Along with the CCs I photographed in Rome and posted here and here for your reading pleasure, there was another place I decided to try and visit: Museo Delle Auto Della Polizia Di Stato.
You could say this Museum is a CC all of its own- it was so obscure, nobody I met knew anything about it. When I asked the girl at the hotel’s reception to call the place (to be sure that it’s open), she said this is the first time hearing about it, and she lived in Rome all her life. I told her not to worry, I’ll be back with photos and show her.
To that she replied: “No, I don’t like these at all”. I asked: “What, cars, policemen or both?” Answer: “No, policemen I like…”.
So off I went to this place via Bus no. 30 from Piazza Venezia. I won’t describe the entire route (look it up on G-maps); just say it’s no big deal at all and anyone can do it . Be aware that it’s indeed best to call in advance with the help of a local, as nobody there speaks a word of English- maybe two, but that’s definitely it.
Entering the premises, you immediately stumble upon this:
I don’t know why they chose to display this Fiat 509 in a “Barn Find” state- perhaps it was stolen and this is how they found it…
Opposite the Fiat was this lovely 1958 Alfa Romeo 1900 Berlina Super, of the “Pantera” high speed chase department.
Further into the museum, you’ll find a display of two Italian icons, a Moto Guzzi V7 Sidecar rig and an Alfa Romeo Giulia Super, both from 1971.
As I was walking in, a group of Kindergarten kids were coming out. At the end of their “tour”, each was lifted up to the Polizia BMW’s seat by the instructor, and was duly photographed… They were cute.
The displays at the museum are arranged according to decades. This hall is 1930s to 1950s, and features this Zagato Alfa Romeo 6C 1750. Beautiful.
As is this Lancia Lambda. Note the Fiat 621 bus in the background.
In the same hall you’ll find these two: a 1952 Fiat 500 C Topolino (in the background) and a 1956 Fiat 600.
Next to which is a pretty 1950 Fiat 1400. Note the GIANT Siren above the right fender, painted body color.
Next hall. Well, part of it anyway. Here you’ll find 1950s to very early 1960s vehicles.
Hang on; this is a 1943 Willys MB Ford GPW. I guess they still used it in the 1960s. However, next to it is a very interesting vehicle:
It’s a 1951 Alfa Romeo AR51 Matta. Not really the first Alfa that comes to mind.
1957 Fiat 1100/103E
1956 OM Autocarro CL52 .The red color scheme makes all those vehicles look like fire dept. vehicles, not police.
This Fiat police van was very interesting. I’ve never seen this car anywhere, and as I wrote before- there was no one to ask about it (and no, that info sign next to it belongs to a different car). Upon returning home, I still couldn’t find any info online. Maybe you CC readers can shed some light on this van?
*Update: CC reader “mb” answered this puzzle in the comments to this post: “The red van is a Fiat 1100 Camionetta by Carrozzeria Savio (based on the 1100/103)”. Further Googling affirms it, so thank you.
Same hall; less red: Fiat 500 and a Fiat AR 55 Campagnola. The Campagnola replaced that AR51 Alfa you saw earlier.
If you need to rescue someone, ask for this: 1962 Moto Guzzi 3×3 ‘Mulo Meccanico’.
Here’s the Italian take on early 1960s S.W.A.T. vehicles…: 1960 OM Autocarro CL51.
Now entering firmly into the 1960s-1970s hall (but with some late 1950s cars still present).
I absolutely love this 1962 Lancia Flaminia. Sad that Lancia as we once knew it is no more.
Another beautiful car even if somewhat common, 1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1300 Ti
A total contrast to the majestic Flaminia is this 1959 Fiat 600 Multipla. Really weird-looking (I guess using a fish-eye lens doesn’t help either).
Here’s another one of them AR 55s, this is a 1969 Campagnola fotoelettrica (note the lighting it’s carrying).
During the 1960s the “Pantera” used also this, a 1961 Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint.
Moving into the 1970s. Motorcycles were, of course, also part of the Rome police fleet. This is a 1971 Moto Guzzi V7.
Vans such as this 1971 Fiat 238B were also evolving and growing in size.
Rome police used this fairly stock 1969 Fiat 124 Familiare (SW).
But look closely at this; it’s a 1972 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super Wagon Polizia Speciale. As the name suggests, it’s been turned into this SW/van. Extremely rare.
And this is the standard Giulia’s replacement for the 1970s- Alfa Romeo Alfetta. This is a 1973 model.
Moving into the 1980s. Finally the color scheme is starting to look like police’s. This is the old Campagnola’s replacement, a 1980 Fiat Nuova Campagnola HTL.
Although the police still used Guzzis in the 1980s, they were also “modernized”. Here are two: a 1985 Moto Guzzi T3 and a 1987 Moto Guzzi T5.
You could call this a replacement for that rescue 3X3 Guzzi above. It’s a Prinoth P4.
The 1970s Alfetta was replaced by this 1979 Alfa Romeo Giulietta, serving well into the 1980s.
Guzzis, Guzzis everywhere. All these are 1985 T3s.
Yes, they decided to use this 1982 Alfa Romeo Alfasud as one of the “Pantera” cars.
And the older Giulietta made way to its replacement, this 1992 Alfa Romeo 33.
At the back of the exhibits, resting on what you could call a pedestal, is this very lovely 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 “Pantera”.
