Description
H&H Classic Auction @Pavilion Gardens | Buxton, Derbyshire
12th Feb, 2025 9:00
1955 Rover P4 60
No Reserve
Registration No: TUR 590
Chassis No: 53300164
MOT: Exempt
Rare '60' iteration of the P4
Understood to have been off the road since the 1980s and recently unearthed
Worthy candidate for recommissioning/ restoration
Offered with maintenance notes and a current V5C document
Unveiled to great enthusiasm at the 1949 Earls Court Motor Show, the Rover P4 was another brainchild of Spencer and Maurice Wilks and only 9, 261 examples of the '60' variant were built from 1954-1959. Heavily influenced in stylistic terms by the Raymond Loewy penned Studebaker Champion, the P4's transatlantic lines clothed a highly competent chassis equipped with independent coil-and-wishbone front suspension and a Panhard rod located leaf-sprung rear axle. Various engine options were available during the P4's model life including the '60' a 1997cc OISE four-cylinder engine developing some 60bhp and 101lbft of torque, it had been used in the early Land Rover, although it now had modifications including an SU carburettor. With the standard four-speed plus freewheel manual transmission this gave a respectable top speed of 80mph. Only marginally slower (2mph) than its '75' big brother, the '60' was also rather too close in terms of list price.
First registered for the road on 18th February 1955, in Hertfordshire, this example of the rarer '60' iteration of the Rover P4 displays some 50, 700 miles on the odometer (believed to be 150, 700). What paperwork we have seen would appear to support this example having been off the road since the 1980s, only recently being brought out into the light of day. As part of the car's story, some handwritten maintenance notes on file were maintained in previous ownership from April 1975 until the mid-1980s. The notes show regular maintenance that included such work as a new head gasket in 1977 at 109, 780 miles. We are advised the engine has been running recently, however, it would offer the opportunity as a deal or addition to a P4 enthusiast's collection. Offered with two workshop manuals and the aforementioned handwritten maintenance notes and the current V5C.
