This is one police car you’d love to take a ride in the back of.
Ken Darby from Traralgon in country Victoria had his 1971 Ford Falcon, a former NSW Police Force vehicle, on display at the Summernats pavilion.
He said he came across the vehicle “hidden away” while looking for a Falcon V8 XY.
“I knew that it was a pretty rare car because of the colour (a blue shade only used for the police vehicles),” Mr Darby said.
He said there were an estimated four of the police vehicles left.
“What happened was, when they went up to auction, northern taxis in Sydney were a similar colour but they just put checkers down the side and there’s a hole in the roof, so they used to put the taxi sign in there,” Mr Darby said.
He said it was in poor condition when he got it so he went about restoring it.
“In the 80s, people had done their cars up with trims and that’s not correct, so I’ve had to remove that sort of stuff,” Mr Darby said,
“In a preservation mode, you can see the top of the guard is all scratched”.
He said there were also dints in the roof from when police put people’s heads down while arresting them.
“You can’t take that story away,” Mr Darby said.
“I’m not the owner of the car, I’m the custodian. One day it will have another owner.
“At the end of the day, I’m trying to preserve that history for Australia.”
Mr Darby said he takes the car to the racetrack at Bathurst in NSW with Legacy children – children whose parents have died while serving in the Australian forces.
Another person who showcased his car was Martin Pecotich from Sydney – he owns a champagne grey 1969 HT Monaro (and three others of that model in various colours).
“It’s an iconic Holden. It’s sort of really the original Australian muscle car,” Mr Pecotich said.
“It’s just a standout car. It’s over the top and it’s elegant.”
He said his concept of the restoration, undertaken by Paul Sant from Proflo Performance in Sydney, was for it to be a “head turner”.
Mr Sant said only 14,000 of these cars were made, making them “sought after” and “hard to get”.
“The car has its own presence. The biggest feature in the car is the engine and the wheels.
“it’s a thing that you’ll probably only build a car of that calibre once in your life and this was his dream.”
