Remember your first P6 experience?

USBrits

USBrits

New Member
Do you ever wonder what brought you to be interested in P6’s? Of course you don’t – you already know! But others won’t & may just be curious – so care to share? We’re not just talking your first P6 here though, that’s way too easy – unless of course that happens to be the same point in time. Some of these babies are now approaching 50 years old (INBD just turned 40 last month). Didn’t see this topic before so will start the ball rolling unless it’s a re-tread.

As a kid living at the end of a cul-de-sac back in suburban England we had no car growing up :| Not all bad so don’t get me wrong, happy family & my dad worked hard & rode his bicycle each day to work. Cars & tinkering became a bit of a fascination for me probably as a result of actually not having one. The Viva across the way was ok, Mk1 Escort and Mk3 Cortina’s seemed pretty nice at the time, didn’t like the Clubman woody much, the Allegro looked like a white toaster and one couple for some peculiar reason had a brown Daf 44 (sorry Daf lovers). Then there was the P reg. Mk2 mustard TC2200 with black vinyl roof – can you tell where this is going? Obviously if you know your old motors and # plate history, it started around ’76 for me. I’d see the Rover pulling quietly & regally up the street after school & then it sitting in Mr. H’s path (driveway). I could even envision the PM getting out had it been black.

I then sold my child-hood soul to the devil around ’77 & went over to the dark side. I remember playing footy in the playground (schoolyard) & though the fence seeing my mate’s dad dropping him off in a yellow 3500 SD1. A Ferrari-like shape with a V8 in an average working-class neighbo(u)rhood? I even recall riding my bike one day & wondering “why on earth anyone would still want that ‘old’ mustard Rover with the new type available?” I was just a shallow kid that didn’t know better I guess. Oh yes – I was wrong about beer & girls too :wink:

I never did own an SD1. After seeing so many fall apart over the years & learning more of the original P6 design, all that’s left of my lust for the SD1 is the occasional thought of a decent local 5speed box & the skills to fit it. Despite being labeled a 3500s, unlike many European examples, INBD has the Borg Warner 3spd box but I’d still rather the feel of a gearstick (stick-shift) someday – who wouldn’t?

That’s it for me. Love to see some other stories if you’re willing to share them...

Paul
 
the first thing that turned me on to p6's was seeing a metallic blue one in Salisbury with chrome wheels and lots of chrome and thinking that it looked really cracking!
later i was looking for a car for to take women and friends out in for i had a big white lwb h/top renault master and to take someone out in that was akin to being a gypsy!
also you couldn't park the flipping thing anywhere cos it was too big so i needed a car but the insurance for a 2nd vehicle was expensive coz i'd have no no-claims bonus on iy for they were on the van policy!
i then discovered classic car insurance and memories of the mettallic blue thing in Salisbury.
then i got hooked and cits been my money drain ever since!
the times my mum says !" if you'd saved your money you'd have a nice car now!"
well, a nicer p6 perhaps!
 
Well, my first experience of the P6 was cutting the roof off one !
We were looking for a vehicle to make a convertible, and found a P6 in a local used car lot, the lines of the P6 were almost perfect and it was cheap, so here we are.
 
I was 17 years old and working as milkman in Mere, Wiltshire.

On the way back to the dairy I would pass a garage called Grosvenor Motors, and for a few weeks there was a 1968 Arden Green 2000TC, with a beige leather interior, on the forecourt. I loved the lines and imagined myself driving it, but as I hadn't passed my *test it was just a pipedream.

My test was three weeks away when I noticed it had gone, so I dropped in to ask what had happened to it.

They had taken it into the garge to valet it as it was being test driven that afternoon :oops:

Next day it was back so I went in again. The buyer wanted something more powerful so didn't have it. I offered £535.00 for it and then spent two days walking around Gillingham trying to borrow enough money to have it.

Lloyds lent me the money and the garage delivered it 10 days before I took my test.

I had it for several years and loved every minute of it.


* Yes I was a milkman without a full driving licence. Believe it or not, it was legal as it was an electrically propelled vehicle.
 
My Grandad had a succession of nearly new Vauxhalls when I was a kid. My first memory of a car of his is going on the Motorail to Penzance in a 101 Victor with the bench seat, Summer 1969.

When he retired in 1976, and it was his present to himself that I got really enamoured with.

