A retired traffic cop was reunited with his favourite car from his time on the job yesterday – and proved he had not forgotten how to make it go.
Ian Slorach put the 1985 Rover SD1 Vitesse through its paces on the track at Grampian Transport Museum in Alford, where it will now be on permanent display after being snapped up for a record-breaking £9,750 at auction.
The 190bhp, 3.5-litre V8 machine was used to chase speeders on the north-east’s busiest roads, and for Mr Slorach it was one of the best he drove during his career with Grampian Police.
However, after the force sold the car in the late 1980s it fell into disrepair.
A local car enthusiast then bought the motor – which by this point was just a white Rover SD1 – and refitted the engine and gearbox, saving it from being scrapped in the early 1990s.
It was not until more than a decade later that the vehicle was restored to its former glory however, after being sold onto a classic car collector in London who eventually enlisted in the help of Channel 4’s For the Love of Cars.
Just before Christmas, the team at the Grampian Transport Museum – who have kept a watchful eye on the car since it was first sold – discovered it was going to auction, and sprang into action to ensure they could bring it back to the north-east.
Curator Mike Ward said: “It’s an interesting vehicle, and it’s got a good local back story. It’s well remembered by lots of people, especially those it suddenly appeared behind in the 1980s on the Stonehaven road in the 1980s. It’s not so far back that it’s been forgotten.
“This is clearly where it belongs.”
Mr Slorach, who retired in 2006 after six years based in Turriff, also followed the car after it was sold off, and when he heard it was being restored in London sent the original blue lights down to the collector after they were discovered gathering dust in a police garage.
He even went down to the auction in Birmingham on Saturday.
Mr Slorach, of Inverurie, said: “I had been shown photographs of the restoration and really wanted to go and see it before it disappeared altogether and I never saw it again.
“I was one of several users of the car and it was just a car that I felt completely comfortable with. The fact that it was a Rover was of significance to me, and that particularl car just stuck in my mind as one of my favourite traffic cars.
“I think it’s great it’s come back to the north-east. I’m absolutely delighted.”