The cars : Rover P5 development story

One of the most replayed television clips of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is of her arriving at 10 Downing Street, having triumphed in the May 1979 General Election – her transport was a Rover P5B.

Considering the car had been out of production for not far shy of a decade, it was a remarkable choice of ministerial transport. But then, the Rover P5 was a remarkable car.


Rover P5: by royal approval

Rover P5B
Rover P5B

In 1979, Rover was still seen as a prestige marque, and despite the less-than-impressive quality of early SD1 production (and late P6s, for that matter), it seemed quite natural to see a Prime Minister wafting around in the back seat of the company’s prestige car. Fast forward 30 years or so, and the picture completely changes – Jaguar’s now the governmental choice of car, while the Rover name became damaged as it was repositioned to become the new name for Austin. BMC became Rover; Austin became Rover; and in the long term the public could not be fooled.

The creation of British Leyland in 1968 – in part to rescue the ailing BMC – had the long term effect of thwarting Rover’s impressive growth and image-building that had been ongoing since 1945. If BMC had been incompetently managed, then in contrast, Rover seems to have been well-run under the leadership of Spencer Wilks, with technical matters under the direction of his brother Maurice Wilks.

Project beginnings

Rover P5 prototype
A mock-up of the small Rover P5 project of 1952-1954. No running prototypes were made.

The Rover P5 story started in the early 1950s, but the car then visualised turned out to be very different from the one that was launched in 1958. Maurice Wilks has envisaged the car as a ‘light P4’ with, what was called, ‘floor-cum-chassis construction’. Other requirements were that it had to be as well-built, and as refined as previous-generation Rovers. Also, that it had to be cheaper to buy – at around £650 – and to manage 30mpg. To achieve these goals, it was felt that the car’s weight had to be kept down to 22cwt – and Gordon Bashford, working alongside Robert Boyle, worked on a monocoque base unit design to realise this.

The structure, which was hoped would be rigid enough to accept open coachwork, was to be designed as a single unit with all inner panels such as the floor, front and rear bulkhead and door post stressed. The outer panels, which would be completely non-stressed skins, were to be simply bolted on. And like the P4, the doors, bonnet and bootlid would be made of alloy.

This project was Rover’s first attempt at a monocoque design, and as Gordon Bashford later explained: ‘There was no computer aided design in those days, of course, so all the stress engineering had to be done by mathematical dexterity and testing, particularly pave testing.’ The wheelbase of the car was originally  set at 103-inches compared with the P4’s 111-inches, but did vary at the whims of Rover’s marketing department.

Rover P5 prototype
May 1955, and the P5’s really starting to take shape now (above and below).

The Rover P5 was a product of free-thinking, and among the advanced concepts used in the design were independent rear suspension and four-wheel Lockheed disc brakes. During this period, Gordon Bashford became responsible for Rover’s forward planning, and devised some amazing alternative P5 concepts – including front wheel drive, rear engines, de Dion-axled cars, rear mounted transmissions, four wheel drive; and a car with the gearbox mounted under the seat… None of these cars progressed beyond the drawing board; although some of the ideas did find their way into the later P6.

Rover also attempted development a V6 engine for the P5. Engineer, Jack Swaine, worked on 2-, 2.6- and 3-litre engines in this configuration; both light alloy and iron and prototypes were run in P4s. However problems with rough running, and engine mountings saw the project run into the ground.

By the mid-1950s, enthusiasm for the small P5 was waning. Such a car had the potential to be a big seller, but at the time, Rover would have had difficulty finding the space at Solihull factory to manufacture it. The authorities had denied the company planning permission to expand; a situation unimaginable today. So the company was forced to rethink. It was decided that as a high volume, low profit car was out of the question, a low volume, high profit prestige car to compete with the likes of the Jaguar MK VII would need to be developed instead.