She was a 1968/69 Rover 2000 auto, Brigade red, Sandalwood leather, Radiomobile with the blue light.

We used to drive quite a lot from the Angel, Islington, up to Tottenham's ground at White Hart Lane in it (he had a season ticket and would take me). I must have been 8 or 9. I thought the thing was the best car I'd ever been in. It had so much class.

He had the car until about 1981. I went to visit him in Kent, and it turned out the BW35 had blown, so he'd traded the car in for a newish Ital. Terrible.

I never got over the Rover though. And after years of Fords, in 1997 I saw the light and got my first P6. A 2000 automatic with the Radiomobile with the blue light....the rest is history.

Still would kill for a Brigade Red one with Sandalwood though :D
 
NickDunning said:
My Grandad ......traded the car in for a newish Ital. Terrible..... :D
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An Ital! - that was a Marina with a 80's square-jaw facelift right? That's got to hurt Nick - glad you survived the ordeal!

Rick - must confess I first saw your convertible years ago on-line & was blown away - still sends chills - even looked up a few others after I saw what you had managed to do but few seemed quite as smooth. My parts car may need to live on topless one day if anything's left - but we'll see.

And Quatro, I'm sure Rover Marketing never considered Milkmen in their target audience demographics - just guys in suits right? Good for you - actually got me thinking, even milk floats were ahead of their time - now electric & hybrid is all the rage. If someone over there turn a Prius into a milk-float - that would be great :LOL:

Keep 'em coming, loving it - don't be shy!
 
USBrits said:
And Quatro, I'm sure Rover Marketing never considered Milkmen in their target audience demographics - just guys in suits right? Good for you - actually got me thinking, even milk floats were ahead of their time - now electric & hybrid is all the rage. If someone over there turn a Prius into a milk-float - that would be great :LOL:
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I called on a chap in Poole once, trying to sell my wares.

The company was called GT developments and they made replica GT 40s.

But, out the back, hidden behind some bins was the most awesome vehicle I could imagine. It was a bit rough by that time, but still intact. A basic Morrison Electricar Milk float, but in the bed connected to a chromed Jag back end sat a very nice 350 Chevy engine. :shock:
 
NickDunning said:
He had the car until about 1981. I went to visit him in Kent, and it turned out the BW35 had blown, so he'd traded the car in for a newish Ital. Terrible.
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Should've brought it over to me, by 1981 I was well into the swing of doing them........
 
Even I can't think of anything good to say about Itals
Wasn't the V8 milk float featured in Custom Car - what would it handle like ?
 
DaveHerns said:
Even I can't think of anything good to say about Itals
Wasn't the V8 milk float featured in Custom Car - what would it handle like ?
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Forget what it handles like - how do you sound-proof 500 bottles of 2% going down a track at 100+ :LOL:
 
DaveHerns said:
Even I can't think of anything good to say about Itals
Wasn't the V8 milk float featured in Custom Car - what would it handle like ?
Click to expand...

There was one in one of the custom car type mags called 'Pasteurise Express'

The owner of this one claimed (don't know how true) that it was once used as a pace car at Le Mans.
 
My first experience was many years ago now. My grandparents next door neighbour was a widow who still had her husband's car in the garage, an early S1 2000, white, automatic with red leather seats. My Dad bought the car from her, as he couldn't stand to see it go to rack & ruin in a damp garage. He was very sympathetic in the way he approached her about it, and once the deal was struck, and after recomissioning the brakes and giving the car a respray, it was like new. My first memory of it was the luscious leather smell. It was like a real luxury car when all I'd ever known before that was 105E Anglias. All that was 35 odd years ago now, and I still have happy memories every time I climb into my P6 and get that lovely leather waft. 8)
 
harveyp6 said:
NickDunning said:
He had the car until about 1981. I went to visit him in Kent, and it turned out the BW35 had blown, so he'd traded the car in for a newish Ital. Terrible.
Click to expand...

Should've brought it over to me, by 1981 I was well into the swing of doing them........
Click to expand...

