my Police S type

[johnthejagman]

I have owned these three Met police cars for many years SUU486F Based at Hendon/Finchley SUU409F and WGK495G based at Bow Police station White cars are traffic cars and black ones Area cars used for everything else

[cass3958]

Being an ex Bobbie I really like these photos. Before my time as the earliest traffic car I can remember was a Range Rover or a Volvo T5 from the 90s.
There is another photo of SUU486F on the internet presumably when it was in service.

For Jose I think this topic should be moved to "MY S TYPE" and not left in "Stickies."

NOTE FROM MODERATOR: Cass, done.

[David Reilly]

so pleased to see your Police 'S'-types. We have been interested in them for some time - and written a number of articles with the information that we could find. (See attached list).
Please get the details of each car to us for the Register. (complete a Registration Form for each car (under the Register tab) or to me at:
jagstype at gmail dot com

We would also welcome a story on them for the Newsletter

Cheers,
David

[Orlando St.R]

I'd just like to record my appreciation to John for keeping these cars on the road and in such fine condition and their original liveries. I've really enjoyed seeing them at various shows over the years. Most interesting are always the differences between the police and standard cars. The interiors are particularly interesting. Congratulations, John, on this fine collection.

I'm currently working my way through the TV series Strange Report, as reviewed by David in Newsletter Vol.11 No.10. It has one of these black area cars (usually BHE884C - a stalwart of 1960s/70s films/TV series) saving the day in many episodes, against a backdrop of late 1960s London. Put it on your Christmas list. It's a surprisingly good watch and the quality is excellent.

[cass3958]

You have mentioned that the interiors are different so is there a chance John that you can post a couple of photos of the Police S Type interior so we can compare it with our own.
My experience of Traffic Police cars is that they would remove anything they could, not to save weight but to save cost. Leather interiors would be changed out for cloth. Plastic adorned everything. No radio, heated screens or electric windows. Real basic. Just before I retired reversing sensors were being fitted as standard to the Ford Focus we had as a standard beat car. To save money the powers to be had this removed from the new cars to save money but that meant half the fleet had reversing sensors and the other half nothing. When you jumped in to a car at the beginning of a shift you did not know which had the sensors and which did not until you reversed in to a wall. The cheaper non reversing sensored cars spent more time in the body shop being repaired than the car that had an extra £30 of sensors fitted. False economy in full sight.

[Orlando St.R]

At the Classic Motor Show at the NEC on Friday, I came across ex-Metropolitan Police S-type WGK448G, in the hands of Ernie Jupp on the Police Car UK stand. He very kindly let me sit in the car and ran me through the main differences from the standard car, which include:

• There is no veneer in the car. All the wood is painted black.

• Low ratio diff

• No rev counter

• This car has a BW35 transmission, but only the only options are R, N and D

• The heater push buttons have been moved to the right of the steering wheel, to make space for the police radio and controls for the flashing lights, sirens, etc

• No glovebox lid

And probably lots of other things I can't remember.

This car has a 3.8 engine, but is badged 3.4. That may be because the original engine has been replaced. Apparently each batch of cars was built on a special line on Saturdays.

I attach a few pix. The shot of the outside of the car is courtesy of Jaguar World's twitter feed, because my version didn't come out well!

[cass3958]

Thank you for the information. It was as I thought, they cut a lot out of the cars to save cost. Painting the wood black is different though but was cheaper than covering the wood with the walnut. The lower ratio diff was obviously for better acceleration around the streets of London as this was before dual carriageways and the M25.
The 3.8 Engine was possibly standard but to be truthful there is not a lot of difference in low down performance between the 3.4 and 3.8 just a better top speed with the 3.8.

[David Reilly]

Jaguar Engineering Schedule, ref. A.202, which is a supplement to the main ‘S’-type Engineering Schedule, ref. A.175, covers the variations made on ‘S’-type Police cars. It runs about 70 pages.
All ‘S’-type Police cars were delivered with 3.4 litre engines. The original design of the XK engine was as a 3.4 litre. At this capacity, it had thicker cylinder walls and was considered a more rugged engine for police work. There was also a belief that the lighter weight of the 3.4 more than made up for the 10 horsepower less than the 3.8 and gave the car better balance and handling.
The only factory ‘non-standard’ on the Police car engines was the fitting of a 43 amp LUCAS alternator instead of dynamo, but the electrical system was still positive earth. This was a requirement to meet the higher loads from the additional electrical equipment, radio, lights and bells, particularly when a police car was parked at idle.
Rather than the normal 3.54 differential, The Mets ‘S’-types were fitted with a 4.09 Dana LSD differential. This made the ‘S’-type extremely quick off the line and on the twisty streets of London. Other forces, particularly those patrolling the motorways, which had no speed limit in the day, would not have chosen this option.
See the Police Car Newsletter articles lisetd above for full details.
Cheers,
David

[Orlando St.R]

Thanks, David. Very interesting. I'll have another look at those newsletter articles.

[Jose]

these were posted by Saul Chaplin of British Autowood in facebook today.
Not S type but close !

FB_IMG_1543968504894.jpg (29.13 KiB) Viewed 6698 times

FB_IMG_1543968526843.jpg (29.44 KiB) Viewed 6698 times