With this, the P5 began to put on weight and grow larger. The wheelbase expanded to 108-inches, then 110.5-inches. The width grew to 70-inches, while it put on weight up to 27cwt. An element of cost control came into play, and the suspension system was revised to incorporate an ordinary beam axle at the rear – but the twin wishbones and laminated torsion bar at the front remained.

Rover P5 prototype
Frontal styling seems fixed by September 1955.

The car also had a box-section front subframe, which carried the suspension, steering, engine and gearbox. This was attached to the rest of the vehicle by six rubber bushes, and although it was complex, Gordon Bashford thought there were benefits in terms of servicing (it could be dropped from the car for easy access) and refinement, he later revised his opinion. The reason for this change of heart was that the subframe added excess weight.

The man credited with styling the Rover P5 is David Bache who had arrived at Solihull in 1953. His first attempt at the P5 design resulted in a low-slung sports saloon, and as expected, met with the disapproval of Maurice Wilks. Bache’s first major styling exercise had been to create a revised Rover P4, and many of the styling cues he chose for the  P4 proposal ended up being carried straight over onto the P5.

Rover P5 prototype
April 1957, and the styling is complete. Note the Road Rover model in the background.

Once the saloon had been completed, Bache also designed a Coupé version of the P5, although that didn’t appear until 1962. In prototype form, it was certainly interesting, as it did without a central door pillar and featured frameless side windows. However, problems of excess wind noise during the development, and the fact that the Coupé bodyshell wasn’t as stiff as the saloon’s led to the reinstatement of the B-pillar – and the elegantly slim-framed doors for the production version.

In terms of powering the P5, the original plan of introducing it  with a new engine were soon put on hold. The V6 had been axed (because of costs and production issues), and Rover decided that enlarging its existing 2.6-litre inlet-over-exhaust inline-six would be a far more expedient option. The man charged with this task was Jack Swaine, who later recalled: ‘At the time, the inline six was a 2.6, and unless we Siamesed the bore, we couldn’t increase the capacity with the bore sizes that existed. So, we shifted the bore centres again, and were able to do this by by making it a seven bearing engine. We had the two intermediate bearings on the four-bearing engine, and we could use narrower bearings by going to seven, and shuffled the bore centres along the length of the block in effect.’

All this work resulted in an engine capacite of 2995cc. Roller-type cam followers were fitted to improve breathing, and the enlarged power unit produced 115bhp gross (105bhp net) at 4500rpm, and the torque figure was a stately 164lb ft at 1500rpm.

Introduction and development

Rover P5
Launched in 1958, the Rover P5 made quite a splash

The Rover P5 saloon was unveiled at the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show, and was generally well received. Although once road testers got their hands on it, there were criticisms of its sub-standard noise suppression as well as the notchy gearchange – closely derived from the P4. The P5’s weight had now ballooned to 32cwt, so performance testing realised some unimpressive figures – a top speed of 96mph, with 0-60mph covered in a yawning 16.2 seconds.

Steering was a little on the heavy side, too, although this was rectified in 1961 with the arrival of the Mk1a, which had the the option of a Hydrasteer power assisted set-up. And despite the simple rear suspension, the ride was was universally praised.

 

The cabin was one of the P5’s greatest assets. Designed by David Bache, it blended modern ergonomics with traditional mahogany and leather that would not have looked out of place in a top London club.

The P5 sold well to the older driver, but Rover was keen to distance itself from this gentlemanly image, and constantly modernised it throughout its production career. The improvements arrived rather soon after launch, in August 1959, putting right many of the original car’s wrongs. Front disc brakes were fitted (making stopping a less stressful affair), and the engine was revised – an impressive new version of the 3-litre engine finally meant that the P5 had enough power to top 100mph; all thanks to the technical input from Harry Weslake.

In 1961, the Mk1a, with that power steering upgrade appeared, followed in quick succession, by the Mk2, the following year. It was at this point that the memorably handsome Coupé version was unveiled, adding an element of glamour to the previously upright P5. There was a premium, though – the Mk2 weighed in at an extra £200, although the buyer had the advantage of standard power steering (it was previously optional), a rev counter and four additional gauges on the already well-stocked dashboard.