Duh! :roll:
 
V8P6B said:
My first experience was many years ago now. My grandparents next door neighbour was a widow who still had her husband's car in the garage, an early S1 2000, white, automatic with red leather seats. My Dad bought the car from her, as he couldn't stand to see it go to rack & ruin in a damp garage. He was very sympathetic in the way he approached her about it, and once the deal was struck, and after recomissioning the brakes and giving the car a respray, it was like new. My first memory of it was the luscious leather smell. It was like a real luxury car when all I'd ever known before that was 105E Anglias. All that was 35 odd years ago now, and I still have happy memories every time I climb into my P6 and get that lovely leather waft. 8)
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This will be a sad comment:

Our ability as humans to remember smells is very strong.

There's a different leather smell down the years, depending, I think, on who supplied Rover with the hides.

My 1964 car smells like a shoe shop - not the traditional "bottle-it-and-sell-it-to-your-Rover-pervy-friends" Rover smell at all. I've also been in P5's of the same age which have the same stuff and smell the same.

The patent P6 leather smell doesn't actually start until about 1966 as far as I know..and runs to about 1971. The 1971 2000 auto I have at the moment has the proper aroma in spades.

After 1971 the leather changes again.

Also 1970's cars with cloth smell fantastic as well....

I have form for being able to tell the general condition of a P6 just by sense of smell. If there's the damp 'smell of death' in the car, it's time to walk away :)
 
My first P6 experience goes back to either 1977 or 1978, I can't quite remember which, for I was only 14 or 15 at the time. Dad owned a 1961 Humber Super Snipe series 3, having purchased the car in 1962, and although in excellent condition he was concerned about parts availability in the future, seeing as Rootes Group and disappeared. I remember Dad, Mum, my brother and I going to look at a new Toyota Crown. Where as the Humber had a red interior, the Toyota's was black, and sitting inside the car in the showroom it all seemed really dark, although by all means quite nice.

Then there was a white Rambler Rebel, second hand in this case, and I don't remember much else about it. Then in 1977 a brand new Ford Fairlane was being considered very carefully, powered by a 4.9 litre V8 with leather interior and automatic everything.

One of Dad's friends had a Rover P5 3 litre Mark 1A, and around 1977 the car was involved in collision with a large table top truck that resulted in the Rover being severely damaged, and the truck almost turned over. Luckily all occupants within the Rover were unhurt. Then some weeks or months later, Dad's friend and his family arrived at out house one evening in their new car, another Rover and a P6B at that,..a 1974 Rover 3500 in British Racing Green. I remember we all went out to look at the car sitting in the driveway, illuminated by our front veranda light it looked very nice indeed. The side lights were on and looking inside the instruments looked wonderful, all bright green with white letters, and green knobs and white writing...it looked so modern.

In 1978 after due consideration, Dad purchased a new car, a 1974 Rover 3500 in Saffron with only 20,000 miles on the clock. The Rover remains to this day, living in my garage and being in my ownership since 1985, the only car I have ever owned. My saffron Rover is a living reminder of my Dad, and I will keep her running perfectly for ever.

Ron.
 
I recall Clive Osborne talking about different colour paint marking codes on front springs but Nick's smell-directory takes things to a new level !
 
Back in the 1980's when I was a little lad I used to live right by Shepperton Film Studios... There was a chap who lived there called Keith and he had a superb collection of P6's (probably about 7) that used to change from week to week depending on which ones he got out of the garage (they were always 4-cylinder ones, I think he had a V8 for about a month). He was always tinkering with them and as an inquisitive (nosey?!) young kid I'd always be asking questions about the cars and looking around at theie fascinating interiors...!!! I think that is maybe what sparked my passion off for old motors... Then my next P6 experience must've been when I bought my first one 6 years ago (where are you KMH 909K) an Almond Yellow 2000TC that needed a few mechanical bits doing but was brilliant nonetheless...!!! There's something about these old cars that always lodges in your memory...!
 
I was born in 1963.

My late father had P6 rovers from 1965 until he died of a heart attack behind the wheel of one (it was stationary at the time thank god) in October of 1990.

My first real memory of them was sitting in the middle of the back seat looking forward and watching my Dad drive. He was an excellent driver right to the end.

I also recall with affection curling up on the back seat and sleeping. I used the fold down arm rest as a pillow.

Another abiding memory was looking out the back of the car in the rain at night and getting mesmorized by the twin swirls of spray from the back wheels being illuminated by the tail lights.

Those were the days.

I went on to run a succession of P6's including a lovely S with 5 speed box and a Fuel injected estate with Jensen Interceptor Alloy wheels.

I sold the Estate, my last P6 in November 2002
 
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