Moving away to take up a new job appointment in Yorkshire provided John Parks with the time and cash to do up an MGB GT, a task that included the additional requirement of representing police cars he recalled seeing patrolling the highways and byways of his native county – East Sussex.

Words and pictures: Dave Bowers

The East Sussex and the West Sussex police forces were the first to recognise the value of employing the GT version of the MGB as marked traffic patrol cars, and they were similarly enlightened in recruiting Women Police Constables to drive these after receiving advanced training. Not that this was the first occasion when MGBs were driven by Women Police Constables, as the Metropolitan Police and Lancashire Constabulary used open-topped roadsters from 1962. And in addition to normal patrol duties, Metropolitan WPCs were tasked with tracking down runaway girls heading towards London after hitching lifts with lorry drivers, with the Ace Café on the North Circular being a good place to watch out for forlorn teenage girls so they could be safely returned to their families.

John provided some history on the MGB GT cars that served both Sussex forces from 1966 onwards, which were purpose-built in Abingdon’s Special Tuning section to MG’s Police Specification. ‘This generally meant a most basic standard, lacking a heated rear window and with no headrests, but with the early addition of dim-dip lighting, and an ammeter where the overdrive switch would be fitted. Radio telephones were fitted by Pye engineers and emergency equipment was installed by staff at force HQ workshops. Sir George Terry was the Chief Constable of East Sussex at the time, and he decided it would be good for public relations if female drivers were appointed for traffic duties, a job that had always been the preserve of male officers. This would involve training them to Class 1 driver standard first of all, which was undertaken by the neighbouring Police Driving School in Maidstone. It was believed at the time that when stopped by a WPC, male drivers would be more responsive to any safety issues. It also helped no doubt that from 50 applicants, the first WPCs to be selected, Hazel and Joy, were absolute stunners!’

Four MGB GTs arrived in 1966, to be issued across the county, and Hazel Lane (née Waters) and Joy Smith (née Christian), were allotted one of these cars after completing driver training. Their car was HPM 921D. Appointing Women Police Constables to such a high profile driving role at the time was no doubt considered to be very enlightened, although the press seized on the opportunity to saddle Joy, Hazel and their female colleagues with the condescending sobriquet Traffic Dollies, which certainty wouldn’t go down well from today’s perspective add (when ladies' proficiency at driving is, if not quite universally recognised, certainly reflected in the lower rates of car insurance for women.

John went on to remark: ‘The MGB GT gained a good reputation for reliability compared to some of the other cars operated by Sussex, such as Jaguar, Triumphs and the Lotus Cortina. Not bad at all, particularly for a British Leyland product like mine built in the 1970s. However, although Hazel and Joy thoroughly enjoyed driving their cars, most male policemen were over six feet tall in those days, so getting in and out of the car was a problem, especially if they were in a hurry or overweight. And their body weight plus all the police equipment in the back of the car did lead on to maintenance problems with the springs and exhausts, particularly on one occasion when a BGT achieved level flight of almost 30 yards when driven at speed over an undulating road surface!’

Some drivers found the MGB GT to be a bit dodgy in the wet, although others found the handling to be remarkably good. With two officers in the car, there were problems should there be a need to arrest and take someone into custody, a situation that became more problematic with the introduction of roadside breathalyser testing in the late 1960s as the problem then arose of how to get a drunk back to the police station. However, one crew managed to fit an escaped psychiatric patient and their nurse into the back of a GT, which required all of their emergency equipment to be left behind and hidden beneath a blanket on the road verge. Prisoners had to be carried in these MGs on occasion, although maybe they behaved better in those days than in recent times?

To read more about this MG see the September 2011 issue of MG Enthusiast 

Back issues available here.