Car you vowed to buy as a lad

philw696

philw696

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25,432
Manc5 said:
When I was a kid my parents always had good cars, my dad was in the trade... The one i always wanted was his 1972 Rover p5b coupe in maroon.. beige leather, front and rear headrests, toolkit in the slide out tray in the dashboard, wooden capped door cards, Rostyle(?) wheels with pin whitewalls.. loads of chrome and it sounded great .
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Always liked the reserve fuel you had on that too nice cars.
 
allandwf

allandwf

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10,994
Manc5 said:
When I was a kid my parents always had good cars, my dad was in the trade... The one i always wanted was his 1972 Rover p5b coupe in maroon.. beige leather, front and rear headrests, toolkit in the slide out tray in the dashboard, wooden capped door cards, Rostyle(?) wheels with pin whitewalls.. loads of chrome and it sounded great .
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My friends dad had one. A white one, with red leather. I remember the smell, and the feeling of opulence , every time I was given a lift in it. My parents had a Morris 1100 lol.
 
P5Nij

P5Nij

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2,480
Manc5 said:
When I was a kid my parents always had good cars, my dad was in the trade... The one i always wanted was his 1972 Rover p5b coupe in maroon.. beige leather, front and rear headrests, toolkit in the slide out tray in the dashboard, wooden capped door cards, Rostyle(?) wheels with pin whitewalls.. loads of chrome and it sounded great .
Click to expand...

I had the very same affliction, my Grandad's cousin had two, his first one was monotone black but the one I remember the most was his next one which was as per your post in monotone Bourdeaux Red (maroon). He'd ordered it new from Henlys at Staples Corner and opted for the gorgeous deep red 'mulberry' interior, complete with a full set of headrests and an 8-track tape player, it was magnificent and fuelled my love for these fine old cars. If I close my eyes I can smell the interior now, and his expensive cigars! It took me decades, but I managed to have two myself, both V8 Coupes, the first was white with a burnt grey roof and black interior, it was a little ropey around the edges but it flew towards the horizon much quicker than I ever expected it to. That was in 2007, then in 2013 I bought a much better one, a 1970 Coupe in monotone zircon blue with the beige 'saddletan' interior. I should never have sold it two years later when I had the itch to own an early XJ6.
 
Nayf

Nayf

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2,750
Recently I’ve been lusting after the Talbot Horizon rally car for sale at 4Star Classics. My mother had a red one, not a rally car but she tended to drive it like one. I remember the rear seats not having belts and rolling around the back on the vinyl seats. Probably inspired my love of fast cars. Sadly it turned out my mother had in fact bought a two for the price of one car - my dad has recently had the snip and couldn’t get bend down far enough to see that it was a cut and shut when he bought it, so it was scrapped after the MoT unveiled its secret.
My mother never did manage to buy the MX5 she always wanted, though I remember taking her out in the GTA. Planted it in second and then third, and she shouted slow down while keeping her head looking out of the window - of course, I could see her massive grin in the passenger-side rear-view mirror.
Quite the contrast with my father, who excretes a brick of you go over 3000rpm.
 
M

Manc5

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395
P5Nij said:
I had the very same affliction, my Grandad's cousin had two, his first one was monotone black but the one I remember the most was his next one which was as per your post in monotone Bourdeaux Red (maroon). He'd ordered it new from Henlys at Staples Corner and opted for the gorgeous deep red 'mulberry' interior, complete with a full set of headrests and an 8-track tape player, it was magnificent and fuelled my love for these fine old cars. If I close my eyes I can smell the interior now, and his expensive cigars! It took me decades, but I managed to have two myself, both V8 Coupes, the first was white with a burnt grey roof and black interior, it was a little ropey around the edges but it flew towards the horizon much quicker than I ever expected it to. That was in 2007, then in 2013 I bought a much better one, a 1970 Coupe in monotone zircon blue with the beige 'saddletan' interior. I should never have sold it two years later when I had the itch to own an early XJ6.
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Oh man.. between you and Phil you have resurrected 2 forgotten parts of my dad's Rover.. the reserve fuel twist thing and the 8-track, he also specced one from new including one of those as it was the "thing" to put in your car of that time !! Many a deep purple 8-track was played at high volume.. also just remembered the chrome edged everflex roof, fold down wood veneered trays and the plush centre armrest for the rear passengers. happy days !!! Only bad memory was the awful Feu Orange air fresheners he seemed to adore that used to knock me sick on the way to Abersoch as a kid.. I feel a day lost to searching out clean examples.. i wonder if the old beast is still around.. wore the plate XWH 884L...
 
P5Nij

P5Nij

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2,480
Manc5 said:
Oh man.. between you and Phil you have resurrected 2 forgotten parts of my dad's Rover.. the reserve fuel twist thing and the 8-track, he also specced one from new including one of those as it was the "thing" to put in your car of that time !! Many a deep purple 8-track was played at high volume.. also just remembered the chrome edged everflex roof, fold down wood veneered trays and the plush centre armrest for the rear passengers. happy days !!! Only bad memory was the awful Feu Orange air fresheners he seemed to adore that used to knock me sick on the way to Abersoch as a kid.. I feel a day lost to searching out clean examples.. i wonder if the old beast is still around.. wore the plate XWH 884L...
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You'd be surprised just how many P5B Coupes have survived, 8,195 of the 9,018 built were sold in the UK and due to the nature of their buyers when they were new a lot were bought as retirement cars then passed down through families and thus lasted a lot longer than other big posh cars of the period. I'd imagine the survival rate is at least a couple of thousand in the UK alone. More P5B Saloons were built than Coupes but a lot of those were sacrificed to keep the more valuable Coupes running. With both of mine I probably spent as much time just sitting in them and enjoying the ambiance as actually driving them! The little details are really nice, the pull out tool tray, the way the needles in the two main gauges used to float round the dials, the very light power steering, the feel and smell of all that leather and wood, and the general air of British solidness, just sublime really.

