T
his year will no doubt see much
written and said about the Rover
SD1, the car which suddenly made
Rover’s existing P6 range – and
much of the competition – look old-fashioned. Its
Daytona-inspired looks and sleek fastback shape
looked space-age next to the Mercedes W123
and even the XJ6, while the addition of V8 power
was a masterstroke.
Sure enough, the SD1 duly walked off with the
Car Of The Year award before industrial relations
and quality issues conspired to blunt its appeal, but
under the skin it was in fact less adventurous than
its predecessor and its combination of executive
car and V8 power was in fact nothing new.
The first Rover product to employ the long-
serving V8 was in fact the P5 which offered
as much quiet dignity as a gold-wheeled green
metallic SD1 V8 S shouted new age.
The Rover company of the P5 era was a
very different animal from the organisation that
produced the P6 and certainly a world away from
the BL-era company responsible for the SD1.
Back in the ’50s Rover had the reputation
of being a company run by engineers and if its
products were a touch conservative, they offered
a very real depth of engineering and production
quality. New upstarts Jaguar may have offered
racier looks and performance but the quality of
Lyons’ cars was very much skin-deep, the doors
of a Mk1 clanging shut compared to the dull thud
of the Rover’s heavy-gauge panels.
It was perhaps the Jaguar threat which
encouraged Rover to develop a more modern
replacement for the existing P4 range. Despite
its conservative appeal, Rover was in many ways
a bold company not unafraid to try new ideas –
as witnessed by the success of the Land Rover
- and initial proposals surrounded a smaller
car, built using a similar concept to the later P6
with baseframe structure and unstressed outer
panels. Power was to have come from a range of
V6 and V8 engines and had it made production
the car would have been more modern than the
Jaguar XJ which was still a decade in the future.
The practical reality of budgets and production
constraints however was that the car which
emerged was rather more traditional and rather
larger. Unveiled at the Earl’s Court show in 1959,
the car sidestepped avant garde in favour of a
neatly proportioned, modern style but still made
the similarly-sized Jaguar MkIX look rather staid.
Power came from Rover’s familiar straight-
six engine in 3-litre form rated at 115bhp,
later increased to 134bhp to give the P5 a
respectable 112mph top speed.
By this time the inlet-over-exhaust design was
really up against the ceiling of its development
and it was Rover’s desire for an alternative which
ended in the decision to acquire the ‘Buick 215’
aluminium V8 from General Motors.
Some 200lb lighter than the old Rover engine,
the V8 was good for 160bhp and transformed
the P5. Offered with the P5B (for Buick) badge
from 1967, the 3.5-litre Rover was now a real
challenger for Jaguar even after the launch of
the new XJ in 1968. Indeed, such was the appeal
of the revitalised P5 that it lasted in production
until 1973, after which point the influence of Sir
William Lyons on the new BMH board saw to it
that Rover would be shut out of any prestige
markets where it might pose a threat to Jaguar.
For many readers, the P5B is synonymous
with the coupé body produced from 1962, the
subtle roof chop which gave the upright saloon a
rakish dose of hot rod style but in reality plenty
of the P5Bs came in regular saloon form.
Chatting with Mark Elder at The Engine Shed,
we agreed that the saloon is still a handsome car
and in some ways is better proportioned than the
coupé. Certainly if you’re in the market for a P5B
then there’s no reason not to consider the saloon
since it does come with the practical advantage
of better rear headroom – it’s cavernous inside,
the rear bench making the XJ6 look cramped.
This particular 1970 example is an intriguing
car and a perfect example of my favourite kind of
32 Classic Car Mart Spring 2016
The P5 includes a few interesting period features such as an informative manufacturer's plate and a
pair of small red Perspex tell-tales at the top of each side lamp to let the driver know the lights are on.
“A blip of the throttle sees this big Rover sway gently with
the torque reaction from the V8 engine”