I bought this from a farm near Harlow in Essex. I just fancied an old car and for some reason the Rover P4 100 (Cream over maroon, 2.7 litre straight six engine) seemed to suit. The car was advertised as being taxed (well expempt) and MOT’ed. So you would think that it would be in a safe and roadworthy condition to drive home wouldn’t you? We went up to the farm in the Rover 218 and met up with the guy who was selling it. I said “OK, i’ll take it” he said “Where’s your trailer?”.
“What trailer, you said it was MOT’d, I was planning on driving it the 87 miles back home?”…..
“It’s not done more that 2 miles this year….
“It’ll be fine, just needs a run”…..
So we headed off down the track and onto the M11 south… running OK so far……. plenty of fuel, no strange noises, pulls like a train, beautifu……..hang on what’s that…. I think were slowing down….. just a glitch surely. So I pulled onto the hard shoulder and proceeded to crawl along at around 10 mph with the car sounding really clogged up and getting slower and slower and slower… BANG!! Jesus Christ what the F&^% was that!? Suddenly there’s a big cloud of smoke out the back and the thing starts going like a train again. Never mised a beat all the way home however the brakes were getting a bit warm as they were dragging a bit.
According to the wife the cloud that shot out the back covered the motorway and bits of something (possibly a small chicken) got fired out of the exhaust….
Car was pretty good, windscreen leaked a bit and so did the seal at the back of the crankshaft. Took it into work on a Saturday and droped the gearbox out and replaced the seal. Leaked again after 100 miles so I suspect the crank was a bit worn. The seat were a bit soggy and needed to be fully recovered. Whet to see my sister one evening and whilst we were out one of the front brake pipes snapped. So no brakes…. well technically the handbrake worked although this was more wishful thinking than actualy slowing down as it operated the rear drums using a couple of rods. Probably perfectly acceptable in 1960…. had to get my mate Steve to come out and weld up the bit that had broken so we could get home. Paint had seen better days. I kept it for a while and we did some miles in it but the costs needed to maintain it to a good standard was far more that it would ever be worth. Sold it to a chap at work called Mark.
Not sure how long he kept it but he had it in a garage for quite some time.
Library picture, if it was this shiny I would have kept it…..
