Having escorted an ambulance at high speed (gangrenous aorta, transfer 30 miles to specialist unit for surgery - patient survived, thankfully), totally understand the pressure. HUGE respect, we did our run in Cheshire/Gtr Manchester - cannot imagine what the pressure was like in London.
Thank you so much for uploading this again. Never gets old, even 34 years later. Loved watching the police camera action cut version as a kid, this shows the entire run with less dubbing. Beautiful.
I remember being the operator in Papa 2 going through Catford with two tones on and blue lights flashing. I think we hit 100mph a one stage as we crossed Bellingham. The driver was a veteran and had previously driven the P6. Bloody scary and bloody thrilling all at once! Thanks for uploading this version. Fabulous stuff!
Pfft, that's nothing! Did that in me mate Dave's Capri Ghia all the time and that had a knackered horn and only one working sidelight. Come back to me when you've tried doing that after a few pints!
@@leenevin8451 Back then, these Rovers had heavy chassis to ensure better stability during high speed driving. The engines for these cars were built with robustness in mind, so the power tuning and compression ratio were set to ensure these cars could run on regular leaded petrol without suffering from overheating and breakdown issues. That's why the SD1 Rovers were "slow" to most of us today.
No doubt about it, some of the VERY BEST team work in action on this one! It's still an incredible watch all these years later and goes to prove - back in the day the British could build a world beating well engineered car that could be thrown around in very tough conditions and perform like a charm!
superb upload..as a young lad i knew one of their colleagues and the stories of the police SD1's blew my mind..not only the liver run but the twin turbo'd SD1 they got to trial and many more.....first time ive seen this version rather than the Alistair Stewart rubbish but knew this version existed..thx for taking the time to get it on here for ppl to find the real..
Never seen this before, what a spectacular thing. Obviously it shows its age in 2021 but it's great what was pulled together. In the now, there's at least a hundred helicopters on call that could prevent the chaos. P.s. I came for the car Rover SD1 3500.
Way better than the edited 1996 version that made this feel like an episode of "World's most wildest police chases with John Bonnell". Greetings from America.
You have to remember that liver runs like this aren’t done anymore, they use helicopters nowadays; a liver run is far different from a typical high speed chase. You see, when your giving chase to some criminal motorist chances are the peak speed will certainly be higher than 118mph, but without structure and coordination the person trying to evade the police could never maintain that high an average speed; consider also that the police are actively trying to slow down the criminal. The person will also have little control over any obstacles. Whereas with a liver run the driver HAS to maintain a fast average speed and in that particular circumstance, the police are actively trying to keep the traffic and other obstacles out of the way to maintain that speed. I’d be surprised if any modern high speed car chase would have as high an average speed.
Only in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone else has died and there isn't a single car on the road, and only on straight bits, of which there aren't many even on the motorway, because this is England. But aside from that. Yeah.
Thanks for posting this. Many drivers may feel confident on open roads, but to drive like that in urban roads takes endless bottle - well done all concerned..
for cars that are ragged daily from cold that's probably about right. Not to mention decades old tech, especially the oils etc that aren't as advanced as today.
Prior to this time (1987) the Met had a strict policy of vehicle disposal at 60,000 miles or three years, whichever came first, (usually the mileage). As vehicles later had better designed engines, used better oils etc, this was extended to well over 100,000 miles. I can remember driving Vauxhall Astra response cars in the mid-1990s with over 120,000 miles on the clock, and they still went very well. As you say, how times have changed!
Wow!!.... I watched this as a child and loved this episode. Even playing with my corgi Rover police car toy. Just a random thought and found this episode. Thank you
The concentration this must have taken. No wonder the guy got out at breathed a massive sigh of relief it was over. I was gobsmacked when I saw this back in the days on Alistair Stewart's show. I'm still gobsmacked now.
I used to live in London in 1987 and remember the SD1 Rovers the Police used which were debadged to stop you finding out if it was the 3500 V8. I actually owned and drove an SD1 V8 at that time and you just can't get over have big those cars were and in this film you see them weaving in and out and thrashing the V8 (great sound) standing on the brakes (drums at rear!!!) and smoking the vented front discs (brake pads really stink....) , one of the BMW motorcycles blew up and yet the Rover V8's carried on (but got noisier nearer the hospital).
Watching this reminded me how much the new like road from Redbridge Roundabout was a blessing, It once took me three hours to get to Redbridge where now it takes 20 minutes on a very bad day. Plus irreverent on the Mile End road I see Ward Brothers which was my local car parts shop, no longer there. What a great bit of collaboration with the different police officers from other forces.
The car in front of the red taxi, at the entrance to the hospital... was a Mini Moke..! An iconic classic, seen in a video that has become an iconic classic in its own right...!! 😉👍
This is a priceless piece of audio visual history. One could easily learn a lot about the realities of medical-related police escorts, how the roads within and around London used to look like back then and of course the sights of cars from the era and the tunes of old emergency vehicle sirens.
