Takes me back to the early-mid '70s when I owned (not quite all at once, but frequently up to five at a time):
19?? Series 1 Landrover 2-door SWB clothtop (the farmyard stump-puller that drove only on the land as it was unregistered)
19?? Series 2 Landrover 4-door LWB tintop
1948 P3 Rover 75 (never had it running)
1949 P4 Rover 75 (the "Cyclops Eye" grille)
1953 P4 Rover 90
1954 P4 Rover 90
1956 P4 Rover 90 (x 2)
1958 (?) P4 Rover 105R
1959 P4 Rover 110
1960 P5 Rover 3 litre Mk 1 (yes, with the "rain brows" on the windows)
1961 P5 Rover 3 litre Mk 1a
1964 (?) P5 Rover 3 litre Mk 2b
1965 (?) P5 Rover 3 litre Mk 2c ("Suffolk C") coupé
1968 P5 Rover 3 litre Mk 3
The most eye-pleasing was the Mk 2c coupé -- which had the added touch of being a manual.
My absolute favourite, though, was one of the '56 90s; I acquired it with more than 450,000 miles on record (good paper history) from a Melbourne car yard. With its alleged 90 hp, it had a theoretical top speed, when new, of 90 mph. It still had fully functional freewheel capacity, and so was relatively economical on juice.
Not accounting for speedo error, that old aunty could still lift her skirts and run. It took her a while to reach it (compression ratio barely 8:1 and very long stroke / slow revving), but she was still capable of an indicated 90 mph at the half-million-mile mark. Never burned oil (because it "Rovered" all over the garage drip trays and was constantly topped up with fresh stuff -- back then, one of the early recycled oils, so not even Castrol GTX!).
I drove that '90 Melb-Syd-Melb about four times in a couple of years, and never had to stop for anything other than tank-fill / bladder-empty necessities (I asked a lot of it and more than once tested that original top-speed capacity
). The head gasket blew at about 530,000 miles, and while repairing it I inadvertently left a stumpy screwdriver in cylinder #3 (oh dear). Of course, when I went to start the re-headed engine, I did serious damage to a piston and bore.
Shortly after that mishap, the missus and I called it quits and as I left the property with an overnight bag and keys to nowhere, the dead Rover '90 stayed behind (with all its stablemates).
For serious and very relaxed cruising -- even at illegal speeds -- it was hard to beat the Mk 2c coupé: it had attitude -- and didn't have that infernal (though unbreakable) Borg-Warner DG auto. (The Mk 3 had a B-W Type 35 -- much smoother than the DG but too light-duty for the engine's torque and the car's weight.)
BTW: Anyone who reckons the first generation of the M-B 4-speed converterless auto is a "thumper" ought to drive a P5 Rover fitted with the B-W DG box (so Mk 1 and Mk 2). Now
that is a thumper!
The P5 Rovers were, justifiably, known as The Poor Man's Rolls-Royce, such was their quality, solidity, ride, acres of leather and forests of tree woods -- and a clock that ticked louder than the silent engine. Until the 3.5 litre-engined version of the P5, however, they were a tad underpowered (though not undertorqued).
