COP this car. It's a 56-year-old MG TC sports car -- a highly-collectable classic.

It's pictured (above, right) more than 30 years ago in Jersey in the Channel Isles.

But over in America its present-day owner wants to know if Looking Back readers remember it from even earlier in East Lancashire -- perhaps because they were copped by it.

For from being brand-new in 1946, the old roadster spent eight years as a police car.

It was one of 16 all-black MC TCs supplied to Lancashire Constabulary for £527 16s 8d each in old money, by the now-gone Loxham's Garage in Simmons Street, Blackburn.

The premises were later occupied by the David Taylor Cars Nissan dealership before being converted to retail units in recent years.

According to a 150th-anniversary history of policing in Lancashire, this batch was part of the county force's Headquarters Traffic Patrol which by 1950 had a fleet of 280 cars which also included black Austins, Hillmans, Humbers, Standards, Jaguars and Ford Pilots.

The MG TCs sold by Loxham's had consecutive registration numbers, from GTC 981 to 996.

They operated individually from bases in towns across Lancashire.

But GTC 984, now owned by 57-year-old Lancashire exile, retired electrician Brian Kelly, who lives in the university town of Lawrence in Kansas, stayed in the Blackburn district throughout its police days.

Blackburn had its own borough force at the time. But based at the now-vanished County Police station in King Street, the car patrolled the roads in the area surrounding the town covered by Lancashire Constabulary.

In 1954, the two-seater was sold by the police for £285 to a buyer -- possibly a dealer -- who bought eight others from the force at various times.

Ten years later, it was bought in Manchester by Brian's brother David and acquired from him by Brian nearly 20 years after he had returned from Australia where he emigrated and qualified as an electrician.

Becoming hooked on MGs, Brian, who has lived in the USA for 16 years and moved to Kansas after retiring from California three years ago, also has a 1934 PA model.

It now looks splendid after a seven-year restoration and he hopes one day to bring the old Blackburn cop car up to the same standard.

Meantime, he is doing lots of homework on its history and even plans a trip to Simmons Street next month when he is in England to visit his father -- who is pictured with the car in Jersey in 1968 -- in Manchester where Brian was born.

"Hopefully, some of your readers might have stories and memories regarding the times that these vehicles were in use by the police force in Lancashire, possibly enhancing the history trail that I'm pursuing," he says.

"I have recently located two other owners of the GTC batch cars -- one in the USA and the other in Denmark. If anyone has photographs or information on any of these cars, I'd certainly appreciate hearing from them."

Brian can be contacted at 1803 East 1200 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66049, USA, or by e-mail at kellmg@aol.com.