I was in `the smoke` last weekend, paying a visit to
Ronnie Scott's. As we made our way back to our hotel through the night people of Soho, a Met police car stopped outside a restaurant to sort out a dispute. They were in a bloody Hyundai hatchback, all coloured up like a Haribo chewy sweet. I was dumbstruck. Still, I suppose if your going to dent something, it might as well be cheap.
I am old enough to have gone on patrol in the
last of the 3.8 S-type Jags in the Met Police, circa 1970. Two versions:
mean jet black for your standard `area car` and lily white for traffic
division. No fancy day-glow striping, no logo's, no puke-inducing
corporate mantra-message stencilled on the side, just a single blue
light and a small `po-leece` sign on the rear, no-see-us-coming-till too
late....oh take me back to reminiscence central...
One fun-filled
memory of an early outing in a well worn Jag 3.8S springs to mind.
On an emergency
call in Lewisham, south London, to a fatal RTA. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd
passing through 60+mph and climbing, the driver suddenly handed me the
gear lever that had come out of its housing and said, "Find me 4th will
you"?
Cool guys those Class 1 advanced, Hendon trained, drivers.
