Hampshire Police Volvo 850 T-5 Call Sign HM05
N240 ECR HM05 Stationed at Fareham
I count myself as extremely lucky, as I was a serving Traffic Officer with Hampshire and got to drive the demo 850 T-5 saloon we had (M493 SUD) which was a manual with no traction control. We got through the front tyres in less than 3000 miles!
When our cars arrived we were all surprised to see that they were estates with an automatic gear box. My crew mate at the time had never driven an auto before. At least they came with traction control though. I have to state for the record that the 850 T-5 estate was the best Traffic patrol car I ever drove and that includes cars like the BMW E28 528i, E34 525i, the MK2 Vauxhall Senator 24v, the MK3 Ford Granada Scorpio 4x4, the Subaru Impreza WRX, the BMW E60 530d and the early BMW X5’s. The 850s successor the V70 T5 in all its different versions we will no doubt talk about later.
In 2018/9 I think it was I received an e mail from a chap in Liverpool who owned what he thought might be an ex-Police Volvo 850 estate. He was right and it was one of Hampshire's old cars. We exchanged lots of e mails and it transpired that his car was in the first batch of six that Hampshire purchased. Locally it was a bit of celebrity, and the local paper took photos of it at work on the M27 in Portsmouth because it looked so different to the BMW saloons we’d used up until then. Anyway, this chap spent the next two years telling me he was going to restore it back to full police spec.
Then one night he called me. He didn’t have the time or the funds to do so and would I like to buy it? Well, I mulled it over for at least 0.1 of a second before agreeing a price and before I knew it I was driving north up to Liverpool on a very wet December day to go and collect the beast.
Upon my arrival I actually drove past it because I didn’t recognise it from the photos I’d been sent which showed a nice shiny white car. What I was now looking at was a filthy grey coloured wreck, covered in green moss with four split tyres and a pile of rust underneath that was once the exhaust system! Oh, and some idiot had ripped out the Police blue interior and replaced it with a beige leather interior. I mean beige leather in a white car? What were they thinking? I stood there looking at it and very nearly walked away. Having previously restored five police cars I knew exactly what was involved and eventually my heart ruled my head (which was screaming NO don’t do it) and I hooked the winch up to the front towing eye and dragged the car from its resting place of the last twelve years onto the recovery truck.
After a long and wet drive home I parked the truck on the driveway and then tried getting the car off, but with four completely flat tyres it proved really difficult. Once on the ground we then had to push it (I dare not try the engine just yet) along a gravel driveway and into my garage. Every time I looked at it I could see yet more work. But at least I’d saved it which was the important thing. That’s what my heart was telling my head anyway!
The interior was the big issue though and I spent a lot of time on E Bay looking for bits of interior trim but to no avail. Then I spotted a blue 850 estate, a base model that had the correct interior but it would mean buying the whole car. I spoke to the owner Geoff and agreed to meet him. I took the train up to Shrewsbury and waited for him to arrive in the car park. A few minutes later he arrived and invited me to look around it. I opened the front door, looked at the immaculate blue interior and said “Yep I’ll take it”. He was gobsmacked “Don’t you want to drive it first?” he asked. “No” said I “just so long as it gets me home to Portsmouth I’ll be happy.
But Geoff was curious as to why I needed the interior. As soon as I told him I found myself being “interviewed” by him, on camera for his YouTube channel (Geoff Buys Cars). We got on really well and he made me promise to call him once the interior swap was complete so he could do an update.
Have you ever stripped the interior of a car and then fitted a new one? Neither had I until then. I genuinely believed it would only take a weekend. Well, let me tell you that it took me over six weekends! Lessons learned included removing the rear seat backs was exhausting, frustrating and infuriating all at the same time. Putting them back in was even worse. And the plastics that Volvo used for the trim were incredibly brittle and a number of them broke or cracked.
But the very worst aspect of the interior was the lower half of the dash. Whoever had replaced the interior had actually swapped both upper and lower sections as one, i.e. without separating them. I couldn’t do that because the top section on my car was far better than the top section in the donor car. Nothing for it but to remove the lower section. To do this you need to take the glove box out, followed by the retaining screws underneath the dash panel itself. To access these you need to remove the front seats (again) then place a pillow on the pedals to protect your head as you lay underneath the dash with a good torch and a Philips screwdriver. Sounds easy enough? Except Volvo aren’t too keen on you doing this so they covered the screw heads with a resin that is as solid as granite and had to be chiselled off. But it still wouldn’t budge. Not only was it screwed in but also held in place by double sided tape and spots of that bloody resin. I was terrified the whole thing would break in half as it dangled in front of my face. But I managed it in the end and all I had to do now was to do the whole thing in reverse!
Whilst on my back undertaking this task one Sunday morning I received a call from a lady at Volvo. Did I still have the Amazon? (Hampshire Police had saved one of its original Volvo Amazons 20 years ago and I was its custodian on behalf of the force).
