherwise perfectly capable car off the shopping list.

He fully admits that some of those specs didn't necessarily follow rationale or common sense, the minimum wheelbase and heft

of the cars being but two of them. It took them until 1969 to realise that the intermediates were swifter, nimbler and needed less

petrol, thus were actually better suited for many duties than the big cars were.

 

It would be interesting to learn what the requirement catalog for British police cars was and which organisation was responsible for it.

Book sounds interesting JM, what's it called?

[JeeExEll]

I have an early 70s ford public service vehicles brochure it Inc

 

Police mk1 escort saloon & van, mk3 cortina, mk1 Capri & Granada, strangely no transits.

 

Ambulance mk3 cortina est, mk1 Granada est, mk1 transit.

 

Fire service various D series.

 

Council Service D series bin lorries etc,mk1 transit mini artic.

Not seen those before, didn't know any brochures existed. Would really like to see them. Could you maybe do some scans please?

 

Fuxake, I just read my own post. Oh the depravity.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

In '92 we had a fleet demo 24Valve 605 on 3 month loan, in the door pocket was Met.Police memo with the PIN numbers for the underground car park at Scotland Yard- presumably the people that had it for the first 3 months of its life.

Don't know if they bought any, saying that I don't think anyone bought a 24v 605, should have done it was a lot faster than an 827 or 24v Senator.

[lesapandre]

LeBonCoin today...

[pshome]

The Police Tagora investigation took a surprising twist today.

 

We found a Police Tagora, it is alive and will be restored. No, not in the UK, in Norway!

 

Remember, we sold our two remaining Tagora and delivered them to a chap near Lillehammer, story is here: http://autoshite.com/topic/31906-dual-reverse-collection-on-the-road-again/

 

Part of the deal was our remaining supply of Tagora parts, which was a lot. In spite of both large trunks and the rear seats filled to the edge, and consequently one rear shock absorber of the Dinin Tagora falling apart half way towards Kiel, we could not carry it all in May.

 

A second trip, just for parts delivery, took place this week using this, filled to the top.

 

 

Ferry was full of white boxes on their way to clog up each and every road in Norway, must be a seasonal thing, nothing else to report from the trip.

 

 

Having delivered the parts as promised, it was time to have a look at all the Tagora that will benefit from the parts.

 

There are 5, plus our two, totals 7. One is up and running, a Diesel, joining the two newcomers here.

 

 

The others are in different state of decay, but all restoarable and the intention is to get them all back on the road.

These two need a bit of care, but nothing fundamentally wrong with them.

 

 

This one is a shame. V6 SX, it belonged to the current owner in the 90's was sold to a "collector". Ended up ice racing before being found and bought back.  Plexiglas nailed onto the side windows, doors welded shut and most of the interiour missing. By now most parts have been found and resurrection will come soon.

 

Now the most interesting one.

 

 

Ex police unmarked chase car and radar trap, stationed in Kirkenes.

 

It has a power supply connector for the radar on the front bumper and pair of hidden blue lights behind the grill, nice!

 

 

 

Just imagine, speeding thorugh Norway, Tagora behind you, no worries keep on going... oops its the police.

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Great find! Let's hope the collector looks after your old ones.

[garethj]

A Tagora as unmarked police pursuit car might be the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard of. You are truly in Talbot heaven there!

[Dan_ZTT]

That is awesome. First time seeing this thread but my dad was met police from 1982-2012, I'm sure we've got photos somewhere of me as a child playing with sirens and things, will have to dig them out next time I'm round and see if I can identify any of the cars. Tagora unlikely but you never know...

[pshome]

A Tagora as unmarked police pursuit car might be the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard of. You are truly in Talbot heaven there!

 

Most amazing Tagora? Nothing beats this: http://autoshite.com/topic/17853-genetic-pollution/

[pshome]

A Tagora as unmarked police pursuit car might be the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard of. You are truly in Talbot heaven there!

Kirkenes has a population of 3500, propably much less 30 years ago when the Tagora was on duty. How long did it take before everyody knew the car? A week?

[Felly Magic]

That ex plod Tagora, whoa nelly, if Autoshite did police cars....