Project Rapid Response - 90s Rover 800 drag racer - The world's fastest police car!

[Dick Longbridge]

Has anyone ever heard of this 800? I saw something mentioning it on Fa**b**k, but can't find much about it on the 'net at all. 

It looks to have raced in the late 80s to mid 90s. and was supposedly an impressive racer at the time.

The fella who posted the photo stated:

'Rover 800 pro mod race car from back in the 80's 90's in full police livery, even the lights etc worked.
I think it was a strong race car and ran sub 9 sec standing quarter mile times.
I think it was based in Yorkshire and did attend public liason events with the police and was a favorite when it raced at York Dragstrip at Melbourne !!!'

 

Doncaster Custom Show - early 90's

 

Anyone on here know any more about it, and what became of it? 

[spartacus]

Can't help but I'm sure I remember it from Street Machine or Custom Car.

[HMC]

Is that the one John Towers used as a company car for a while?

[dome]

15 hours ago, spartacus said:

Can't help but I'm sure I remember it from Street Machine or Custom Car.

Yeah, me too.

There' s Street Machine faceook page, it'd be worth asking on there.

[bunglebus]

It was definitely a Street Machine cover car

[Dick Longbridge]

Is anyone on the street machine page?

[bunglebus]

Owner was Kenny Coleman 

[Dick Longbridge]

12 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Owner was Kenny Coleman 

Just looked him up and it led me to this page on the blue:

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/108715/v8-cop-car

It looks like some fella called Wayne Nicholson rebodied the chassis with an E36 shell. What a waste! I can't find any photos of the E36 - I wonder what became of the Rover shell and where the racing chassis now is? 

[neil1971]

Copied from here - accounts for the chassis by the sound of it, but not the Rover shell, looks like there's still an active Facebook page, details on page 2 of the link

"Between 1997 and 2000 a ‘new’ car was built, again at home. This was the ex Kenny Coleman Rover 800 ‘Police Car’, which was re-bodied as a 3 Series BMW Coupe, with a small block Chevy and TH400 transmission. Over the course of one to two years this ran 10.90s in Pro ET and at numerous test days. A 540ci Big Block Chevy then found its way into the car, producing 750hp. The huge increase in power led to 8.70 – 8.80s ETs at 154mph. The car competed in Super Pro ET and also at many doorslammer events. On September 4th 2003, on the way to the European Finals at Santa Pod, Wayne was unfortunately involved in a motorway accident. A 38 ton truck ran into the back of him, pushing him into a 93 ton military transporter which was in front. The motor home, trailer and race car were all completely destroyed. Wayne had to be cut from the wreckage and airlifted to hospital where he was operated on that night. His youngest son Joe and good friend Dave Billadeau were also in the accident. They were also taken to hospital and released the same day. Almost four months later, Wayne returned to work having undergone physiotherapy and now having screws holding him together."

[sierraman]

Like a lot of the custom projects from the seventies they’ll have been done by a young man about town, family and other commitments get in the way and it ends up in a shed. Occasionally you see on eBay where an old Cortina with a jacked up back end and a 3.0 V6 in that was done back in the day getting dragged out of a council lock up after 40 years. 

[Dick Longbridge]

3 hours ago, neil1971 said:

Copied from here - accounts for the chassis by the sound of it, but not the Rover shell, looks like there's still an active Facebook page, details on page 2 of the link

"Between 1997 and 2000 a ‘new’ car was built, again at home. This was the ex Kenny Coleman Rover 800 ‘Police Car’, which was re-bodied as a 3 Series BMW Coupe, with a small block Chevy and TH400 transmission. Over the course of one to two years this ran 10.90s in Pro ET and at numerous test days. A 540ci Big Block Chevy then found its way into the car, producing 750hp. The huge increase in power led to 8.70 – 8.80s ETs at 154mph. The car competed in Super Pro ET and also at many doorslammer events. On September 4th 2003, on the way to the European Finals at Santa Pod, Wayne was unfortunately involved in a motorway accident. A 38 ton truck ran into the back of him, pushing him into a 93 ton military transporter which was in front. The motor home, trailer and race car were all completely destroyed. Wayne had to be cut from the wreckage and airlifted to hospital where he was operated on that night. His youngest son Joe and good friend Dave Billadeau were also in the accident. They were also taken to hospital and released the same day. Almost four months later, Wayne returned to work having undergone physiotherapy and now having screws holding him together."

Great find. Sounds like the entire car is long gone then. Shame that it didn't survive in some form or another, but at least it happened in the first place. I wonder if Kenny Coleman took photos of the Rover build in the first place? 

[bunglebus]

I've seen a few drag racers change bodies for whatever reason, there's not usually a lot of sentiment spared for the old one. There's also not usually a lot of metal left either, often just the pillars and roof from the original car. I expect it's long gone