“Oh good” she replied “We’d like to buy it”
“Is this a wind up?” I asked.
Well, it most certainly wasn’t and to cut a long story short Volvo did indeed buy it back to become part of its Heritage Fleet and we might cover that story later. But during my chat with the lady from Volvo I happened to mention that I was currently working on my ex-Police 850 T-5 which she seemed quite interested in. That was about March 2023.
Meanwhile I got the wheels refurbished, with new tyres and then made contact with a mechanic who came down to fit a new cam belt, water pump, auxiliary belts, starter motor, alternator, plugs, leads, filters, and new oil. Then we connected a new battery, turned the key and it started first time. It purred for the first time in at least 12 years and that distinctive turbine sound brought back instant memories. A T-5 engine sounds like nothing else you will ever drive. It’s a beautiful sound.
Geoff from Geoff Buys Cars arrived to do an updated video for his YouTube channel. Oh, and he bought the blue 850 back, complete with its beige leather interior which suited the blue car brilliantly.
By now it’s late April and my phone rang again. It was the lady from Volvo.
“We’d like to borrow your 850 to go on the Volvo stand, with the Amazon, to help launch a brand new Police product at this years National Association Police Fleet Managers exhibition in Telford”
The NAPFM exhibition is always held first week in July and I’ve attended it every year since 1989. I explained that the car was no-where near ready as a Police car, it had no kit and no livery. NAPFM was only nine weeks away. To my utter surprise Volvo said they would get the livery done by PVL Graphics in Sussex if I’d contact them to sort out the details. I have to say I was most impressed with PVL. Their attention to detail was fantastic and they didn’t mind at all that I was incredibly fussy and insisted the graphics were perfect in every detail. So, in mid-June, with the 850 having passed its first MOT in 12 years (with only a couple of advisories) I drove it down to PVL and watched in amazement as my car was reborn as a Police patrol car. HM-05 was alive once again.
I got her home, attached a dummy Whelan light bar onto the roof, fitted the Clearway VHF/UHF radio set, the VASCAR unit, a Tracker unit, a couple of aerials and threw some cones in the back. A couple of days before the exhibition a Landrover Discovery arrived at my house towing a covered trailer as the 850 was carefully winched inside and off she went.
So, in July 2023 a colleague and I drove up to Telford for our annual visit to NAPFM. I ignored all the other exhibits and made a B-line for the Volvo stand. I saw the Amazon first, followed by the 850 T-5, both gleaming under the spotlights on the stand. But there was nothing sat between them, just an empty space. I met the lady from Volvo.
“Erm, where’s the new car?” I asked.
“It wasn’t ready in time” she exclaimed “and please don’t ask my staff about it because they are somewhat embarrassed” she said. I did feel sorry for them (It should have been the all-electric EX30).
“Your 850 has had a lot of attention though and it looks lovely” she said.
I wasn’t going to argue about that, it really did look good.
After the car was returned to me it went to a good number of 999 shows with my friends at Police Car UK (www.policecaruk.co.uk) around the country whilst I continued to gather the rest of the kit for the car which included all the items for the boot, a gun safe (as the car doubled as an ARV when it was in service) and lots of smaller items that were fitted to these cars at the time.
Then in November 2023 PC-UK had a stand at the National Classic Car Show at the NEC and as a club we were celebrating 40 years of the ‘jam sandwich’ livery. We had a MK2 Cortina Lotus on the stand together with a MK2 Triumph 2500TC, a Rover 3500 P6 and my 850 T-5. As always the NEC was packed with over 70,000 visitors and as always our stand was kept busy throughout the three days. But I couldn’t believe the attention the Volvo received. I must have spoken to at least 20 serving and/or retired Traffic cops and not one of them had a bad word to say about the 850 as a patrol car. Not one of them! That is quite unique. And it was the same from the general public. They all had stories about being chased by one, being put in the back of one, seeing one pass them on the motorway at 150 mph etc etc. It seems to be everybody’s favourite Police car. Well, who am I to argue with that?
Then Geoff turned up at the NEC and he was really pleased to see it in full livery and so we did a third video where he got the full tour of the car.
At the end of the 2024 show season the car went down to a friends house for the winter where he wired in the electrics for the lightbar, the siren, the rear matrix board, flashing head lights, grill lights and a CD player so that I can play an old CD of Hampshire Police radio traffic whilst the car is on display. All of which helps bring the car alive.
In March 2025 the Volvo was on display at the two day Petrolheadism show at Wembley on my old mate Ben Person “Interceptor” stand together with officers from the City of London Police. Ben had his cameraman at the ready and before I knew I was giving him the guided tour of the 850 T-5 which he described as the best patrol car of all time.
In December 2025 Scalextric released a very nice replica of my Volvo complete with very
good looking driver! Having tried it on a track its very fast and sure footed (just like the real
thing!) and the blue lights work.
Owned and Restored by: Steve Woodward