In the late 1950s, the Metropolitan police had a major problem with café racer motorcyclists.

Groups of youths on motorbikes would gather together at a local café, put a record on the jukebox and then race their bikes along a set course getting back to the café before the record had stopped playing.

Accidents occurred and in an attempt to put a stop to the practice, the Met’s proposal was to have a fast car that could actually catch the bikers.

The existing fleet of Wolseley saloons was not up to the task so they looked instead at sports cars.

The Daimler SP250 (Dart) was the answer! This had a 2.5 litre lightweight V8 engine and was capable of 125mph and 0-60 in 10 seconds, which for 1959 was remarkable.

The Met bought 26 Darts between 1961 and 1964 and soon got them into service to be used as high-speed pursuit cars based at separate Traffic Garages situated over the London area.

The results were impressive with many speeding bikers being caught and the number of fatal road acc...