Imagine being chased by that! Now that’s a true “Pantera”.
As you can imagine, the exhibit continues into the 1990s and 2000s, of which I felt this Fiat Marea 2.0i 20V HLX should be mentioned. By now, this has turned into a CC even without being a police car.
Curiously, not far from it rests a really rare 1979 De Tomaso 892 Deauville. Why it’s over there at the 1990s display? Ask whoever.
All this leads to the newest police car on the premises, the 2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta. And note the police-woman’s poster in the background: “You’ve been a bad boy, haven’t you?”
I’ll leave you with another photo of the De Tomaso, just because I like it so much.
Naturally, I didn’t upload all my photos to this post, as the CC server might choke. So if you’re interested to see more vehicles, go to this gallery I’ve set up on Flickr.
Oh, and Happy New Year to you all.
*VERY* Nice ! .
THANK YOU for all the great photos .
-Nate
Thanks for this report
Gracie mille!!
I agree, your opinion with the Flaminia:
When Lancia, was Lancia. 😉
The Ferrari 259GTE was awarded by the President for the forces fight againest organised crime. Officers were asked what would they like and they joked ” A Ferrari”. They got 2!. One was totalled in a fatal accident, the chassis destroyed on the orders of
old man Ferrari. This one stayed in the force until 68 and auctioned off. Whats it worth now?. Perahps not one of the most collectable models but this ones a one off, or is it a two off?.
Marvellous collection and diversity, even if the vehicles weren’t used by the police at all !
I remembered that Lamborghini donated a Huracán LP 610-4 Polizia to the Italian police forces.
The ceremony at the museum, in 2014.
And this is how one of the older police Gallardos, also donated, ended its police service.
Great collection of photos — thank you!
Moto Guzzi is bringing back the Eldorado…I wonder if they’ll be bidding on the next LAPD contract. Somehow I doubt it.
The info sign inside the barn find Fiat 509 says “tracked down another pantera…. it was in Australia”. Now i’m curious… Do you have a higher-res picture ?
The red van is a Fiat 1100 Camionetta by Carrozzeria Savio (based on the 1100/103, not the prewar 1100). After a bit of googling, it seems like they were used only by police forces.
Thanks very much for the info. I guessed that the Fiat Van was something built specifically for the Police, but I just couldn’t find the info. I’ve updated the post.
As for a better photo of the sign- sorry. I have enlarged the sign part as much as I could without destroying the image too much, but I fear you still will have problems reading it:
Thanks. Unfortunately, the font used is very small, i can only make out the bold part. While looking for informations about it (i love cars with an interesting backstory), I found this article, in which the author says :
“Covered with straw and cobwebs, the oldest car in the museum is a never-been-restored FIAT, belonging to Questura di Firenze. The car was found in this ruined situation and the museum decided to keep it as it is.”
http://petrolicious.com/you-need-to-visit-the-italian-police-car-museum
I also forgot to add to the previous post that the DeTomaso isn’t just a “normal” Deauville (as if such a thing existed), but rather one of only two bulletproof examples, the other being made for the Belgian Royal Family.
The variations that come up from the smaller manufacturers are amazing; an armoured DeTomaso – who knew?!?
I think it was the Alfa Romeo Matta that I read about years ago having been not quite sabotaged, but tested rather unfairly to make sure it did not win the army contract at the time, eg using it to do all recovery work on other vehicles, and leaving it with its engine idling rather than switched off, so that its fuel consumption would be higher.
Thanks for the post Yohai, very interesting.
There’s an awful lot of ’92 Jag XJ in that ’79 De Tomaso.
There’s an awful lot of 1968-onwards Jag in that 1970-onwards Deauville
More about that lovely GTE, which has an interesting history:
http://petrolicious.com/ferrari-250-gte-on-special-assignment
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. When we took a family trip to Rome in 2014, we were surprised to see many Land Rover LR4’s (Discovery 4 there of course) as police vehicles! And they matched our family LR4, same wheels and a dark metallic blue….so it was very amusing to see our “family car” with lights, markings, push bars, crude metal grates over the windows, and whatnot. I would have loved to have seen this museum, police and emergency vehicles are always interesting to me.
Great post. The selection of AWD vehicles is extraordinary, but I’m most loving the Flaminia, Alfetta and 79 Giulietta sedans.
With you there Don.
With that Lancia, I guess you could arrange a meeting with the police woman in the last but one photo quite easily;-)
I enjoyed that. thank you for sharing. it reminded me of one of my favourite movies, the original Italian job, with micheal caine and his minis, running away from all the green alfa police sedans.
I had always wondered if they were real police cars, or movie specials. now we know!
My wife and I loved seeing the Italian police cars during our honeymoon–she always thought the Alfa 159 was a great-looking car, and the police editions are especially sharp.
SQUADRA VOLANTE!
That ’62 Flaminia is extraordinary. The whole place looks amazing though! I guess the justification for the non-police cars there is…interestingness? Connections to crimes? Who knows. I’d love to visit anyway.
Obviously, the Pantera interceptors should have been DeTomaso Panteras. No?
Great material.
Why don’t more capital cities have a museum like this? Got to beat another art gallery!
The red Fiat police van was specially made for the National Police force( Polizia di Statos) , It is a 9 seater and is based on a Fiat 1100, body by Savio, build in 1955.
This is all I can tell.