If you ask a Dutchman to talk about the Rijkspolitie, he will surely imagine two policemen in a white Porsche with sirens and orange stripes on its body driving at breakneck speed. They were hunting the ‘bad guy’, that was their mission. And the target in question had all the ballots of being caught because he could hardly have in his hands a sports car as effective as the German model. We know that many countries have prepared sports cars as police cars, patrolling with them on motorways or highways. Ferrari has had two units of the 250 GTE and not long ago the existence of a Lamborghini Gallardo came to light. Even the Madrid municipal police have patrolled with a more modest Renault Mégane RS.
But it is one thing to register one or two high-performance models, models that have sometimes been confiscated from criminals, and another to call a brand in question and start buying a good number of models from it for years, of course always adapted to needs. from the police. The latter is what the Rijkspolitie did, which has counted throughout its history with 507 Porsche units. But why did the Rijkspolitie have a greater need to go fast than other policemen? In reality, all police officers need to have powerful cars, we already know, but the Rijkspolitie was not born so much to chase bank robbers, as to intercept and denounce everyone who was doing the crazy thing on the road. Because at the beginning of the 1960s, the lack of speed limits on the highway caused traffic accidents to multiply in the country and their consequences were more serious.
And if they drove a normal car, the chases dragged on and in the end, they might not even hunt down the offender. This is what happened until 1962 (this police force was created in 1945) when they turned to Porsche because they found what they were looking for there: they needed a reliable car, manageable, with a braking capacity higher than normal and with an open roof. The latter was not a whim (the policemen patrolled with helmets on), nor was it a way to make it easy to jump in or out of the car. They simply had to allow officers to direct traffic by standing up and without getting out of the car, if necessary.
The first model chosen was the 356, the predecessor of the 911. The model used a 90 hp four-cylinder boxer engine and had the corresponding siren, a transmitter, and special equipment consisting of a lever, ropes, small plates, fire extinguisher, wire brush, flashlight, tool, first aid kit, handcuffs, etc. Those first models were called Alex followed by a number, thus recalling Alexander’s headquarters in The Hague. But time passed and the damaged models or those with higher mileage had to be replaced, so in 1965 they ordered 10 new units. Impossible they were told at Porsche the 356 was discontinued last year.
The high command of the Dutch police could have looked for a model from another manufacturer or have chosen the new 911. But they were very satisfied with the 356 and as the 911 did not yet have an open version they asked them to make ten more units of the Cabrio model what Porsche finally agreed and delivered in 1966. In 1967 the 911 Targa arrived, and then the police decided to add it to their fleet. It was a superior car in every way, with a 130 hp 2.0 6-cylinder boxer engine, and the safety arch allowed to offer greater security to the police in the event of an accident.
Since then, this body has accompanied the evolution of this sports car for years; the original 911 was followed by units 2.7 (150 CV), SC (from 180 to 204 CV), Carrera 3.2 (231 CV), and finally, Carrera 2 (250 CV) Until in 1993 this police force was dissolved. Some will find it unattractive to drive a car in the colors of the defunct police force in 2021, but today each of the surviving cars is a highly valued unit when for a 911 Carrera 2 Targa of the 964 generation the average price is around 50,000 euros, for one of these units they can ask you even 150,000 Such is the devotion they have in Europe for them.
