Somebody in British Columbia loves them some vintage Rovers, Land and P4s. Roger Carr just recently covered the Land Rover’s history in great detail here. But we’ve yet to cover the Rover P4 or P5; I’m sure Roger will get to them eventually. These are identified as 105s by nifticus, who posted this shot at the Cohort. These have some Studebaker genes in their DNA. But what’s that little truck behind the bushes?
The P4 was Rover’s first new postwar car, and they wanted it to have the latest “pntoon” or “envelope” styling. But they needed some inspiration and help with that, and rather than go to Raymond Loewy, who undoubtedly would have fixed them up with a nice scaled-down adaptation, like he later did with the ’53 Studebaker for Rootes. Instead, Rover just went out and bought two new 1947 Studebakers, and cut up one of them and mounted it on the Rover frame, as a mule. And then adapted the design for their needs.
Here’s how the “Roverbaker” turned out, as the 1949 Rover 75. Not too bad, although it is a bit stumpy, and the droopy tail doesn’t work as well in a shorter format. Curiously, the 75 had a “third eye” in the middle of its front end, a bit of a foreshadowing of the bullet-nose on the revised 1951 Studebakers.
The P4 had a good long run, until 1964, but it had been supplanted with the more refined-looking P5 since 1958.
Now about that little truck….
That ‘ RoverBaker ‘ looks about right for a British car at that time….
The truck looks like an APE or Tuk-Tuk to me .
-Nate
The squared-off headlight bezels are about 25 years prescient.
…and by 1953 they were gone.
My uncle had a couple of these, consecutively, in the late ’60s/early ’70s, though they were later versions (I think, a 95 and a 105) one green, the other mainly blue with some red oxide replacement panels. Thought of them as old fashioned and a bit dull then as he’d had a black 1938 Wolseley before the Rovers which was much more interesting. All three had brown leather interiors though.
Notwithstanding having three headlights, the ones with the central headlamp were nicknamed ‘Cyclops’.
Loewy should have sued for Design Blasphemy, if such a charge existed.
The distance from inspiration to result reminds me of the “restoration” of a Spanish religious painting that made news a few years ago.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/botched-restoration-of-jesus-fresco-miraculously-saves-spanish-town-197057
I missed the painting restoration fiasco when it was in the news. That is really awful. It looks like it was done by the photo store guy on Seinfeld who had to draw Mr. Kruger into the photograph after he accidentally removed him.
Interesting shot. I’m slightly puzzled why the Rover P4 we can see has a British registration from 1966, when production finished in 1964 and it’s in Canada…..
For info the P5 Rover 3 litre was larger and more upmarket from the P4, and had along run to, to 1973 with the Buick V8 engine.
Languishing unsold in the dealer’s showroom for 2 years?
P4s came in 60 to 105s denoting various engine sizes and horsepower ratings some were as common as Corollas here some like the 4 cylinder 60 very rare, still quite a few around over here restored and unrestored.
Definitely not my favourite large Rover saloon looks-wise, but you’ve got to admire the company for the way it was prepared to take huge stylistic leaps each time it brought out a new model. Witness the differences between P4, P5, P6, SD1 and 800. Ok, the 75 had quite a bit of P5 in it, but overall, to hell with stylistic continuity.
I would suggest the transition from P4 to P6 was an orderly one. Stylist David Bache must certainly be given full credit for this quite natural evolution, but I do note the stillborn Pinin Farina P4 coupe and convertible from 1952-4 (below).
I do think the P4 was a great leap forward from the preceding P3, and the SD1 was a quantum leap from the P6 or even the P8 proposals.
That proposal in your photo looks like the love child of a P5 and a Rolls Silver Cloud.
The truck is positioned just so we can’t see if it has a windshield divider, or what/if the hood looks like, sneaky shot!
Still, my guess is a Commer of some sort, possibly a BF, or a Bedford CA.
Looks much too small to me to be any of those, I think Nate is on the money.
Another car from my past. Used to see a few of these in 60s Britain, I thought they were very old fashioned compared to Fords, Vauxhalls, Rootes & the American cars around at the time.
The woodwork/metalwork/RE teacher at my Grammar school drove a drab battleship grey Rover like the feature car.
I don’t know what the truck is, either. I didn’t notice it when I was taking the picture. Maybe I’ll swing by there again sometime and find out!
Could it be an Atlas?
Gosh the story of how the Rover was conceived was upsetting. I always thought Rover was just another client of Raymond Loewy. To have just ripped off Mr. Loewy and Studebaker is just wrong. Granted I am more of a fan of the later ones with the filled out tail and more traditional fittings, but I expected better out of Maurice Wilks.
There is precious little in the world that is original; it’s a red herring that we overvalue. Most everything is a rehash of something before that the designer simply reinvented in a newish way. We “stand on the shoulders of giants”. If Rover worked off Lowey, they certainly gave it their own interpretation.
This family probably can get one more Rover here.
http://grautogallery.com/vehicles/3364/2000-rover-75
How are they legally selling this? It’s less than 25 years old. Whoever buys this Rover risks getting it seized by the government and crushed like this:
You may well ask. But I’ve seen quite a few non-US market foreign cars around less than 25 years old.
That is true. But whoever buys those cars takes a big risk. The US government is starting to crack down, as seen with the above Land Rovers and Skylines.
http://jalopnik.com/here-s-how-people-illegally-import-cars-to-the-united-s-1685247358
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/29/wisconsin-man-avoids-jail-by-agreeing-to-have-his-nissan-skyline/
Most likely the US Federal government would possibly chase after this car if anyone does than the local Michigan government, as the local Michigan government is very protective about automotive heritage regardless the origin. There is a chance the Rover 75 was imported to Canada first and crossed the border, and there is a chance it was fully legal in the process somehow and the car can be legally driven in the US.
Even if not, thanks for the car manufacturers here around Detroit and many automotive firms, the car can be driven under evaluation purposes, with a manufacture plate, and many can happen to the car later on. In Southfield alone, I saw several very odd Chinese cars imported in this way for evaluation, and I heard GM likes to pick up strange cars all over the world and put them here and there.
The 75 was available from early 1999, so some could qualify.
It is a 2000 Rover 75 with a German plate up front, so it would be a legal import to Canada in 2015, but this car ended up in the US for sale somehow not far away from Canada.
Rover just went out and bought two new 1947 Studebakers, and cut up one of them and mounted it on the Rover frame, as a mule. And then adapted the design for their needs.
I’ve never heard this – do you have any evidence, please?
‘Rover P4 Series’ by Malcolm Bobbitt recounts the story, which is also found elsewhere in the net. It’s covered in more depth in the book’s text, but here’s mention in the colour photo section.
Thanks. Just looking at them both was evidence enough for me. 🙂
Those Cyclops P4’s are odd-looking things. There’s just too little tail in proportion to the greenhouse, and that’s not a very harmonious front-end design Adventurous, and modern for ’49, but not altogether successful.
The later ones, like the white examples in the photo, got it right. So right that the nose styling carried right over to the P5 almost unchanged.