The Idler

WHICH? GETAWAY CAR

Bruce Reynolds, architect of the Great Train Robbery, tells us which are the best cars for making a swift retreat.

He was talking to Matthew De Abaitua

What is the perfect getaway car?
Well, it all depends on what type of work you’re doing. I mean, you don’t take a four-seater car when a two-seater will do. And as regards being conspicuous, that always depends on where you re doing the job. If you’re in the City of London, and you’re doing a small safe, then you’d want a Mini for getting around the backstreets and alleys. But if you’re doing a big safe, you’d want a larger car with a big boot to carry around the oxyacetylene torch. Freddie Forman liked to use Austin Westminsters or the Princess. You could get more people in them.

This is why a lot of people used Transits. There was a real vogue for Transits but I’d never use them. The Police would pull a Transit under normal conditions. They are always suspicious. So I used to use a Jag or a Bentley. When I was operating, class was much more of an issue; the police would tuck their forelock to a man in a nice car and a decent suit.

This is why the Jaguar was the most prevalent getaway car, spanning two decades. From 1949 with the Jaguar XK120 - with its twin-cam 3.4 engine - later improved to a 3.8 - the jag was the classic getaway car. It had everything. The advertising slogan for the Jag was “Grace, Pace and Space” - a criminal needed all those things. After it’s inception, it was perceived as the choice car for the middle class professional. So it was ideal for us, the Police wouldn’t touch you. I owed my freedom to Jaguars on many occasions. Unfortunately, it later became so popular with villains that if you were traveling more than two up in a Jag, you’d be pulled over straight away.

When it came to surveillance, you couldn’t beat the Daimler. We used to have two identical Daimler 3.8s - it was majestic when it came to checking a place out. It had a completely un-criminal aspect to it. We’d also use Bentleys. Peter Scott, the Human Fly, used a Bentley - he was the man who nicked Sophia Loren’s jewelry. And then there was Roller Reg, successful jewel thief and drunkard, he always used a Rolls. They traded on the protection respectability would give you. As I said, a well-dressed man in a good car was immediately above suspicion.

As the Sixties wore on, crime became more and more confrontational. It was a growth industry. More and more people were getting in on the act. This meant there was less planning involved, and people would just use any car. The Fords really came into their own around this time - particularly the Granada and the Ford Transit - which became known as the work horse of the criminal classes.

A lot of the jobs needed a car with space. People were knocking off tobacco warehouses and furriers. For the furriers, the favorite getaway car was the Hackney Cab. They have those wide back doors for quick loading of the furs, and they have a really tight turning circle, it can turn in the middle of the street, which is ideal for a job in town. For the tobacco warehouses, Frankie Fraser and Shooting Brake Bill used an American car, the Chevy Shooting Break. They were knocking off a warehouse on the South East Coast, when they had a stoppo, meaning they needed to getaway fast. They raced all the way back to London in that Chevy, it was roomy; ideal for knocking off fags.

In the Fifties, the Police were driving Wolseley 680s, which had a maximum speed of 85 mph. In the Sixties, when we were all using Jags, the police moved up to the Wolseley 690 model. It was marginally faster, but still hopelessly outclassed. The turning point came in 1958, when they opened the M1. This opened up the Midlands to London based thieves. It took a couple of years for the Police to catch up to this fact, and in 1963 they started to use Jags too, the Mark I and ii, the 3.4’s and 3.8’s. It was rumoured that some forces were even using BMW’s in the late Sixties. I heard a lot of stories about that. In Rome, the police force even commissioned Ferarri to build six police cars. But only one was ever delivered. It was driven by the Chief of Police - inevitably.

So the Getaway car was vital. The other two elements were the changeover car - which always had to be the opposite of what you were driving for the getaway - and the drivers, of course. Roy James was the top driver - he went on to race at Formula Junior Level. To be a good driver you have to have a calculating mind. When you pull away from a job, the last thing you want to do is attract attention. If someone says “It’s sweet”, you just cruise off normally. But if you’ve got a stoppo, the driver has to calculate the best way to get away, to be quick but discrete. Roy used to pull up next to police cars, tap on their window, and say “This car is stolen, you know.” Then he’d get chased. That was the type of man he was.

I remember one time when everyone was hitting the tobacco warehouses in Surrey hard. They used to use this technique called the Ram Off. Someone would hold a plank against the padlock, and the car would reverse into the plank, smashing the lock. As a response to these raids, the police decided to set up a series of road blocks around Central London. Roy was driving a 3.8 Jag, coming back from a job and he knew there would be a roadblock waiting for him at the bottom of Putney Bridge. There were three poilce cars spread across the road, with the Police still in them. But the thing is, no-one told Roy to stop when they saw the road block. He just kept on going, faster. Fortunately, the police pulled out of the way, and once the car cleared Putney Bridge, they were in home territory.

In the Nineties, there isn’t much call for drivers or getaways any more. Most of the chases are with joyriders, just kids. The days of the smash and grab are over - especially in London, where there is so much traffic and surveillance. Parking restrictions also cause problems - I mean we used to have three cars that we’d park in Belgravia, rotating them throughout the week so they wouldn’t arouse suspicion. You just can’t do that any more. But if you were to do a job in the Nineties, I’d have to say you couldn’t do better than the Jaguar XJR. It’s super-charged, goes at 155mph. If it suits the other criteria of space and discretion, it would be ideal.