…at conquering the US – the Rover P6. Rover sold the P4/P5 in the US in limited quantities. Neither sold particularly well, mainly because it took an eternity for the P5B to make it to the US, and the P5 3-litre was painfully slow – especially with all that emissions junk stuck on it.
So, in 1969, the US got a “federalised” (read: “crippled”) version of the P6 2-litre.. and in 1970 the P6 3500s v8 finally made it over here. This is mine:
They sold pretty well.. and were very well-reviewed.. but despite the fact that the Rover v8 is fundamentally bombproof, it was good old British reliability that killed Rover off again in 1971.
The US-spec P6 v8’s were amazingly well-eqipped – A/C, electric windows, full leather interior, and Icelert (yes, really) as standard. My P6 sat outside for a good seven years before I got it.. but fortunately the interior’s not too bad and those aluminium body panels really do help cars survive that little bit longer in the Northwest!
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