Western Australia's Police Bentleys

Australia's two "Police Bentleys" were used as night patrol cars until after WW2, when they were sold off. Both are still in Australia; both have been rebodied as open tourers.

 

These Bentleys were coachbuilt by Bryan's Motor Body Works, 422A Hay Street, Perth Western Australia in 1930. The firm won the contract and built the two six-light saloons to Police specifications. (Bryan's Motor Body Works does not seem to have survived the Depression.)

 

A Police Bentley body under construction at Bryan's Motor Body Works, 522A Hay Street, Perth, in 1930.
(Source: State Library of Western Australia)

 

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Police Patrol Car - A Bryan Built Body

Truth (Perth, WA : 1903 - 1931), Sunday 10 August 1930, page 2)

 

It is expected that the first of the Police Department's new patrol cars will be seen on the roads early in September. The car is a six-cylinder Bentley that has passed an English speed trial of over 100 miles an hour. A special wireless set is being fitted for receiving and transmitting. The body of the Bentley is being locally built, the contract having been secured by Bryan's Motor Body Works, Hay-street. Perth. Half a dozen workmen are now busily engaged on the job.

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Perth's Police Bentleys

"WITH THE NIGHT PATROL"
(From the Kalgoorlie Miner 20 May 1931)

 

"The pride of the force and envy of motorists are undoubtedly the two great Bentley cars used by the Police Department in Perth for the night patrol.

Regulations are strict and under ordinary circumstances it is next to impossible for ordinary citizens to go for a jaunt in the Bentley unless, of course, they do so under compulsion. However, a personal interview with the courteous Commissioner of Police and the signing of an indemnity form paved the way for a representative of the Kalgoorlie Miner accompanying the night patrol on its rounds one cold and wintry night, under the wing of Detective-Sergeant "Jim" Cowie, late chief of the gold stealing detection staff of these 'fields.

 

The Bentley is a big roomy black sedan with a remarkably long bonnet housing a powerful six cylinder engine. Ninety miles per hour is a mere canter to it, but its appetite is enormous, petrol consumption being only about 10 miles to the gallon. In the tonneau is installed a most efficient wireless set, receiver and transmitter, through which.constant communication is kept by morse code on a secret wave length with, a similar set at the Roe-street lock-up. Some idea of the efficiency of the set may be gained from the knowledge that whilst the car is cruising around Perth and environs, messages that Melbourne and Sydney police headquarters are sending out to their wireless cars may be picked up.

 

The crew comprises a detective-sergeant (each detective sergeant in rotation has a continuous month of this particular duty), an expert driver, wireless operator and constable in plain clothes. When cruising about the suburbs, brilliant headlamps light up the road for a great distance ahead and throw bright beams of light on either side of the car, lighting up doorways, hedges and lanes, very often to the great embarrassment of young couples cancodling out of the public eye.

 

The Bentley appears to have no fixed itinerary but just cruises around about at random until a call is received to some particular locality. Then a red electric sign bearing the magic word "Police" is switched on and the big vehicle dashes at tremendous speed to the scene, the speed often exceeding 90 m.p.h. A screeching electric siren, instead of the usual horn, is used to clear the road ahead. At the first sound of the siren, all other traffic automatically pulls clear, giving the Bentley the right of road, and pedestrians display remarkable agility in dashing out of the way.

 

On one occasion the patrol covered the distance from Cottesloe to Rivervale, a run of nearly nine miles, in something like six minutes. Some idea of this speed may be gained from the following instance. If a man were to commence to walk from the bottom end of Hannan-street the same time the car left Coolgardie, the Bentley would reach the Kalgoorlie Post Office before him.

 

The Completed Cars, and their crews. (W A Government p hotographer)

 

Although considerable expense is entailed in the upkeep of these cars, a fact that has been the subject of adverse criticism in certain quarters, they have more than proved their worth. Hardly a week passes without the night patrol featuring prominently in some important case of the detection or prevention of crime. The introduction of the Bentleys has had a great moral effect on night prowlers and evildoers and has raised the standard of efficiency of the force to a height undreamed of in the days, not so long ago, when the night patrol drove around in a ramshackle Ford of early vintage."

 

The West Australian newspaper reported the specifications on 16 September 1930:

 

"Weighing 2½ tons when fully equipped,the car is about 17 feet long and 5 feet 8 inches wide. English rating of its horsepower is 37.2, the West Australian equivalent being 42. Specially rapid acceleration is provided for by the provision of two inlet and outlet ports to each cylinder, and two carburetters. Equipment includes two spare wheels, two windscreen wipers, two spot-lights working separately, an illuminated blue glass plate with the words 'Police Patrol' sand-blasted in by a Perth member of the force, a specially loud siren, a fire extinguisher, first-aid outfit and windows of triplex non-splintering glass."

 

What, I hear you ask, became of these two cars?

Well, they (chassis LR2783 and LR2785, both 6½ litre "Speed Six" models) remained in vigorous Police use until as late as 1947, when they were finally sold off by tender, replaced by several new Ford V8s. The government wanted to dispose of them quickly and offered the two together as a job lot along with the spares. Two men, Mr A A Vance and a friend, clubbed together and bought the job lot, then taking a car each.

 

Mr Vance got LR2783, his friend got 2785, and both were used as everyday cars for a period after they were purchased. (Presumably the radio sets and Police signs were removed by the police before the sale!)

 

There are still a few people around who remember the mighty beasts when they were cop cars; the Police Bentleys were legends in Perth in the tough depression years of the 1930s. My parents told me about them when I was young. They were matters of great public pride. Perth had the best and fastest cop cars in Australia!

 

Both cars still exist.

 

LR2783 was rebodied as an open tourer, and is currently owned by Jim Runciman, of Hovea, WA, also a noted Mini Cooper S racer at Wanneroo Park in the 1990s.

 

LR2785 also became an open tourer in the popular Vanden Plas style, and is last reported as owned by Graeme Miller, and currently, I believe, resides in Victoria.

 

From: The Winged Messenger
(Quarterly magazine of the Rolls-Roye Owners' Club of Western Australia), October-December 2017 issue
By Terry Walker