WIN With Lancaster Insurance coverage: For many, Rover’s peak was the muscular P5B or trailblazing P6, however the P4 …
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WIN With Lancaster Insurance coverage: For many, Rover’s peak was the muscular P5B or trailblazing P6, however the P4 …
source
I had one in the sixties before my p5b fabulous
I had a P60 (4 cyl), luxury on wheels, leather seats (of course), Radiomobile valve radio (crystal clear), a button by the fuel gauge so when engine stopped, you could press it & see the oil level, 36 mpg, but no power steering. Two ton Tessie it was called.
I love the p4, ive been using my 80 as a daily car since last October. Hasnt let me down the whole time i have been using it. Same colour and wheel trims as the one in the video, apart from blue interior. Shame about the MPG from it, but most cars of the time are the same 😀
It not only looks solid , it is solid , it's a classic Rover .
I am the happy owner of a 22 year old 75 Connoseur that is rustfree , does not rattle the slightest bit , done 220000 km and runs like a dream .
Its interior looks and feels factory fresh .
So , I think the Rover people got their experience with building a decent car way back in the days of the P3 and P4 , whitch quality's were inherrited later by the 75 .
Building sutch good cars doesn't come overnight .
Shame the world lost a great car brand .
Today you can transport a tree from the forest with such junk.
I loved the P4 and it was nearly my first car, so impressive and sophisticated. My father talked me out of it, he was worried about running costs and it being an older vehicle. Ended up with a Triumph Herald 12/50 which didn’t have the same classy drive but was at least fun.
Suppose in the mid to late 60s many of the Austin/Rover cars looked ancient in comparison to ford models
I had both a 95 and a 110 (the one with the Weslake head). Lovely cars but the 110 although much more powerful than the others was really thirsty. A good wheeze was to use a 3.54 diff from the Range Rover.
Oh yeah. The metalastik bushes in the front suspension needed replacing regularly. The engine was basically a smaller version if the Rolls Royce straight sixes
My Father had one of these in the 50's in East Africa. I remember it as a gloriously comfortable luxury car. It did gobble the fuel and it had something like a freewheel mode he used to save fuel.
Dad had a 105R in the sixties, the automatic version, it was a good job he ran a petrol station as like the iconic EE Lightning jet of the time you could almost see the fuel gauge go down when driving. A very comfortable and reliable car though and you could get a ton out of it on the level on the then new M1.
You're going to lynch me…used to be able to pick these mot failures up for about £25 for banger racing in the 70s!
Like a tank,good for quite a few battles!!!
The cars of the bygone days were most certainly much better and classier than those of today….
Forgotten?, overlooked?, speak for yourself, the P4 has always been my favourite classic Rover!.
Lovely old thing, though surely those chrome headlamp visors are a bit too flash for the Rover's image? 🤔
😉
It looks like a pale English turd.
My father had one when I was about 3-4 yo. I can still remember the joy I got when my father showed me the built-in tool tray under the passenger-side dashboard. So cool!!
No it was the 60 .
Ah for the days before the commie unions got there hands on our manufacturing
The steering was not vague so long as the worn parts are replaced in the car you were driving.
In Australia if you saw a Rover, you knew it was driven by a Brit ex-pat
My wife's uncle had a succession of these, and "wafting along" is entirely apropos. They used to glide along, soaking up bumps, potholes and the like as if not there. Wonderful machines….
Ah, good old Auntie Rover
In college I owned a Rover 105s. Wonderful piece of British motoring. F-head engine and interior decked out like an economy Rolls Royce. A friend of mine borrowed it and broke the complicated gear shift linkage. He never fixed it, I never drove it again. I gave it to his Dad for some nominal fee but don’t think much came of it. Was fun to drive while I had it.
I remember having a neighbour who woud buy a new Rover every year. The smell of lether and the style of the cars was pure luxury.
If its not handling right there is a Tyre or mismatched suspension damper setup problem. It should do a four wheel drift on a empty doughnut.
Me and a couple of pals saved up and bought a rover 90 in black had great times running about Glasgow 1968 fantastic old car kept it for about 3 years
ROVER; the greatest innovators in road safety. It began with the safety bicycle, a version of which we all ride today and only Volvo have come close!
When the "cyclops" Rover were sold in the USA the central fog lamp was replaced by an aluminium blanking plate. A centre mounted fog lamp didn't conform to US roadworthiness rules. It seems Wilks brothers were Americophiles, first with the Willys Jeep inspired Land-Rover and then the Studebaker inspired P4 Rover!
Looks like luxury Morris minor.
Mmmmm! I had a 1956 rover 90; the best British car I've ever owned, in fact the only good British car I've ever owned. Comfortable, quiet, powerful brakes and a nice torquey, flexible engine.
OMG it makes a Pinto look beautiful!
Used to see lots of these around when I was a kid in the 1960s . I really liked them . Always known as a Doctors car . You know , professional people .
My dad loved these Rovers. He told me that the Rover P4 was called "the poor man's Rolls Royce", and was usually driven by professional people of the day – doctors, lawyers, architects etc. Dad told me that the engine and manual gearbox combination was so well built (the flywheel was finely balanced), you could come down to a road speed of 15 mph while still in top gear! He also mentioned that there was a "souped – up" version called the SR105 that could really tear up the miles.