However the 3-litre inlet-over-exhaust was at the limit of its development – as smooth as it was – and it’s unlikely that the P5 would have survived much beyond 1967 in that form. Rover had previously looked at replacing it with both five- and six-cylinder versions of the P6 2000’s engine (an integral part of the P7 programme), before that fabled chance encounter between the company’s managing director, William Martin-Hurst, and a discarded engine at a boatyard in 1963…

The V8 arrives

Rover V8 engine

Hurst allegedly ‘discovered’ the light alloy 3528cc engine at Mercury Marine in Wisconsin quite by chance – previously, the all-aluminium engine had powered the Buick-Oldsmobile Y-Body ‘senior compact cars’, and had been turbocharged to produce over 200bhp. However, the power unit, known as the Buick 215, was destined for a short life Stateside – being dropped from the GM range in 1963 (it was launched in 1960, and had suffered cooling problems in use) after the US car manufacturers returned to cast iron for its engines (improved casting techniques and thin wall construction lessened the weight penalty), following concerted pressure from the American steel industry.

Legend has it that Hurst measured the engine, and decided to have it there and then, although in reality it’s more likely that Rover management was already well aware of the power unit. In January 1964, Rover’s US operations management, J Bruce McWilliams, had been tasked with finding a possible replacement for the P5’s engine. McWilliams was visiting Mercury Marine, continuing talks about the possible sale of Rover Gas Turbines to the company, and discussions turned to the possible use of the Buick 215. He realised that it was the ideal replacement for the inlet-over-exhaust engine – both light, compact and smooth, and after discussing the possibility of using it with Martin-Hurst, decided to approach GM, and campaign to release it to the British company.

By January 1965, a reluctant GM had sold the tooling for the Buick 215 to Rover, and the process of productionising the power unit at Solihull began. Retiring Buick engineer Joe Turley moved to the UK to act as a consultant, and a rapid development programme to modify the P5 to accept it ensued. Because the Buick 215 was all-alloy, it was a whopping 200lb lighter than the P5’s six cylinder; and a mere 12lb heavier than the P6’s four-cylinder unit. It was a win-win situation.

The P5 was the first Rover to use the V8, and as the car had a wide engine bay, it presented few problems to the engineers. Gordon Bashford later recalled, ‘As far as I can remember, the first P5 V8 was just a cut-and-shut job in the experimental shop. It was just a question of slipping the engine and removing any protuberances.’

The engine was revised for European tastes, as it was not designed to rev beyond 4400rpm, and featured improved manifolding with twin SU carburettors and improved rocker shafts. When installed in the P5, its power output was a generous 160bhp (net) at 5200rpm, and peak torque jumped to 210lb ft at 2600rpm – a considerable improvement on the 3-litre inlet-over-exhaust engine. Rover’s only gearbox able to cope with all this power and torque, was the automatic Borg-Warner Type 35.

The Rover P5B was introduced in the autumn of 1967 and ushered in a revised styling package. The saloon verison cost £1999, while the Coupé came in at £2097 – an increase of £60 over the ougoing 3-litre P5, and superb value for money. The sluggish P5 had been transformed into the fast P5B. Top speed was now 110mph and the 0-60mph time had been but to 11.7 seconds. There was no cost at the pumps, though, as fuel consumption remained unchanged over the outgoing model.

Motor magazine summed up the P5B Coupé in its 1967 road test quite succinctly. ‘The Rover is so well insulated from all sources of noise that a Jeeves-like calm nearly always prevails; even when the engine is at its most discreetly agitated, it emits nothing more than a purposeful hum. Most of the time the engine merely whispers the car along with the proverbial turbine like smoothness characteristic of good V8’s.’

