Projects and prototypes: Rover P6

Front and rear suspension

The front suspension design was highly unusual from the outset, as this Gordon Bashford sketch reveals...The front suspension design was highly unusual from the outset, as this Gordon Bashford sketch reveals...
The front suspension design was highly unusual from the outset, as this Gordon Bashford sketch reveals…
P6 suspension sketch
P6 suspension sketch

Styling sketch

The P6, as sketched in 1957...
The P6, as sketched in 1957…

Scale models

 Fins were the order of the day in this dramatic proposal
Fins were the order of the day in this dramatic proposal
Model making the traditional way...
Model making the traditional way…
Front-end styling takes shape...
Front-end styling takes shape…

Interior schemes

Early suggestion with pod-like dials
Early suggestion with pod-like dials
The more production-friendly final solution...
The more production-friendly final solution…

Full-sized clays


The final stages…

The first wooden full-scale model
The first wooden full-scale model
March 1959 and the first running Rover P6 prototype is undergoing testing.
March 1959 and the first running Rover P6 prototype is undergoing testing.
The P6/7 prototype - seventh out of 15 or 16 produced...
The P6/7 prototype – seventh out of 15 or 16 produced…

All pictures supplied by Ian Nicholls

Keith Adams

6 Comments

  1. What’s important to note is that, from the outset the P6 was designed to be powered by a turbine engine. This explains why it has such an unusual front suspension design. It was more about space savings than it was about changing it around for better ride and handling. (I am actually planning a trip to a local junkyard here in Florida (LKQ Clearwater) that just got in two complete Rover TC 2000’s, just so I can examine the P6’s front suspension! I have never seen one in person before and the engineering intrigues me.)

  2. Jim-Bob buy both of them get them back on the road and actually try the suspension – you will not be disappointed.

  3. Wow- imagine the ‘Frogeye’ P6 with quad lamps instead, with the instrument pods in the cabin repeating the design, and with an improved glasshouse from the later prototypes/ production car.

    Would have been like nothing else on the road, and could have given the Citroen DS a worthy rival, without the headaches.

    Would probably have benefitted from a wider track front and rear however.

  4. I admire the attention paid to occupant safety too; unlike many of its contemporaries!

  5. Most auto crazy Americans would think the front end of the Rover was ripped off from the Elwood Engel designed 1963 Plymouth. The 63 Plymouth platform was not even on the drawing boards until late in 1960, clearly the Rover design was not a Plymouth rip off.

  6. Did Rover ever consider developing a smaller earlier P6-derived equivalent to the Triumph Dolomite?

    Do know that the Land Rover was supposed to use the 2-litre OHC along with a 1.5-litre 3-cylinder version for another project, though wonder whether it was possible to reduce the P6’s engine displacement to a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Hooniverse Asks- What Car has the Most Needlessly Complex Attribute? | Hooniverse

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.