Classics left to die/rotting pics - Vol 2

[uk66fastback]

I like them. Had many a chat with owners at the NEC show down the years … never taken the plunge though. My dad’s friend had a dark brown one in the mid 70s which I remember well.

[Dan Singh]

We had a white 3500 P5 on the car lot in Swanley where I worked weekends and school holidays in the late 70s. It has a glass moon roof which was quite novel, I’d never seen one like it before and never seen one since. We sold a number of these Rovers and liked them as the punters rarely came back with complaints.

[RATATTAK]

Tyre Smoke said:

Never liked the P6. And I'm guessing that demand was strong for the P5 when they released it as they sold alongside each other for quite a time. Happy to be corrected, but I'm guessing the 6 was supposed to replace the 5?

I don't have any figures but i remember the P6 coming out, in fact I bought a 3 year old one as soon as I could afford it. I remeber that the P5 was for older bank manager types and the P6 was designed to be desirable for a younger, less well off clientele. It was a cut above the Ford/Vauxhall offerings of the day and the Buick engined model could keep up with most things on the road at the time.

Rover seemed to be at the forefront of car design, in fact, some people thought the front of the P6 looked too much like the rear. Rover were also designing gas turbine engined cars, albeit prototypes, in an attempt to appeal to the youth of the day.

[anonymous-user]

RATATTAK said:

I don't have any figures but i remember the P6 coming out, in fact I bought a 3 year old one as soon as I could afford it. I remeber that the P5 was for older bank manager types and the P6 was designed to be desirable for a younger, less well off clientele. It was a cut above the Ford/Vauxhall offerings of the day and the Buick engined model could keep up with most things on the road at the time.

Rover seemed to be at the forefront of car design, in fact, some people thought the front of the P6 looked too much like the rear. Rover were also designing gas turbine engined cars, albeit prototypes, in an attempt to appeal to the youth of the day.

The P6 was designed to accept a jet engine hence the reason the Buick V8 could be so easily accommodated

[kimducati]

RATATTAK said:

I don't have any figures but i remember the P6 coming out, in fact I bought a 3 year old one as soon as I could afford it. I remeber that the P5 was for older bank manager types and the P6 was designed to be desirable for a younger, less well off clientele. It was a cut above the Ford/Vauxhall offerings of the day and the Buick engined model could keep up with most things on the road at the time.

Rover seemed to be at the forefront of car design, in fact, some people thought the front of the P6 looked too much like the rear. Rover were also designing gas turbine engined cars, albeit prototypes, in an attempt to appeal to the youth of the day.

The P6 was never designed to replace the P5 directly, it was, as said above, an 'executive' saloon for the younger customer.
iirc the reason that the P6 had the torsion bar front suspension was to give room for the turbine which it was originally conceived would be fitted. I know they ran prototypes with a turbine, the internet says so!!
I've had a few, as did my old man when he was around - they are a great car, but let down by poor rust proofing. The mechanical bits were pretty much bomb proof, as were the early interiors. The later cloth seats were quick to get tatty, but an easy fix to get a set of leather ones from a rotted out one in the local scrappy (then).
If I had room, I'd get another and wish I'd bought the rare estate version I saw for sale in the early noughties for less than a thousand pounds.
fwiw I don't think the one in the picture is as bad as it looks - it's gone a bit green around the gills but that'd wash off. If the sills are gone though...........................................................
Kim

[Tyre Smoke]

Thanks for the info chaps. I always thought the P6 never had the "class" or road presence of the P5. It was certainly a very different design. Didn't it have a DeDion rear axle? And can anyone answer why some P6 (3500?) had the spare mounted on the bootlid?

[TarquinMX5]

Dan Singh said:

We had a white 3500 P5 on the car lot in Swanley where I worked weekends and school holidays in the late 70s. It has a glass moon roof which was quite novel, I’d never seen one like it before and never seen one since. We sold a number of these Rovers and liked them as the punters rarely came back with complaints.

The Triplex roof was a rare sight, only available in 1970 & 1971(but could be retro-fitted) and it's thought no more than 12 existed - as a lad I saw one at the motorshow - an early pan-roof?

The turbine-engined car was regd. 6427 WD

[finlo]

Tyre Smoke said:

Thanks for the info chaps. I always thought the P6 never had the "class" or road presence of the P5. It was certainly a very different design. Didn't it have a DeDion rear axle? And can anyone answer why some P6 (3500?) had the spare mounted on the bootlid?

