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As many readers already know, sourcing and restoring an ex-police car is a significant undertaking, from the challenges of locating the correct items of equipment to actually finding an authentic vehicle. It is a sad fact that comparatively few survive due to the rigours of their time in service. In the early to mid-1970s Humberside Constabulary used a large number of Ford Consul GTs for their Traffic  Patrols. Today, Graham Carter, a retired Inspector, is the owner of this quite incredible last-of-the-line 1975 model.

 

The Granada range replaced the Zephyr/Zodiac Mk. IV in early 1972, with the cheaper versions bearing the revived “Consul” badge. The GT was a carefully planned combination of the 3-Litre V6 engine of the upmarket models with a fairly simple interior, stiffened suspension, additional instruments, halogen driving lamps and  ‘sports wheels’.

 

The price of a GT was £1,780, which represented excellent value for an able high-performance saloon. Motor Sport found that ‘out of a well-known hairpin bend the Consul can be accelerated hard with none of the inside rear-wheel spin or axle tramp which afflicts, for instance, a BMW 2500’. Car magazine complained about the ‘heavy steering’ and its lock but liked the way it coped with ‘poor roads’.  

 

When Ford revised the line-up in 1975, they dropped the Consul name, and the Granada S replaced the GT. By that time, it was widely associated with police forces across the UK and in Graham’s words, ‘LAG 938P was one of a fleet of 30 Ford Consul GTs bought by Humberside Police’.  It was the force’s second batch of such cars, and their first was registered in 1974 ‘with reg. numbers JRH 11N onwards’.

 

Crystal of Hull supplied the Humberside GTs and  LAG was delivered on September 1975. Only “Advanced Drivers” were assigned to the Consuls, and Graham’s car was based at the Priory Road station in “Traffic Zone 1B”.  Mr. Carter believes that Humberside and other constabularies opted for the Consul GT ‘in an effort to be seen to be buying “British”, the Home Office had an agreement with Ford to provide cars at discounted prices’.

 

The contract between Dagenham and the Home Office stipulated an S.V.O.  (“Special Vehicles Order)  Police Specification, which included ‘an uprated alternator to facilitate the additional electrical equipment and stronger rear springs to facilitate the large amount of equipment carried by Traffic Cars’. Local Home Office wireless engineers fitted the blue beacons, “Stop” signs and VHF/UHF radios.

 

Graham found the “Essex” engine to be ‘a good strong motor and gave a top speed in the region of 115 miles per hour. The only downside was the fact that these cars were not equipped with power steering’. Ford made PAS was an optional extra, in order to reduce the GT’s price, but despite its absence, Graham found them ‘brilliant cars’ that ‘handled very well indeed’.

 

LAG 938 P is not the first ex-police Consul to join the Carter fleet for he acquired JRH 13N when it went out of service. At that time, the GT had ‘approximately 63,000 miles on the clock. Having used it on patrol, I knew it to be a reliable car. I fitted it with a black vinyl roof to cover the holes left by the removal of blue lights and several aerials’.

 

LAG served for 21 months with Humberside until it was sold at auction with 74,000 miles on the clock. Its new owner used the Consul until 1986, when it failed its MOT.

 

Graham made his first steps to buying the GT ‘a number of years ago’ when one of his former colleagues sent him a photograph of a very down-at-heel Ford in a field near Doncaster:

 

‘Both he and I tried to make contact with the owner with a view to buying it - but the owner did not respond. Some time later I was informed that LAG had been removed from the field and was to undergo a restoration project. Eventually LAG was rebuilt by ‘Steve’ and sold to ‘Paul’  in 2010.’

 

Seven years later, Graham was attending a Ford Classic Day in North Yorkshire ‘when I saw LAG lined up amongst other cars. It was of course then in plain white, but I recognised the number’. The GT even retained the additional calibrated speedometer that was ‘required by all Police Traffic cars of the time’.

 

Mr. Carter ‘hunted out Paul, and we had an in-depth conversation regarding his car’. Two months later, this gentleman gave Graham the opportunity of buying the Consul – ‘which, of course, I took’. LAG was already fitted with two-tone horns, and the next tasks included sourcing the blue light and the antennae, remaking the “Police/Stop” sign and ‘having the graphics remade to fit the car.’ Graham avoided installing the radio equipment as:

 

‘this necessitates removing part of the gearstick surround and fitting a deck onto which the radio is mounted along with a further item of electronic equipment know as a Cyfas-Vast which was an early type of computer duty state recorder.’

 

Today, the  Consul fulfils the criteria of a Preserved Police Vehicle. Graham points out that ‘I have to comply with guidelines laid down by the police when I am driving it on a road to shows etc..  All Police insignia has to be covered over, blue lights have to be covered and disabled’.

 

Virtually every detail of the Consul evokes a lost world from its livery to that black grille with its auxiliary lights.  Graham remarks that ‘in effect, it took about 42 years to be reunited with LAG 938 P’ – and it looks primed and ready to patrol Traffic Zone 1B.

 

WITH THANKS TO – GRAHAM CARTER

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