Hampshire Constabulary Traffic car, Volvo 850 T5, N240 ECR, In Restoration, preservation and service.

When Volvo launched the 850 in 1993 it received a rather muted approval from the motoring press.  

Then Volvo teamed up with Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) and entered two turbocharged estate cars into the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and added the numerals T5 to the name and a legend was born.

In 1994 Volvo UK were ready to launch the 850 T5 onto the Police market.  
 

About the same time Vauxhall launched its successor to the much-acclaimed MK2 Senator with the Omega.
 

In an unprecedented move Volvo then gave every force in the UK a free 850 T5. 

Traffic cops all over the country loved these cars, with 240 PS on tap, turbine smooth engines, excellent handling, plenty of load space and supreme comfort, they were ideal motorway patrol cars. 

With a top speed of 145 mph and a 0 to 60 time of just 7.6 seconds they were very quick.

The only modifications required were to the brakes when the standard ones simply weren’t good enough and Volvo fitted bigger discs and better brake pads, which cured the issue.

Without doubt the Volvo 850 T5 has to be regarded as one of the best police cars of all time. 

Hampshire constabulary has a long tradition of using Volvo cars and indeed were the first ever UK force to use them back in 1965 with the 121 Amazon estate.

 
This particular car was amongst the very first batch of 850 T5 estates that Hampshire purchased in 1995. 

It was based at Fareham police station and its call sign was ‘hotel-mike-05’ (hm-05).

These patrol cars were somewhat different to previous police cars as they were automatics, with front wheel drive and traction control.