Rover - Austin P6 Reviews from UK and Ireland

Valve seat came loose, cost a bomb to repair head and set seat back in place. Fantastic head/cam design is a real pig to work on.

Rear carburettor was so far out of tune that gas was draining into sump. Clue... steadily-falling oil pressure and steadily-rising oil-level. Note to self, don't use that tuning company again.

Exhaust header broke near bottom.

Rear end tie-bar bracket snapped, temporarily had rear-wheel steering.

Really bad brake squeal, fixed by aftermarket shims on front.

Gear lever broke off while reversing into parking spot; a little stub remained, changed gear with a mole-wrench to get to a scrapyard for a replacement.

Smooth, fast luxury car, the last of the true Rovers. (Apres moi, le deluge de Austin/Morris)

I really loved the full-size canvas sunroof, when open it transformed the whole car.

This car would cruise at 100mph+ all day.

I weekend-commuted 200+ miles for 6 months when it was 13 years old with only one breakdown.

A 31-year old car...

So far.

A temperamental oil pressure gauge.

This is when the British car industry was at its best making very advanced cars for the time.

The 2000TC was only the one up from the lowest spec 2000 SC (Single Carb).

Yet, this car has...

All round disk brakes (servo assisted)

An instrumentation set that would shame a £40,000 BMW (Oil pressure, Electric Current, Temp, Oil Temp, Rev counter, Speedo, Trip, oil light, ignition light, choke light)

Not to mention a totally adjustable seating position and the steering wheel adjusts for rake.

Two different internal lighting set ups.

Intermittent wipers, electric screen washer jets.

Passenger heating vents and front and face vents, just behind the steering wheel.

In fact most of the mod-cons you'd find in a car today.

But it's when you drive it, you realise a lot of effort went into the suspension and handling. I failed to avoid a pothole and gritting my teeth expecting a almighty thunk, it rode over the pothole without so much as a dip or wobble. It's a very solid car with and incredibly stiff chassis and yet very supple and pliant suspension. I was aiming the thing at potholes just to feel how the 31-year old car could just traverse it without so much as a sound or shake.

The 2 litre twin carb engine can easily keep up with traffic, it's a bit gruff, but it a pleasant gruffness and happily cruises in 4th at 30mph at a meagre 1500 rpm.

A lot of car manufacturers today could learn a lot from a Rover P6.

To sum up the experience of driving the car for the first time, it was the most fun I'd had since I immediately passed my test.

Collapsed water pump, burnt out ignition contacts, front and rear shock absorbers. Noisy hydraulic tappets, worn camshaft.

The old Rover is a superb performer still clocking 0-60 in just under 9 seconds. The ride quality is superb, and the handling is again pretty good for a 26 year old motor (although the suspension could do with being stiffer). Fuel consumption is horrendous (8mpg) around town, but who cares when you can scare the pants off XR owners?