The Last Surviving Japanese Porsche 912 Police Car | Hacker News Reader

The Last Surviving Japanese Porsche 912 Police Car

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The police of Amsterdam also used to have Porsche police cars

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/for-more-th...

Any other police departments that did this or just those two?

Germans? I mean, the company is local to them.

Wikipedia's got you covered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_Germany#Typ...

One Porsche model is listed: 911 (no pun intended).

There’s also the Audi R8

the state of Austria usually buys its police cars from Porsche (the dealer not the carmaker) guess, that doesn't count. but Austria had Porsches (some of them 911) in the 60s

In Italy the Carabinieri[0] used to have a Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 in the '60s. The car is still around[1] and is legally allowed to go around with the original "police colors" even tho it's now owned by a private collector.

There's plenty more modern sport cars these days, in various countries.

[0] one of the 4-5 police forces in Italy

[1] https://www.motori.it/ferrari-250-gte-22-in-vendita-la-stori...

UK police have had various types of Jaguar over the years; there was a period where the original Mark 2 Jag could outrun the police, so they had to buy some as well. The Mark 2 became ubiquitous in police procedural TV shows, usually driven by criminals, but also Inspector Morse.

For the present day: https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/news/article/most-powerfu... (fun use of FOIA)

https://policepathfinder.com/what-car-do-british-police-use/

The police of the Netherlands had them, Amsterdam is only a city in the Netherlands.

Yeah, Swedish police had 20-something Porsches over the years, here's some pics from an article about one of them being up for sale https://carup.se/legendarisk-polis-porsche-saljs-pa-auktion/

Highway patrol back when the regular police drove Beetles.

Not as beautiful, but the French Gendarmerie National have 22 Alpine A110. Some pictures there : https://www.largus.fr/actualite-automobile/alpine-a110-genda....

In 4 four years, they managed to total 4 of them (from the 26 brought in 2021).

Alpine is (was ?) a Renault brand, which is a French company, so it is a little less exotic than a Japanese police force buying a German car (Japan being such a massive car exporter themselves).

Bit of a shame what has happened to classic Porsche prices. They used to be “car guy” cars. Now the prices went wackadoodle they’ve become cars for people who…aren’t car guys and can’t even pronounce it properly.

Interesting history on that one, bit of an odd choice for the Japanese police.

That's what happens to things when they become status symbols. They're chased for status. Not the case for Porsche but sometimes that object ends up losing all the core value, pushing away the original fans, and rides the status wave until there's nothing left to offer.

>Not the case for Porsche

I'd argue it is, at least once they started making more SUV's than 911's.

Maybe they're not what they used to be but they haven't lost all of the Porsche DNA. It's not all status. There are companies where the label is all that's left.

Which is to say, there are companies that've gone out of business. But if it was my company, I know what I would do, to put my kids through college. But I know what I would do, to look them in the eye after college.

Just kidding, I don't have kids.

It didn’t have to be that way but badge engineering a VW wasn’t a great idea. Then again I know nothing because they sell a ton of those things.

The Porsche SUVs deeply offend me aesthetically. The proportions are just wrong and the curve doesn't adapt across the body, so it looks like a monster truck. Far more so than things built to be that size (Land Rover and imitators).

Wait till you see Lambo’s SUV!

The Urus? It's .. actually not too bad. It's "not a Lamborghini", in that it looks completely different from the classic low wedge shape, but once you accept that there's no way to do "low wedge, but higher" and look at it on its own it looks alright. It's quite an aggressive look, "angry car face", but that feels appropriate for Lambo.

Then again, the 911 still comes in stick shift. But not as default. They also come in electric. Every petrolhead has a different reason to hate Porsche. And Lamborghini. And Ferrari.

Porsche has one duty to its shareholders. Keep existing. They do that by selling cars.

My love for Porsche almost completely stopped as soon as I moved to the Bay Area.

Why? Because you could afford one? Or because you everyone else could? If your love for them was based on other people not having one, and not for love of the machine, can you really call yourself a fan?