With a lighter engine, the P5’s handling was massively improved, and Rover now possessed a formidable sporting saloon with which to fight the opposition at Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz. Rover had envisaged a production rate of 85 cars per week, but this was soon doubled in order to satisfy orders. The P5B soon became a favourite with government officials, and every Prime Minister from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher used one.

Rover P5B
P5 in its most desirable form – V8 powered with the Coupé bodyshell.

However, in the year of the cars introduction, 1967, Rover found itself absorbed by Sir Donald Stokes’ Leyland Motors Limited. This in itself was no bad thing, as the companies within the group (Standard, Triumph and now, Rover) could have complemented each other, with careful thought put into model rationalisation.

Chairman, Spencer Wilks, was now 75 years old, a fact that suggests that either he was reluctant to let go of the reins of power, or the Rover board was equally reluctant to let go of a man, who since the 1930s, had steered the company from near bankruptcy to success through a series of innovative cars.

And unlike BMC’s equally-forward thinking cars, Rover actually made a profit on them. So, rather than continue to seek success as an independent company, the Rover board agreed to the Leyland takeover.

Unfortunately for Rover, Leyland then agreed to the merger with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation. The formation of this super-company brought Rover within the same stable as Jaguar, and as related in the P8 development story, after the P5B ceased production on the 22 June 1973, Solihull was forced to withdraw from this profitable sector of the market, making way for Jaguar.

The tragedy of the post-war Rover story is that the company had the potential to become a British BMW, but with a more innovative streak; and the P5 was just one of a series of outstanding cars that emerged from Solihull.

This was thwarted by corporate and political manoeuvrings that led to the cancellation of the P6BS/P9 and P8, and the subsequent cheapening of the Rover marque in the eyes of buyers. Rover could have owned BMW; not the other way round, a fact that we suspect is not lost on one Baroness Thatcher…

Production figures:
P5 1958-1967 15,250
P5B 1967-1973 11,501

Other sources indicate that the figures were:

P5    1958 to 1967, 49,892
P5B  1967 to 1973, 20,600

Keith Adams
Latest posts by Keith Adams (see all)

39 Comments

  1. Should that not be “BL became Rover” rather than “BMC became Rover”, given that it was British Leyland which had the least enviable reputation of the two company names?

    Your comments about the use of the Rover name in place of Austin and also as the company’s main trading title, really underline why any negative reports about the company will inevitably rub off on the products themselves, no matter how good they might be. The Rover 75 is one such victim of this.

  2. Love the Rover P5B’s In 1976 I had the chance to buy a used P5 from a dealer (Zircon blue, leather, Rostyles)
    Lovely! It was priced at £795 I think – and I could afford it but put off by the insurance & running costs. I was looking for a Viva HC at the time – great disappointment not buying the Rover…

  3. Roger Moore drives one in the 1970 film ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself’. His character Harold Pelham apparently crashes it on the M4, then once recovered, chooses another P5 as its replacement. “A damn good motor car” as he explains to his wife. But is it Pelham or his evil twin? I’m afraid one of them ends up driving one into a river…

  4. I reckon it was the Rover that saved his life in the crash on the M4. This was the sort of ultra conservative but never boring or badly made car Rover should have continued making.

    • Glennn… I’ve just watched “The Man Who Haunted Himself” again today – for the simple reason of seeing the Rover P5’s again. The ones used in the film were the 3.5 V8. Great stuff!

    • The P6 was neither boring or badly made. Indeed it was highly innovative and did Rover’s image no harm whatsoever.

      I can agree with what Keith says – it was the badging of Austins as Rovers that really ruined the mark, far more so than their collaboration with Honda.

      I firmly believe that BMC should have been allowed to perish with the remaining British and overseas car makers allowed to pick over the bits. Instead like HBOS they were too big to fail and a merger was encouraged resulting in 67 factories in the UK alone…

      I’m sure buyers would have been found for MG and Jaguar.

      Leyland cars were potentially a very profitable company with Rover at the higher end, Triumph providing smaller sporty models. A British Mercedes and BMW potentially.