Finally succeeded in uploading the video! Problem was due to 15 minute limitation on my non-verified account. Account now verified and full 46 minute higher resolution video (at 640 x 480) is now available. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C9jdAmEBNw0.html
Those drivers had there balls screwed on bloody tight this day.....any passionate driver would love the idea if this, the reality would be quite different I think...the anxiety would get to me for sure.
Amazing. This is atleast the 3rd time i have seen this video over the decades and still is thrilling to this day. Bravo to the police operation that day
This must have been mid to late 80s. The North circular part wasn't fully open and Redbridge roundabout looked like it was still being built. I used to take this route all the time, still do I might try the bit from Redbridge to Whitechapel for old times sake. Before this time the M11 would come out at Woodford Green, cows on the roundabout lol and then into Leyton stone.
Cows on the roundabout? Woodford green , if never ended at charlie browns..Yeah this was the 1987, the north circular between barking and s. Woodford didn't open til 89'. The A12 was upgraded ten years later to a motorway like road between redbridge and bow. Hence in the video the A12 passes through wanstead as a congested single carriageway and ends at the green man roundabout - a11 leytonstone was bypassed by the A12 in 99 and the a11 was downgraded. Also the area around Whitechapel has changed massively. The gyratory system was removed several years ago.
I was born six years after this took place. Remember seeing it on the TV when I was little. Was mesmerised then, and I’m still mesmerised by it now! Nice to see this addition with the professional and mindful reflections of the officers, along with their own commentary. Also better than the original TV edition I think, because that contained a really lack Luster interview with the recipient of the organ at the end - she just wasn’t cut out for television.
18:30 Cutting through the traffic there was an Audi close behind taking the advantage of the police making progress though the heavy traffic, not much changed then :-) I saw this video years back awesome driving by the police.
Why couldn't they have used a helicopter. That would have been much faster and no need for all that stress. Mind you, good to see how grey East London was lol.
The Helicopters were grounded, IIRC because of the needs for safety checks after an accident that put their reliability in doubt. They might have risked it elsewhere but not over a densely populated city. Also the aircraft may well have been in bits, not able to be reassembled in the time available.
Thanks for this! Actually I managed to download a higher resolution (640 x 480 pixel) copy of this video some years ago, but not sure from which channel this was from? If interested, maybe I could upload my copy to some place?
@@jackwain367 OK. I've never uploaded to RU-vid before. But I'm attempting an upload now. At this very moment RU-vid seems to be taking a long time to "process" the upload!?
Good job driving in rush hour traffic....... 👏. Its wonderful to see such a documentary. Thank GOD it was recorded back then in 1987. I greatly enjoyed watching this and I will be watching this again.
Fascinating to see how much London has changed in the last 36 years and how much is still the same. Huge kudos to the various police forces for making this happen at what must have been very short notice and recording it for posterity.
SD1 rovers were very underrated ,they were a cracking car to drive at high speed but these traffic cars were carrying loads of extra weight, in normal weight conditions they were good for 140 , my father was a class 1 driver , they could drive then ,it’s a skill that’s been lost now in the police unfortunately..
Respect for your father.... There are still police drivers capable of significant progress...in faster cars with better brakes & better tech BUT with greater Traffic volumes & greater scrutiny to consider.
@@AW8UKagreed. I follow an EMS drivers channel and the skill is probably better today, ok the cars are quicker, but then so is everything else around him, and a lot more of it. They don't have rolling road blocks to help either, but that's not to diminish any of this, at the time and still today their driving was of a much much higher standard than the majority of road users.
Speaking from personal experience of driving a following emergency vehicle...sometimes drivers pull back out after first vehicle has passed not expecting a following vehicle which can be frustrating. Just offering one possible explanation to your question.
Because the rear car is there as a back up. Considering how hard they were pushing the vehicles to get to the hospital on time, if the lead car was to have failed in any way, the following car (ie the camera car) could have stopped and taken the package and continued on Solo, to complete the journey
Surely to save time the Essex car should of continued with the liver and the met cars escort it through London to the hospital and there should of been a person in the rear securing the the container. Not rocket science really. I am sure some people will be critical of my comments but like it or not this would of saved time.
Imagine trying to do that route today, roads closed with plant pots, 40ft footpaths, one lane just wide enough for a car, and no other units available to assist on the junctions!
It wasn't any Opel, it was a Granny, a 2.8 at best. And an Essex car whose drivers would have even less knowledge of central London. So not so insane really.
@@calum1741 It was a GM sourced gearbox ironic as the V8 was originally from GM but Rover bought the rights remember the car first came out in 1976 118 mph was fast back then.
In the days before the Air Ambulance Service, this was the only way to transfer. These guys have my total respect for what they did and do...! This also shows how vital the Air Ambulance Service is and how much it deserves our support. Priority Transfer drivers like these, deserve our respect and support too...! 😉👍
