The Style Police
In the early 1960s the marked absence of a speed limit on Dutch motorways saw serious accidents on the rise, so the Rijkspolitie was tasked with finding a suitable vehicle for high speed patrol. The list of requirements was exacting: it had to be mechanically reliable, it had to handle, it had to stop on a dime and, of course, it had to have an open top. Apparently this last one was so that, unlike any other police force in the world, its officers could stand up in their cars to direct traffic.
It didn’t take long for the Rijkspolitie to point the money men towards Zuffenhausen, where the advanced, elegant and comparatively understated 356 made a watertight case with its balance of performance, presence and versatility. From 1962 to 1966, the trademark orange and white 356, with single blue light on its A-pillar, established the Rijkspolitie as the ultimate no-nonsense highway patrol.
The 911 was well into production at this point, but it wasn’t until Porsche unveiled the Targa in 1967 that the Dutch authorities got back on the phone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 911 Targa was a keeper, and remained a fixture of Dutch policing until 1996. In total a whopping 507 Porsche cars have worn the familiar livery of the Rijkspolitie, including the 914, 924 and 964, making it the largest historic Porsche police fleet in the world.