  5. I’ve always loved the P5 Ive come close to buying a few times but never taken the plunge.
    If i had a enough dosh I would love to seriously modify one. With a modern GM V8 & gear box. Fit Jag suspension & Air con and use it as a long distance touring car

  6. @25 Dan… Yep, I remember the film “Man who Haunted Himself” too. The Rover P5 looked great in that aswell – classic car, classic times.

  7. Just a shame they couldn’t do something better with the styling, by the time I’d become ‘car aware’ in the early to mid 1970s this car seemed rather pompous and very ‘old hat’ to my very young self. The earlier incarnations, with a much less fussy front end and much nicer pre-Rostyle chromed wheeltrims was far more attractive, although the radiator grille still looked more at home on a Bristol Lodekka or Routemaster type bus than a car. I associated it with stuffy, severe and humourless middle-aged men who wore horn rimmed glasses and oiled back hair.

    And then, of course, it became inextricably linked with ‘that woman’, and it would be years before I would be able to challenge my own prejudices against it.

  8. Chris, you could also dislike Rover SD1s, which were used ocassionally, or the more common Jaguar Series 3 that was favoured by Maggie. Actually one really embarassing image of the Rover SD1 I have is of the tatty second one hand one Michael Foot had that refused to start as he left the Labout Party HQ on the afternoon he was defeated in a landslide. Perhaps there was something in this, an old car made by a nationalised company that was the personal transport of an old politician whose views were stuck in the past.

  9. I have had, in the past, both body types in 3. and 3.1/2 litre versions. Contrary to most other people, I prefered the saloon looks to the coupe’. The side view was much more proportioned in window height versus door depth. From January I shall be probably looking to find one to replace my last classic saloon (Standard Vanguard Phase 1A). The P5 is one
    of the best looking cars of its era, being built to a much better standard than the then current Mk 2 Jags!

  10. Back in the early seventies i worked in Elstree Film studios.I remember actor Terry Thomas owning a Hooper Rover p5 Coupe,blue and cream.It always stood out,compared to one of the regular agents who also owned a rover p5 coupe,but in light blue.I remeber the inside of the Hooper being much more Rolls Royce refined..
    The Hooper registration was UK* ***H,and the other was XAW ****.The things one remembers,i wonder if they,re still about ?

  11. A kind of British Volvo, a sturdy, extremely comfortable and reliable car that was still a common sight well into the eighties. It might not have been the most exciting car on the road, but in V8 form it was like a smaller Rolls Royce. No wonder these were still government transport until 1982, they were built to last.

  12. The P5 is a wonderful car and very popular. I have had a P5B for many years which I have restored and it is a delight.

    I don’t associate the P5B with Thatcher, though, as the Prime Ministerial ones were all ordered for and used by earlier prime ministers.

    As to whether Rover / BL would ever have owned BMW, as Keith suggests that Thatcher may have liked, the answer to that is a definite No.

    For one thing Thatcher detested BL as a firm and could not wait to get shot of it. For another, she did nothing to restructure the UK’s banking system to enable firms to raise funding more easily and on terms congruent with those of firms’ needs, such as that which exists in Germany.

    Finally, the ownership structure of BMW in which control rests firmly in the hands of the Quandt family would preclude any such takeover of the firm.

  13. Beautiful cars, ran a fleet of five in the ’70’s and ’80’s nothing to replace them with, tried SD 1’s no where near for comfort and driveability. Got some spares, N/old stock if any one wants, e-mail me roverman@talktalk.net

  14. 20 years ago I had a P5b and loved it, been pleased to see two this week including a nice P5b coupe with a Hooper badge on it. Which led me here

    registration UKJ 964H as above

    Very nice car

  15. Although the majestic Rover P5 / P5B was sometimes referred to as the “working man’s Bentley” or “poor man’s Rolls Royce” it had a career as illustrious as any model from either of those two legendary stables of luxurious British motoring.