Back in the late 1960's/early 1970's I remember reading about a guy from South London/Kent borders who resto' – modded a P4. I remember that he changed the single headlights to a set of Rolls – Royce paired headlamps, lowered the suspension plus various other upgrades all over the car.
When I was a lad in 50's Montreal, British cars were rarely seen and mostly owned by UK ex-pats. Our family doctor, very Scottish, drove a Cyclops P4. My best chum's parents were English and drove one of those fastback Vanguards, and a well-off family a few blocks away had a Morris Minor as a second car. The only 'Canadian' family that had an import in the garage was an MG TD driven by their dental student son..
My late father had a P4 100 it was glorious. He scrapped it because the engine developed an oil leak !!!!! I often think what would it be worth now.
I had a P4 75 as my first car, column change, synchro on only 3rd and top, but quality that these days is hard to imagine. Just look at the intake – outstanding aluminium manifolds that polish up beautifully to a deep and gentle gleam. No performance at all, but then again, the police will never be able to pull you over for exceeding the speed limit.
I loved my P4s, had several when they were everyday cars, so comfortable and reliable. Just opening the door and getting in feels special. I think the 1957/8 105s was the best of all, but there isn't a dud in the range. I'd still have one but my dogs would wreck that lovely interior.
Thanks for a great video
Had a 110…. Great car..
A small point: – It is not quite correct to say that the 105R came in both automatic and manual versions. The R was specifically the automatic (two forward speeds and reverse), while the manual variant of 1957–58 was called the 105S. These cars had twin spotlights, twin carburettors, separate front seats and a cigar-lighter, features not found on the other models. For 1959 the 105S lost these extras and was called simply the 105, while the automatic was deleted. (I have owned three examples of the 1959 105. They were noticeably more economical than the single-carburettor 90 – 16 m.p.g. in town rather than 14! – and were so flexible that one of them at least would pull slightly uphill from 10 m.p.h. in overdrive fifth, with the engine turning so slowly that the ignition light came on! Several times I drove that car, which had covered over 200,000 miles, between north-west London and Cornwall [315 miles] in just over five hours, including once putting 78 miles into one hour.) Unfortunately the separate chassis of the P4 was a false friend, since the makers stuffed it with a substance like cotton-wool to reduce transmitted noise and this collected condensation and rotted the side-members from within; it is not unknown for the handbrake assembly, which was mounted to the driver's right, to drop through the floor because the outrigger which carried it has disintegrated, while one of my cars had a two-inch gap above the rear axle where the side-member had simply ceased to exist. I think the galvanised petrol-tank was the only thing that held the back end of that car together. Probably all the bad examples like that one have been either scrapped or restored by now.
My Dad had one in the sixties, it was the best drive-in car as the huge front seat could fit mum and dad and my sister and I in so much comfort. It just had the most comfortable seats, it's what I would want in a Rolls Royce seating wise.
We were all sad when it went as my dad needed a more reliable car, but we often saw and a bit jealous when that old car kept turning up to the drive-in years later.
Elegant, like an old fat ballerina in hobnail boots.
1949 Earls Ct Motor Show. Held in October. MORE than four years after the end of WW2.
Nice old Pembrokeshire registration number. 🏴
Very surprised that the 105S did not receive a mention. It was my first car (1957 registered) – I was all of 21 years old at the time I bought it in 1965, but it was an extremely comfortable car to be in, all leather and walnut. Fantastic acceleration too when needed via its twin carb 2600cc engine and it just glided along at whatever speed you wanted. No limits in those days and it would top 100 if needs must, although I preferred sedate speeds. Being only 21 and single, with any competitors driving snotty little sporty type cars, I found it was appreciated more by the type of young lady that I appreciated. It eventually met its death in stockcar racing, where it seems it was quite successful to the end.
Really are a bargain, with what you get for your money. Suprised values have not gone up as much.
Just for the record, back in the day, I owned a 1953 Rover 60 with a push button HMV radio, aerial on the roof, bench seat. Over a stretch of road called the Old Taunton Road which ran between the A303 and the main road to Axminster. At the 303 junction I waived to people I knew as they turned left and I was indicating right. The driver didn't acknowledge and sped off in the Jaguar 3.4. Of course I gave chase, and yes I caught them at the other end. The Jag could do well on the straight but I had edge on the corners, I was either mad or simply the better driver, with my mate yahooing that he'd never been this fast in a car before. They were a couple out together without their respective partners, and she was ducked down on the seat when I caught up. I might add to their relief. So don't underestimate the P4, I've even put one in a ditch reversed out and carried on my way. Incredible car.
I loved the P4s- best Rovers overall in my opinion, although I owned all post war Rovers with exception of the SD1. The only slightly 'off' quality of the P4 was its noisy first gear which was slightly lorry like…otherwise the P4 was a better car than the P5, much quieter and with a more solid luxurious feeling. I never got the same feeling as the P4 in my 68 P5B although the P5 did move a bit quicker, but I still prefer the P4s 2.6 6cylinder engine.
When filming the car in action, please drive with the headlights turned on! It looks much nicer! (and more professional!) Otherwise good!
Already in 1955 the Citroen DS had servo-assisted (or rather: full power) disc brakes at the front. And front wheel drive……..
great cars and definitely close to the top of my wish list