SuperCooper wrote:
Hey Winnabey how were these carried in the car? A carry case? Bracket? Parcel shelf or rear side bins?
Nothing as fancy as a case or bracket. They basically floated around the cabin and were used when needed. Some may have put them in the rear bin or on the rear floor during the day. They competed with the portable POLICE illuminated sign (hand-held towards the speeding motorist or clipped on the top edge of the passenger window glass) and the Hella beacon (flashing blue light with magnetic base) for power. A small bayonet cap socket to match the plug on the end of yours, or a flat blade low voltage socket was fitted under the passenger side parcel shelf for this purpose. In later vehicles (post Mini) the cigarette lighter socket was used.
One of the retired NSW Police I've been in contact with relayed the following story. I won't mention his name, for reasons that will become clear.
The 'Flasher' was actually a hand held spotlight with a pistol grip handle and a toggle switch on the back, of the type commonly used by farmers to spotlight rabbits. In fact I have heard rumours that some rabbits were actually plugged from police cars using the spotlights. Just a rumour mind you! Given that it also had to be plugged into the same, single, cigarette lighter attachment it was rarely used. It also had an overly long length of 'figure 8' wiring on it, about 4 meters to be close. If you were silly enough to have your revolving blue light, your illuminated police sign and your spotlight all in the car at the same time it was a real recipe for disaster if things got crowded, bumpy or fast. I well remember a roadblock for a dangerous escapee at the intersection of the Hume Highway and the Snowy Mountains road, racing out of the Cooper in the pouring rain one night and getting my feet tangled up with the leads from the blue light and spotlight and sprawling face first across an ice covered road and watching my revolver disappear into a flooded ditch. Luckily I did not need the gun as it turned out but it took 2 hours to find it the next day and a lot longer to clean it.
