A FORMER motor racing champion who had a few scrapes with the law has bought one of the most expensive police cars in the UK at an auction.

Former triple British Touring Car champion Win Percy paid over £44,000 for a very rare example of a Daimler Dart police car.

The car was used by the Met Police force in London.

The Dorchester resident said: “As a rather silly teenager I did have a few scrapes with Dorset Police, so to now have a really high speed cop car of my own seems rather strange.

“I was a bit of a lad whilst driving around the county and was stopped a few times – however I did learn my lessons and then kept the really high speed to the race tracks.”

Mr Percy now works as a Driving Standards Officer for the annual Goodwood Revival meeting, meaning he is effectively the ‘policeman’ for the historic motorsport and aviation event.

He works with former and current F1 drivers and has to check everyone is driving correctly on the circuit.

Mr Percy said he knew he had to buy the car when he heard about the Surrey auction.

He said: “It looked so stunning and it was such a rare car that when I heard about the auction at Brooklands I just had to try to buy it.

“It comes with the original police fittings including the radio, the bell and a special and very accurate speedometer, so there will be no chance of me driving too fast now.”

The two-seater sports car was one of the fastest cars around in the early 1960s.

The Daimler SP250 was launched in 1959, has a 2.5 litre V8 engine with twin SU carburettors and cost £1,395 back then.

It had approximately 140 brake horsepower and can reach 60mph in around nine seconds.

Today the SP250 is one of the most sought-after post-war Daimlers, with buyers paying extremely high prices for relatively ‘ordinary’ examples.

But ones with a very special history like this former police car, command a great deal of interest and are thought to be true and rare icons of the sixties.

The car will need to be adapted because of Mr Percy’s mobility problems.