Rover P4

Malcolm Bobbitt has been fascinated by the motor car since buying an Austin 7 before he was old enough to drive! After a career in the electricity industry, Malcolm is now a freelance writer who chooses mainly to write about motoring history. Malcolm lives in England's beautiful lake district.

Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 6 Chapter I Starley, Wilks & The P4 9 Sewing machines, cycles and cars 9 War, boom years, the Depression 12 Spencer Wilks arrives 13 Quality, not quantity 17 One of Britain's fine cars 18 Shadow factories and the war effort 19 Enter Solihull 19 The M1 project 20 New era: postwar design and the P3 stopgap 21 The Studebaker affair 23 The P4 emerges 25 Arrival of the Viking 27 Chapter II DEVELOPMENT & CHRONOLOGY 35 6-cylinder 75, 90, 95 & 100; 105 & 110 35 Popularizing the P4, 60 & 80 4-cylinder cars 35 Auntie explained 36 Early problems 38 Creature comforts 38 Stopping power 41 First changes to the P4 43 The 2.6-litre Cyclops Rover 44 Exit Cyclops: enter a new image 46 The model range widens 49 The 1954 model range - enter the 60 52 The 90 makes its debut 53 David Bache and the 1955 facelift 55 Expanding the range again 59 Old friends depart - new arrivals 64 Chapter III GAS-TURBINES & THE JET ERA 71 Gas-turbine - the potential power 74 JET 1 makes its debut 78 The Jabbeke Trials 84 The next phase: the T2 & T2A 87 T3 - a new direction 90 T3 - impressive by all standards 94 T4 - almost there 97 Rover BRM - the ultimate gas-turbine 100 Chapter IV MARAUDERS, COUP - S & SPECIALS 104 Enter the Rover Special 105 From the Rover Special to the Marauder 106 The Marauder takes shape 108 The Marauder - 'for fast touring' 110 Fixed and drophead coupAes 112 A drophead for GBP20 130 The Farina episode and the Italian connection 132 The Irish connection 135 Royalty and the P4 135 What might have been 136 COLOUR GALLERY 113 Chapter V LIVING WITH A P4 138 Owning & buying a P4 140 What to pay for a P4 149 The down-side: foibles & weaknesses 152 Publicity & the P4 161 Thirty years on 163 Profile of a P4 enthusiast 164 Appendix I Original specifications & general data 166 Appendix II At-a-glance chronology 172 Appendix III Production figures 173 Appendix IV P4 colour schemes 177 Appendix V Rover specialists 180 Appendix VI Clubs 183 Appendix VII Bibliography 184 Index 186 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------