Morris Minor Owners Club

My dad called me to say he’d seen that Steve, I believe they evaded capture?!

SteveClem wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:27 pm There’s a lot of ex-bobbys interested in, and running Minors
Saw a clip on the tv recently of some low life in a stolen Minor giving the police a problem... West Yorkshire I think?

blue_cortina wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:06 pm Not a genuine - a replica - We wonder why it was done .... I does make us chuckle when we look at it.

I have Basil fitted with embossed POLICE signs front & rear and a Winkworth bell and Spotlight on the front.
Give him this sort of appearance.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BGmS3PwGWG8/S ... ols690.jpg

It's something a little different from the latter Panda appearance and is basically a 'homage' to the early Minor police use.
He gets some friendly attention; the Cops were very amused when we broke down on the A1 a couple years back!
https://twitter.com/OakhamPolice/status ... 1652830208

The very first Minors to be used by the Police were used by the Lancashire constabulary. They were Black and White hence the name Panda and the name stuck even though the later ones were Blue and White.

I don't remember them ever being black and white - and I should be something of an authority, having had an important role at Lancashire Police Headquarters in Hutton in 1965 when the attached article says they were introduced (I was the paper boy who delivered the evening paper to the canteen )

Actually the picture of the Bermuda blue and white Anglias does say it is from 1966, so the earliest cars may well have been black and white. It was a blue and white Anglia that pulled me up for riding two on a bike with no lights, though. Times have changed - this was considered serious enough for PC Joe Poole to visit our house to talk to my parents the day after.

Mark

http://www.anglia-models.co.uk/police-lc.htm

There is a 'Vanguards' model of a black & white Morris Minor Police car but this is listed as a 'Lothian & Peebles Constabulary car', rather than Lancashire.
Vanguards base their models on the real thing / original colour schemes I believe.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt ... egUIARDdAQ

The only image of a real black & white 'Panda' Minor I can find is this one, though I have no idea which constabulary they belong to (posted on Twitter by Helen Warlow). So the question is, do any black and white ex-Police Minor Pandas survive?
Lastly a period picture of Stockport Borough Police with their Minors, though they are more Zeebras than Pandas! Best wishes,
Mike.

when they were introduced in the 60ies,Z car era on the tv,programs were in black and white,so the cars were black and white on screen .ie Pandas. That's probably where the name came from . When I joined the Thames Valley Police in 1969,they had a variety of different cars ,having just been formed from an amalgamation of 5 other forces,they had amongst them Hillman imps and several mini vans, they used to buy blue and white models and swap the doosr to make up the Panda type. Then when sent to auction swapped the doors back. Talking of police pursuits ....I was once patrolling in the mini van panda on a 40 mph road In Gerrards Cross ,at 4am when I saw lights behind coming at well in excess of the limit,thought Right got you mate(Being young and keen in those days) car came up and started to overtake ,the driver looked across at me ,realised he had been nabbed,slipped down a gear and the AC cobra shot off so fast I couldn't even read his number, I foolishly tried to catch him,a mini engine in standard form stands a slight chance against a cobra until the oil warning lights comes on,and steam rises from the bonnet

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:32 am There is a 'Vanguards' model of a black & white Morris Minor Police car but this is listed as a 'Lothian & Peebles Constabulary car', rather than Lancashire.
Vanguards base their models on the real thing / original colour schemes I believe.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt ... egUIARDdAQ

[bw]The only image of a real black & white 'Panda' Minor I can find is this one, though I have no idea which constabulary they belong to (posted on Twitter by Helen Warlow). [/b]
Black and white Morris Minor Pandas.jpg
So the question is, do any black and white ex-Police Minor Pandas survive?
Lastly a period picture of Stockport Borough Police with their Minors, though they are more Zeebras than Pandas!
Stockport Borough Police Morris Minor line up.jpg
Best wishes,
Mike.

Hi Mike

You are actually spot on. The cars in the photo were actually Lothian and Peebles constabulary cars. The SY registrations were issued to the Midlothian area.

Philip

Hi Mike

Good question, but I'm afraid I don't know ! I'm south of Scotland based, so local to where these cars were. I know of a lot of Morris's around here, many local cars, but I don't recall ever seeing a locally registered panda car or any cars in this number sequence. That said, it is entirely possible and I suppose could have ended up anywhere in the country. At one point I did have a panda car, but it was an ex Met car and it had made its way to Scotland, so entirely possible to find one somewhere. Would love to know if any have survived.

Philip