MEET THE OWNER - JOHN MELLOR AND HIS POLICE TRIUMPH TR4

“I’m not a collector, I just wanted a TR - having had a 2 and a 6 in my youth - I realised that it was my local police force. In fact, the supplying dealer was about 400 metres from where I now live”. And so John Mellor recently became the owner of a 1962 Triumph TR4 originally commissioned by Southend-on-Sea County Borough Police as a traffic patrol vehicle

In the early 1960s, sports cars were associated with several constabularies – Lancashire with MG, Leeds with Sunbeam, the London Met. with the Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ and the TR4 with Manchester City and Southend. The last-named purchased their Triumph in May 1962 from Eastons, the Leigh-on-Sea dealership and the force’s Superintendent Bill Burles assigned 4100 HJ the role of ‘Fast Pursuit Car’. One retired officer, George Cook recalled that in the 1960s, Southend was “the envy of most other UK police forces because the local council had made sufficient finances available, they had excellent equipment”.

The Triumph cost £1,095, and the traffic division also specified the optional Laycock-de-Normanville overdrive at £61 19s 7d and Dunlop RS5 road speed tyres for another £11 13s 4d. The special equipment included a Winkworth ‘gong’, two-note air horns, twin Lucas driving lamps, ‘Police’ signs fore and aft with a ‘Stop’ warning mounted on the boot. In addition, the force installed a Pye Vanguard wireless set, a windscreen-mounted spot lamp, two ‘Tex’ wing mirrors, and a re-calibrated speedometer.

4100 HJ was in service every day with two shifts varying between 0900hrs to 1700hrs, 1700hrs to 0100hrs or 1900hrs to 0300hrs. Crews went on patrol with the roof down and the TR4 amassed 1,000 miles weekly. In addition to catching errant motorists, Southend also used 4100 HJ for hospital runs - a vital task in an era before police helicopters – and it featured on the cover of Advanced Driving Explained by Inspector W. H. Jobson. One officer also described how he “hung on to the underside of the seat whilst in fast pursuit” – as a result, the force’s workshop reinforced the chassis.

Long after its ‘demob,’ Revington TR acquired 4100 HJ in 2005, and he returned it to a better-than-showroom condition. Today, John observes of his TR4:

It drives well with a very torquey engine, and it was rebuilt by Neil Revington exactly as it was when supplied to my local police force. My car has the brakes and handling of a vehicle of that era, unlike many updated TRs. I drove it to Spain recently – the oil pressure and temperature were exactly as spec despite its reputation for overheating. The gearbox became a bit noisy, and I was reluctant to drive it back. As for the bell or the air horns, I don’t use them on the road but do sound them to show children what things used to be. Great fun! I understand there are other ex-police TRs, but I believe mine is unique in that it is in its full police ‘uniform’, and there is a Vanguard toy of the car!

And you can just imagine one of 4100 HJ’s crew sixty years ago asking an errant motorist if they harboured the delusion of being Stirling Moss…

With Thanks To – John Mellor