    It was official conveyance for four successive British Prime Ministers – as well as a favourite of the Queen and Queen Mother – it also found widespread government use throughout many ministries and overseas embassies.

    It’s hard to find a car with such a pedigree from any manufacturer and it really stood head and shoulders above most, if not all, its contemporaries. Undoubtedly the finest motor car that ever rolled off the Solihull firm’s production line. As another poster pointed out above, It was indeed like a smaller Rolls Royce or Bentley and even today it has a very strong presence on the roads and still turn heads.

    For a luxurious saloon car it’s also a surprisingly affordable classic that has a large international fanbase, an excellent owners club plus readily available spares. When you come across a good one for sale – don’t hesitate!

  16. I love these Rover’s, and have been lucky enough to have owned one since 1984, bought when i was 20 years old, and was my everyday car, eight of my friends also owned Rover p5b’s and all of us had saloon’s, I am now 51, and know my car inside out, I have at some point removed everything form it and replace with new or recon item’s, I have just removed the engine and box, and replaced the complete brake system, pipes, unions, calipers and reservoir, plus detailing engine bay, exhaust wrapping, and all in four days, I would recommend anyone buying a Rover P5 P5B saloon or coupe, they are relatively easy to work on, and most if not all parts are available, and clubs that will help you keep on top of your Rover,

  17. I want to retire to Troon and drive around the highlands in a Rover. I will have a BL museum. My lovely Mrs will do the catering and I will walk around educating anyone that will listen about the quality of UK cars and other UK engineering. I might even have a few gas turbines on display. Freight Rovers, P5s, all are welcome.

  18. Over the years I’ve been lucky to own a few luxury British saloon cars from 1960s / 1970s including the Jaguar 420G, Bentley T1 and Rover P5B. The Rover is probably my favourite. It has an interior and level of comfort that’s almost on a par with the Bentley yet is a very understated motor car.

    I always felt less ostentatious and conspicuous whilst driving around the West End of London in it than compared to the big Jaguar or Bentley. The Rover V8 Coupe exudes a dignified air of calmness and is a dream to drive with it’s feather-light power steering and burbling V8. It seems to waft along like a good luxury saloon should, though I seem to remember it could also take long, fast motorway cruises in it’s stride too.

    I am seriously considering purchasing another one as I think it is probably the finest car I have owned. For some strange reason they still seem incredibly under appreciated and under valued when compared to their rivals. Perhaps this is because the prestige of the Rover marque really suffered under the years of British Leyland, Honda and BMW.

    But the P5B is not only not embarrassed in the company of Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Jaguars and Daimlers it is their equal in many ways.

  19. Regarding the stillborn Jack Swaine designed 60-degree V6 engines, why did they stick with the Rover IOE valvetrain configuration from the existing Inline 4/6-cylinder Rover IOE engines, instead of adopting OHV or even OHC (the latter via the P6 project that originally began in the mid-50s) to produce the necessary power for the Rover P5?

    Such a V6 in 2.5-3.0-litre forms would have also given the smaller Rover P6 a suitable engine to slot in between the 2-litre OHC and 3.5-litre Rover V8.

    Understand plans for an all-alloy version of the V6 was considered at some point during the mid-50s.

      • Apparently Maurice Wilks originally asked Jack Swaine to look at developing a 60-degree V6 engine in 1934-1935 as a V6 can fit into the same space as a 4-cylinder, so Rover would not have to produce two chassis for its 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder cars. While the V6 never entered production (possibly due to WW2), the Rover IOE valvetrain was carried over to the post-war Inline 4/6-cylinder engines.

        The V6 designs (from 2-litres to 3-litres) were looked at once more when the P5 project began and a V6 (apparently distantly related to the pre-war units) figured in the early plans for the car, though breathing problems resulted in a lack of power and the oversquare shortstroke 2950cc V6 did not pair up well with the Rover IOE valvetrain that had been designed in the 1930s for a longstroke engine.

