Saluting the last Aussie police cars - What do you reckon?

By: Glenn Torrens

Date: 06.09.2024

Glenn Torrens salutes the last Aussie police cars

'Ex-chaser' police-pack cars have a special place in the hearts of many Aussie car enthusiasts

The NSW Police last Australian-made highway patrol car, a VF2 Holden Commodore SS, was retired in mid-February 2024. Victoria Police’s last SS came off the road in late 2023. As a car enthusiast – and, too, a motoring writer – that’s a sadly significant occasion. 

It’s the end of an era.

We all knew for several years our Aussie car manufacturing industry was coming to an end. Holden’s announcement to shut-down was made in December 2013; Ford’s before and Toyota’s just after that. So in late 2015 (yeah, that’s a while ago now!) I began thinking of  articles about the last Australian-made cars, for Street Machine and Wheels magazines.

I thought police cars would be interesting. I wanted the articles to have national relevance so I contacted (phoned/emailed etc) every police department in Australia. I also wanted to interview the Holden and Ford engineers who helped develop the cop-spec cars. Naturally, I also wanted to talk to the police who drove the cars; that was more phone calls, questions and ‘we’ll-get-back-to-yous’.

As you may understand, these were ambitious ideas and an enormous amount of work to navigate company and government/police policies, and some detective-like effort finding the right people to ‘make it happen’. Unfortunately, it kinda didn’t; after a series of setbacks with what I was hoping to do, I had to abandon the Wheels article.

But I’m proud of what I achieved with the remaining Street Machine article. I will be forever grateful to the incredibly kind and accommodating people (especially N, A and MM – you know who you are!) of the Australian Federal Police who went ‘above and beyond’ to assist my two trips to Canberra.

The ‘ex-chaser’ – especially Holden’s BT1 pack on 1980s/90s Commodore – has a special place in the hearts of Aussie car enthusiasts. Sure, some were bashed around a bit, but most Australian highway patrol cars were V8s so buying a second-hand ‘chaser’, ‘interceptor’ or ‘pursuit special’ (terms immortalised by the movie Mad Max) was a great, cheap way into a juicy late-model performance car.

I’ve always liked the good ol’ ex-chasers, especially as I have several mates who are police officers. During my days on-staff at Street Machine magazine, I came very close to buying an ex-chaser VS V8 Commodore. In those days, in NSW where I live, Commodores for traffic use were Executives with V8 auto, independent rear suspension – with Holden’s FE2 ‘sports’ pack of lowered springs and stiffer dampers – and dual airbags. These cars also had the SS model’s more supportive seats. Ford’s traffic/highway cars all seemed to be XR8s; a great second-hand buy too. Good times!

Thankfully, those last NSW and Vic SS Commodores have been retained for posterity by the respective police forces and I know that other states’ police have retained ‘last’ cars for museums too.

I will always respect and celebrate the Aussie ‘ex chaser’ as I’m sure thousands of other Aussie car nuts will.

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