Five years ago, Michael Burgess, a retired police officer, acquired a rather special Morris Minor. Not only was it a genuine former London Metropolitan Panda Car, but it was also the very same Bermuda Blue and Police White example that he drove out of the Surbiton station yard in April 1968 when it was brand new.

In 1965 Lancaster Constabulary had experimented with “Unit Beat Policing”, in which officers in the Kirby area patrolled in cars rather than on foot. Their black and white-liveried Ford Anglia 105Es gained the nickname “Panda Cars”. By 1967, the Home Office invested £2 million in expanding the scheme, and the then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins believed: “People will always go to a policeman on foot or in a small car, but they would hesitate to stop a big black patrol car.” 

The Minor was a popular choice of many constabularies, and the capital’s Metropolitan Police was probably the highest-profile user. Simon Mitchell of the Morris Minor Owners’ Club Ex-Police Register observes: “The ‘Police Specification’ models varied from county to county, and the Pandas came off the standard production line at Cowley [near Oxford].” 

Some forces encountered problems with the layout of the car’s pedals; Derby had to allow its PCs to wear shoes behind the wheel, as their regulation boots proved too big for safe driving.