Ex-Police Register at Eastwood Hall
- Emily Morris
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
As my first National Rally responsible for the Ex-Police Register, I'm over the moon with the fantastic display of cars on our Registers Row stand, as well as knowing there were a few other police cars dotted around the site, either on their local branch stands or one which was included in the Peter James Insurance ‘Pride of Ownership’ display.
Alongside my panda car, SYT 669F, I was joined by Jed in SYT 712F, the sister car to mine and both from the same first batch of Metropolitan Police panda Minors. Lynda and Philip borrowed NTT 235F, an ex-Devon & Cornwall Police car, from her father for the weekend and I was pleased to learn they also own an ex-police traveller too, which is currently undergoing restoration. Hopefully after the purchase of a new wood kit in the autojumble, they are now a step closer to getting it back on the road. And finally, Graham and Carol joined us in ELB 797J, providing a fabulous display of four panda cars.
On Saturday we were invited to display our cars in the arena, which drew in a crowd of people to watch - they certainly couldn't have missed the noise we made! Not only were there sirens blasting, but David Dinwoodie’s ‘pro street’ car, AUL 682H, no longer in police guise and sporting a racy 400 small block Chevy 6.6 litre V8 engine certainly caused a stir as we drove around.
PTX 669F, an ex-Glamorgan Police four-door panda car, and AGP 959G, an ex-Metropolitan Police car were also displayed with their local branches, so weren’t able to join us in the arena, but I’m sure they would have been getting lots of attention on Branch Avenue.
By complete coincidence, a couple of local PCSO's happened to stop by the event and discover our cars and were very happy to be invited to park their modern Toyota Aygo police car with us for some pictures, before being shown around Jed’s panda car and having a sit in it for more photos. They were keen to learn whether cars like ours had ever patrolled the Nottinghamshire area, but after consulting my folder of research, it was discovered that only one police specification car was despatched to a dealership in Nottingham in 1969, which happened to be a plain smoke grey two-door saloon, not a panda car.
Not only were we lucky to have some lovely cars and their owners displaying with us, it was also great to meet so many other owners and enthusiasts over the weekend, including possibly our youngest Minor police car owner, who aged just 15 is beginning the restoration of his car, ready for when he can learn to drive. I was also pleased by the success of our ‘dress-up’ box with various police themed props and accessories, which were used by plenty of kids (and some big kids too) for a photo opportunity with the cars.
The weekend ended with a couple of us participating in a video interview with Paul Cowland, ambassador for Peter James Insurance; a podcast interview from inside my car which can be found by searching ‘3 on the column podcast’; and finally, an invitation to have an article written about us. It’s great to have some publicity for the register as we continue to grow.
Watch the Peter James Insurance interview with Emily Morris on Facebook here: https://fb.watch/IuXOHhsrNa/
Watch the Peter James Insurance interview with Matt Tomkins here:
And listen to the 3 On The Column podcast here:
Over the weekend after some new introductions, we had our 30th member sign up their details to join the register, but there are certainly more ex-police cars out there, with more owners who contribute to our Facebook group but who are yet to sign up officially. Since taking over the register just 10 months ago, it’s great to see so many police cars are still around, and hopefully that list will continue to grow as word spreads about the Ex-Police Register. If you have a police car, please register it with us at expolice.mmoc.org.uk/join.
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