Note I said “almost completely”. You also decided to interpret my response as I only cared about scarcity..which is a choice.

To answer: There’s only so many times you want to strike up a friendly conversation with a driver about their lovely car, only to be met with them having no clue about their bespoke vehicle, or even worse - the pitted feeling that they are somehow superior.

Porsche drivers in most of places I’ve lived do not behave this way. You will have a better time and luck in the Bay Area chatting cars with someone who drives a Ferrari or McLaren (or a Mazda to make it clear it’s not simply value) than a Porsche owner.

As a petrol head, I’m saying it’s sad that most tech bros buy these over the top track cars and don’t know much about them besides the paint color or alcantara.

then again, you what Alcantara is.

Because of the kind of other people who had them and how he felt that reflected on him.

Having a cool old project car is less cool when everyone else is some jerk who bought into it.

> can’t even pronounce it properly

There are things which pronunciation I've learned in childhood and it will never change no matter how good my foreign language skills get. "Tomb Raider" with comically butchered accent.

I'm no car guy, but that's a beautiful vehicle. How totally Japanese too; zany but rad.

not Porsche but the italian police has 2 Lamborghini Huracan. They make some good use of them sometimes: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/20/italian-police...

> In the 1960s, four Porsche 912s were customized for use as police cars in Japan

Fascinating. So many follow-on questions. Why four exactly? Were they all in Tokyo, or spread around? Did they get used for anything other than highway patrol? Who got to drive them?

Four seems like a reasonable number for a trial purchase.

The article said Kanagawa so not Tokyo. Well, close enough.

These photos were originally by Lorenzo Kikisch for Type 7 magazine

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZYbpfliUfs/

Scrapping them should be a crime

I really need James May to explain its entire service history to me.

Really dig that side mounted siren. Peak mid century aesthetics.

whats the huge sports chrono looking thing on the dash? wonder if thats the origin of the modern option

Speedometer. Not sure why it's in a separate binnacle on its own. Perhaps that allows the passenger cop to also observe the speed and corroborate it in court later if necessary.

Steering wheel on the wrong side!

1/3 of the planets population drives on the left mate.

(Incidentally, if a country drives on the left then as a general rule of thumb, they also play cricket. I've no idea why this might be the case.)

British influence?

I'm not sure the correlation holds up in Japan's case though

British influence again - apparently through the train network. Despite Commodore Perry and the Portuguese, Britain had significant influence during the Meiji restoration.

Don't want succumb to any conspiracy theory, but they also tend to play rugby.

I’d say it’s because cricket is British and driving on the other side is British too?

I really had no idea. Give that man a coconut.

I'm from India and had to Google these guys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_national_cricket_team

The car in the article has the steering wheel on the left, which is the wrong side for vehicles driving on the left-hand side of the road. Domestically-produced cars in both the UK and Japan have the steering wheel on the right.

Not wrong in Japan

The wheel in the photo is on the left, which is wrong in Japan. Domestic Japanese vehicles have the steering wheel on the right.

People are doing really ugly, corrupted, and cruel things to own and to drive Porsche. Don't understand sentiment to this brand, especially considering a hole in their history during 1930s-1940s. It's a drving scrap, they didn't scrap it, big deal.

I'm a car enthusiast, but I like brands like Porsche because of the engineering they have on their cars.

You don't have to appreciate it, but the engineering of these cars are not orthodox, yet they're daily driveable cars unlike the cars in their own class, e.g. Ferrari, Maserati, et. al.

The thinking out of the box, and evolution instead of revolution makes them extraordinary. Personally, I prefer the looks of Porsches to any other car.

However, would I go great lengths to own one? I'm not sure.

You can admire something without going crazy about it or define yourself via it.

If we're going to "shame" companies about doing things between 1930-1940, the list will be much longer and multi-national.

Ever buying a Fanta?

Wrong address, I absolutely avoid this "fantastic" brand and other sugar syrups. I tend to drink plain water (like in the toilet bowl).

Why doesn’t HN have an ignore option?

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