The Car Challenge

[Dannie Boy]

Rover 90? When I was a kid, our neighbours had one.

Close enough, it was actually a 95 although the only main difference was the engine that was slightly more powerful, but visually almost identical. A strange fact I wasn't aware of until today, was that they originally used a number of aluminium components on the car (bonnet, doors and boot lid) but reverted to steel because they dented too easily!!

[Nereus]

Rover 90? When I was a kid, our neighbours had one.

Close enough, it was actually a 95 although the only main difference was the engine that was slightly more powerful, but visually almost identical. A strange fact I wasn't aware of until today, was that they originally used a number of aluminium components on the car (bonnet, doors and boot lid) but reverted to steel because they dented too easily!!

Well, I used to be in a Rover club and I have not heard of a "95". There was a "75". The car you have posted is a P4, and you may have noticed that the rear doors are what is termed "suicide doors", but usually when used on the front, as a previous post mentioned about another car. Your photo does not look quite correct, so there may have been a 95 in the UK that was never exported.

One of the P4`s also had 3 head lights, and is commonly referred to as "cyclops". The next car in the series was a P5, originally with a 6 cylinder engine, but later
with the Buick derived V8, and then referred to as a P5B. It was also called the "auntie" Rover, and in V8 form a mighty impressive car.

The next was the P6, which started life with a 4 cylinder engine as the Rover 2000 / 2200. It later became the P6B with the V8, one of which I had for just on 25 years when I was still living in Oz. The V8 engine is worthy of a thread of its own!

[Dannie Boy]

Nereus, this is an extract taken from the P4 website - I noticed that they also listed separate model for home and export markets!!

The first Rover P4 model, the 75, was introduced at the 1949 Earl’s Court Motor Show. The first cars had a third headlamp mounted in the centre of the radiator grille, a feature that gave rise to the nick-name “Cyclops”. As this was in violation of local lighting regulations in some markets, cars destined for those markets had the centre headlamp replaced by a chromium-plated “bullet”, as in the beautifully preserved 1950 75 shown here, formerly owned by Donna Newman of Toronto, Canada, and now the property of Dirk Burrowes of Fitchburg, Mass., U.S.A.

The last P4 models were the 95 and the 110, introduced at the 1962 Motor Show. They replaced the 80 and 100 models, which in turn had supplanted the 60, 75, 90, and 105 models in 1960. The last Rover P4 to come off the production line at Solihull, in May 1964, was a 95.

[STEVE G]

As I understand it, with Rover the "P" numbers were factory design numbers but the cars were never sold as that:

[STEVE G]

And a 95:

[Nereus]

As I understand it, with Rover the "P" numbers were factory design numbers but the cars were never sold as that:

Well, that may be so in the UK. In club talk they are always referred to as P3, P4, P5, etc., followed by the individual model, such as "cyclops", 90, etc. The P number is the series, and although it is a factory designation, in fact still used today, it is how each series is identified.

edit: Another interesting item with them is that some of them were fitted with a free wheeling device on the gearbox. I doubt that it would pass today's regulations, but was accepted in its time as a useful feature. The free wheel device was controlled by a big round "knob" if I recall correctly, and had to be wound in and out by hand as you went along!

[sandman67]

if like me you watch a film or TV show and think.... "hmmmm whats that car then?" you may find this a useful resource

The Internet Movie Car Database
http://www.imcdb.org/

If I had the dosh my three car picks would be
A Wolseley 18 or Super 6 from the late 30s or 40s - relatively cheap classic car with that old Police car charm
A repro Auburn Boat-tail Speedster - no way could I afford the original so a repro will do, pref a 4 seater rather than the shorter 2 seater model. Ragtop as well, not the hard top.
A classic Citroen Traction Avant in long/wide wheelbase form.

All of them are real beauties, but the Auburn is my ideal car. Pure sex on wheels.

[Frank Hovis]

What is this the front end of?

It's loosely related to an Italian car, which one and why?.

lfront.jpg (46.98 KiB) Viewed 325 times

[dtaai-maai]

Is it one of the old East European Skoda-type manufacturers that was later bought by an Italian company?

[Frank Hovis]

No but the brand is now owned by a very Eastern company.

[Frank Hovis]

A little more revealing perhaps... The back end would be a giveaway.

lmore.jpg (71.27 KiB) Viewed 301 times

[STEVE G]

Is that a 1970's Austin Princess? I almost bought one once but luckily I didn't as a friend later had one and it was a dog of a thing.

[dtaai-maai]

Nice one Steve (or not, of course!) - and Austin are now owned by Chinese company SAIC.

[Frank Hovis]

Yes it is a variant of the Austin Princess, I think this is a Princess 2, shown here in all it's 'glory'.

I think it's really a rather attractive front end for such a nasty car and that is partly due to the second part of the question,

What Italian car model is the Princess loosely related to and why ?

ragingbull.jpg (40.28 KiB) Viewed 291 times

[STEVE G]

What Italian car model is the Princess loosely related to and why ?

After a bit of a read on the net, the Lamborghini Diablo?
The Princess in development at BL had the project name Diablo.
http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk/PrincessDev.htm