        The engine as a result simply could not be persuaded to rev high enough to meet the P5’s engine design target of 120 hp and 5000rpm, the best result being 100 hp at 4000rpm by the best the V6 project was axed.

        The 3-litre Rover IOE Inline-6 that replaced the axed V6 suffered the same issue and so Harry Weslake was brought in to resolve it. As to why Harry Weslake was not brought in to sort out the V6 nor Rover considered following a similar example to the 102-152 hp 2.5-2.8-litre OHV Lancia V6 found in the Lancia Flaminia for its own V6 project (let alone an OHC version) was likely down to costs as well as savings resulting from the (short-stroke) 2.6-litre and 3-litre Inline-6 IOE engines having a common block and head design.

        Though the V6 project was axed, it was apparently looked at once more (at least in 2-litre form) for the P6 project with thoughts of developing an all-alloy version of the V6 alongside a competing Inline-4/6 engine family, the latter albeit in 4-cylinder form ending up powering the P6.

  20. The 3.5 V8 breathed new life in the P5, which was starting to fall behind performance wise. This endowed the car with 115 mph performance and made motorway journeys effortless. In performance terms, the V8 made the Rover faster than a Rolls Royce, which could barely crack 110 mph, and offering similar refinement and quality for far less money.

  21. Apparently a triple-carburetor version of the 3-litre Inline-6 IOE made more than 160 hp on the testbed via a special exhaust and standard camshaft yet different timing, however it was less efficient at low speeds compared to the existing single-carburetor engine, on the other hand this was prior to the Weslake head being used.

    Had it been possible to develop a more production worthy version of the triple-carburetor 3-litre engine in a lower state of tune mated to a Weslake head, then the resulting engine should still in theory put out around the same power overall as the 160 hp triple-carburetor 3-litre engine on the testbed.

    Then again such an engine would also be more suited to a Triumph chasing sportscar

  22. Personally, I hate the V8 (I have a P5B Coupe) because it is nothing like as refined as the 6 cylinder car was. In practice , it was not the engine which made the 3 litre sluggish , because in Weslake form with the manual and OD box it was quite a reasonable performer, but the BW automatic , which needed an awful lot of torque to provide any kind of respectable acceleration, particularly in its BW35 form rather than the earlier DG box

  23. Was the P7 prototype’s 3-litre OHC Inline-6 considered for the P5 prior to the Rover V8?

    It is funny to think had the V8 remained undiscovered Rover could have either gone for the above 3-litre OHC Inline-6 or made a proper effort in developing a potent potentially all-alloy (OHV or OHC) 60-degree V6, yet would either engine have been a suitable alternative to the long-running Rover V8?

  24. I watched Jools Hollands “Hootananny” on New Years Eve and Alexi Sayle was a guest. In the conversation it was mentioned he had a Rover P5 Coupe (might have sold it?) That comment got my attention!

  25. Such a classy car.

    Slightly puzzled why David Bache and Rover went in such a different direction with the brash P8, and then the rakish but downmarket SD1. Especially as the Range Rover, for 40 years has maintained this classy, upmarket image with the result that 40 years later it’s still highly desirable

  26. Hard to come to terms with the fact that in the mid fifties Rover could not get permission to expand the factory due to local authorities block . What a car could have been in mass production …but then the P5 as it became may never have been ?

  27. The Austin 3-litre car, was it a Boardroom plan for the 3-litre to complement or supplant cars such as the the P5 in the line up of executive car by the company?

    • Austin 3-litre would have pre-dated Rover and Triumph becoming part of the group wouldn’t they? I think Austin were looking for something to replace the big Farinas and slot in below Jaguar, which was part of BMH by then

  28. Thatcher’s pick of the Rover P5B oozed sophistication, but it’s a bit disheartening how British Leyland later took some of its sparkle away. Shows how things can change in the car world, you know?

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. The cars : Austin 3 Litre development history | AROnline: The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource
  2. Rover P5 (1958-1973) | British Classic Cars et Rover Club

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