I really miss both of them....

79720

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If you don't already have it, this book is well worth a punt....

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As well as my grandad's cousin's Coupes, this one from the film 'Performance' really drew me to them, it's actually a P5 3-litre dressed up with the Rostyles from a P5B, the reg' number is now on a Merc...

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As did this one that was used by Richard Burton in 'Villain', it also appeared in an episode of 'The Persuaders'....

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I still want another one, despite setting my heart on a Maser as my next car, this one is a belter....

www.carandclassic.co.uk

1973 Rover P5B coupe - 3.5 Litre, Arden Green SOLD

Find your dream classic car from over 10,000 private adverts plus many more trade adverts on Europe's No 1 classic cars site. 100% F...
www.carandclassic.co.uk www.carandclassic.co.uk

;)
 
M

must go faster

Junior Member
Messages
74
Peugeot 309 gti
Peugeot 405 mi16
Allard palm beach
Aston Martin db4 gt zagato
Aston Martin virage vantage
Lotus esprit turbo
Bentley

had 2 309 gti’s, and have had the esprit for 18 years.
couldn’t afford then, now or ever a db4
The virage no longer likely but might use it for man maths to get a db9
Allard palm beach... so pretty however fat chance fella
Almost had an mi16 but not quite (still look at them now even though they aren’t really quick enough nowadays)
Desperate for a bentley continental gt however wife won’t stand for it.... she prefers the Maserati and thinks that all bentley owners are footballers.
Quite like the idea of a reliant Scimitar.
 
zagatoes30

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,940
There's a P5B Coupe around here the old boy who drives it thinks he is still a getaway driver as he is always hustling it around
 
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M

Manc5

Member
Messages
395
P5Nij said:
You'd be surprised just how many P5B Coupes have survived, 8,195 of the 9,018 built were sold in the UK and due to the nature of their buyers when they were new a lot were bought as retirement cars then passed down through families and thus lasted a lot longer than other big posh cars of the period. I'd imagine the survival rate is at least a couple of thousand in the UK alone. More P5B Saloons were built than Coupes but a lot of those were sacrificed to keep the more valuable Coupes running. With both of mine I probably spent as much time just sitting in them and enjoying the ambiance as actually driving them! The little details are really nice, the pull out tool tray, the way the needles in the two main gauges used to float round the dials, the very light power steering, the feel and smell of all that leather and wood, and the general air of British solidness, just sublime really.

I really miss both of them....

View attachment 79720

View attachment 79721

View attachment 79722

View attachment 79723

If you don't already have it, this book is well worth a punt....

View attachment 79724


As well as my grandad's cousin's Coupes, this one from the film 'Performance' really drew me to them, it's actually a P5 3-litre dressed up with the Rostyles from a P5B, the reg' number is now on a Merc...

View attachment 79727

View attachment 79728

View attachment 79729

As did this one that was used by Richard Burton in 'Villain', it also appeared in an episode of 'The Persuaders'....

View attachment 79730

View attachment 79732

I still want another one, despite setting my heart on a Maser as my next car, this one is a belter....

www.carandclassic.co.uk

1973 Rover P5B coupe - 3.5 Litre, Arden Green SOLD

Find your dream classic car from over 10,000 private adverts plus many more trade adverts on Europe's No 1 classic cars site. 100% F...
www.carandclassic.co.uk www.carandclassic.co.uk

;)
Click to expand...
My dad kept the P5B through until about 77, then got an XJS. He never had a days trouble from the P5B.. but the XJS was not so good and was rusting by 81 when he let it go. I really love the look of that white coupe you had, it looked so purposeful. Your picture brought back another memory of the little telltales for the side lights(?). They were great cars, that one advertised at 20k is a beauty and even has the pinstripe whitewalls + appears to be holding up well on an 18yo respray by the looks of it.. I will take a read of that history, cheers. The dressed up 3litre did a decent impression apart from the single pipe exhaust, good looking villian car and as Zagatoes30 says like the chap near him I would feel like a proper getaway driver in one today...
Last of the properly made rovers, the SD1 was just awful until the late model V8 Vittesse models and as for the 827.. hmm they were called the Belgrano's by the police as they rolled so much they nearly tipped on corners.
 
Hurricane52

Hurricane52

Member
Messages
1,211
When I was a teenager, our next door neighbour had a blue P5 coupe and a mint dark metallic green mark one VW GTI.

Both tasty cars, but one day my brother rang me up from the local petrol station he worked at. He said I’d better go outside as something special would be passing shortly.

I could hardly believe my eyes when a bright red Maserati Ghibli with the reg GIB 5000 came round the corner, howling.

I vowed I’d have one and managed to treat myself for my thirtieth birthday.

(Sadly, the one I saw that day had its top chopped off later in its life and has been passed from pillar to post over the years.)
 
P5Nij

P5Nij

Member
Messages
2,480
Hurricane52 said:
When I was a teenager, our next door neighbour had a blue P5 coupe and a mint dark metallic green mark one VW GTI.

Both tasty cars, but one day my brother rang me up from the local petrol station he worked at. He said I’d better go outside as something special would be passing shortly.

I could hardly believe my eyes when a bright red Maserati Ghibli with the reg GIB 5000 came round the corner, howling.

I vowed I’d have one and managed to treat myself for my thirtieth birthday.

(Sadly, the one I saw that day had its top chopped off later in its life and has been passed from pillar to post over the years.)
Click to expand...

That red Ghibli appears in the Osprey Maserati Heritage book. Pity about the roof chop!
 
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