Part of the "touring package" that freed up space in the boot.

Edited by finlo on Tuesday 16th November 20:37

[P5BNij]

P5 and P6 production actually overlapped by ten years, the P5 went from 1958 to 1973, the P6 from 1963 to 1977. I can't remember off hand how many P5 3 litres were built from '58 to '67 but I do know that just over 20,000 V8 engined P5Bs were built from '67 to '73, while total P6 production was around 327,000.

[Mr Tidy]

Tyre Smoke said:

Thanks for the info chaps. I always thought the P6 never had the "class" or road presence of the P5. It was certainly a very different design. Didn't it have a DeDion rear axle? And can anyone answer why some P6 (3500?) had the spare mounted on the bootlid?

Yes the P6 did have a De Dion rear axle with inboard disc brakes.

Mine had the touring kit. The only drawbacks were it made opening the boot a bit of a work-out, and you couldn't see much in the rear-view mirror! Just meant I had to drive faster so I didn't need to worry about anything behind me - no hardship to a 20 year old with a manual V8!

[PHZero]

[The Mad Monk]

MOT expired in May 2016. The mileage changes at each MOT renewal and the dates of them are interesting.

[Dan Singh]

TarquinMX5 said:

Dan Singh said:

We had a white 3500 P5 on the car lot in Swanley where I worked weekends and school holidays in the late 70s. It has a glass moon roof which was quite novel, I’d never seen one like it before and never seen one since. We sold a number of these Rovers and liked them as the punters rarely came back with complaints.

The Triplex roof was a rare sight, only available in 1970 & 1971(but could be retro-fitted) and it's thought no more than 12 existed - as a lad I saw one at the motorshow - an early pan-roof?

The turbine-engined car was regd. 6427 WD

I got my Ps mixed up, I actually meant a P6 and indeed, it was an H reg.
As already mentioned, the inboard rear brakes could be a pain. I knew of at least one garage that used to cut a hole in the floor if they had one in for rear brake work. The customer was given a choice of either that or a massive labour bill. They usually opted for the former.

[Escort3500]

I’ve always liked the P5 (esp the coupe; the saloon was not quite as attractive) and as a youngster remember the lovely V8 rumble when our neighbour fired his up. He took dad and I out in it one day and the smell of leather and deep pile carpet was wonderful. I sat in one at a classic show recently and it was so evocative

[kdri155]

A few here on this Facebook group that might interest people.

Sitting there rotting on a driveway.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1964532800535954/?...

[555 Paul]

kdri155 said:

A few here on this Facebook group that might interest people.

Sitting there rotting on a driveway.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1964532800535954/?...

I gave up with that group as it was full of idiots.

[TarquinMX5]

P5BNij said:

P5 and P6 production actually overlapped by ten years, the P5 went from 1958 to 1973, the P6 from 1963 to 1977. I can't remember off hand how many P5 3 litres were built from '58 to '67 but I do know that just over 20,000 V8 engined P5Bs were built from '67 to '73, while total P6 production was around 327,000.

40,000 saloons & 7,900 coupés (P5s) plus extra anorak points for a further 106 2.6-litre P5s for export. P5Bs split 11,500 saloons & 9,000 coupés, so just over 20,000 as you say.

[LargeRed]

555 Paul said:

kdri155 said:

A few here on this Facebook group that might interest people.

Sitting there rotting on a driveway.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1964532800535954/?...

I gave up with that group as it was full of idiots.

and this one is brimming over, I have come across them.

[P5BNij]

TarquinMX5 said:

P5BNij said:

P5 and P6 production actually overlapped by ten years, the P5 went from 1958 to 1973, the P6 from 1963 to 1977. I can't remember off hand how many P5 3 litres were built from '58 to '67 but I do know that just over 20,000 V8 engined P5Bs were built from '67 to '73, while total P6 production was around 327,000.

40,000 saloons & 7,900 coupés (P5s) plus extra anorak points for a further 106 2.6-litre P5s for export. P5Bs split 11,500 saloons & 9,000 coupés, so just over 20,000 as you say.

Thanks - from (slightly hazy) memory I think the rarest of the 3 litres is probably the MkIII Coupe which bridged 1966 into 1967, I almost bought one in 2006 had it not been so rusty below the doors.

[TarquinMX5]

Good memory, 2,500 MK111 coupés - much rarer than the P5B.