Daily Driver

How many people use their P6 as a daily driver? If so, how do they go in daily traffic? Keeping up with newer cars ect?
Also, any recommendations for things that should be upgraded to assist with daily driving?
 
i have done with mine. no issues on that front for me. electric fan and electronic ignition are pretty useful for me...
 
Yup. I don't have to contend with many traffic jams, but the 2000TC copes with everything else admirably. Keeping on top of maintenance is key and can involve the odd full weekend of work to get a larger job completed and the car back on the road for Monday. The ideal solution is to have more than one, or a combination of several different classics to fall back on.
I'll also put electronic ignition at the top of the list of mods - cheap and easy enough to fit for it to be a no-brainer really.
2nd is halogen headlights - much safer when you can see where you're going and save having to search for increasingly scarce sealed beam units.
And LEDs replacing as many other bulbs as possible - especially the interior light.
Expansion tank fitted to the radiator if it hasn't already got one. Keeps the coolant level constant.

I don't expect everyone to agree with this, but for regular winter driving in the UK, fibreglass wings give you less to worry about. So do galvanised sill covers.
 
For more then a year i have a Rover P5B Coupe as my daily driver and covered approx 11.000 km. After buying it i did following things:
-Fitted electronic ignition and high voltage coil (Powerspark = cheap and reliable)
-Fitted relays to lights and horn
-Fitted a rear fog light
-Replaced all hoses from the cooling systems
-Cleaned the carbs and fitted new seals
-Overhauled the brake system (new pistons, new hoses, pads and main and slave cylinder) and use silicon brake fluid
-Opened starter motor and alternator and cleaned these and replaced alternator bearings
-Gave front wheel bearings new grease
-Replaced all fluids and filters
-Fitted an LPG system and electric fuel pump
-with a kind of Waxoil, i injected sills and other area's and did the inside of the bumper and overriders.

The car has been very reliable and no repairs were needed. The window wipers are not that good and the rear screen gets misted in cold wet wheater and its rather noisy above 100km/hr but i didn't regret my decision at all.
I am restoring another P5B Coupe so have a lot of spare parts which makes it a lot easier in case of emergency spares requirement and have an MGB V8 and 3 classic motorbikes as back up but not needed yet.
A picture of the car in daily winter use.
CIMG3199.jpg

Peter
 
I put around 16,000 miles a year on 1966 2000SC. I copes with my daily 60 mile round trip commute very well. I've only changed the points for electronic ignition, fitted halogen headlights and LED lamps in the sidelights and stop/tail lights. Other than that it is completely standard. Sure it doesn't accelerate away from the lights or junctions as quickly as a modern car, but you catch up with them again at the next set of lights anyway.

Drive it as it is, enjoy it as it is and don't worry about other drivers. They'll moan and try to overtake you whatever speed you're doing anyway.

Dave
 
Dinitrol. Lots of it.

The issue isn't that the cars are particularly difficult to live with its just that the ONGOING maintenance is a big commitment. They will deteriorate at a quite astonishing rate otherwise. This means regular bodywork inspection and fixing the minor things before they become more serious.

I can't make this commitment, hence although I do use my car as functional transport rather than just as a toy, it tends only to be dry run and not when there's salt on the road. If you don't have a garage and sound basic mechanical skills then really don't do it at all.

Some things you might not have considered. Firstly gearing. You'll really miss a 5th gear, modern driving just isn't like it was 40 or 50 years ago, towns have ring roads and bypasses so it isn't just a case of motorways. Secondly security. Stealing a P6 is childishly easy, you'll need to make it less so. If you are used to a modern heater and de-misting you'll miss that too in winter, not that it is bad by the standards of the day. In summer if you have a vinyl roof, you will cook. Even decent windscreen wipers would be nice....
 
Hi Luke,

My Rover has been a daily driver for essentially the past 30 years, covering on occasions over 30,000 Miles (50,000km) in a single year. I have never experienced overheating, the 13 bladed nylon fan with viscous coupling being a great advantage.

You won't have any problems with rust, unlike owners have in the U.K, so that will reduce the time that you have to attend to things.

Driving in city traffic is much harder on the engine, brakes, transmission, etc than driving on the open road, so regular maintenance here is pretty important.

You won't have any problems keeping up with the traffic flow.

As others have mentioned, an electronic ignition system is definitely worth fitting, assuming one is not there already.

Ron.
 
Mine is my daily drive, but doesn`t get out of town much. Plus, there`s next to no traffic in sleepy suburban NZ, so heat has not been an issue.

The good thing about the P6 is that it can stop and go like a modern, so it isn`t stressful to drive. I used to have a Spitfire 1500 as a daily drive in the UK, that was much harder to live with.
 
Hi Luke. Grey Rover is my daily enjoyable drive and he copes well with Auckland traffic. Grey Rover was a 1969 2000sc, but now has a 1974 2200tc engine with electronic ignition and an electric fan. He keeps up with the modern traffic well but, in stop/start traffic I worry about the constant use of the clutch. While he copes well I worry about the amount of use He is getting. To sole this worry I have bought a 2000 Rover 45 cvt, the cvt is faulty and is in the process of being repaired. When this is completed it will become the daily driver realising Grey Rover for Club use more.
John.
 
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