How Far Have You Driven Your P6

Ban306

Active Member
Hello Lady's and Gents,
One quick question here, how far have you fellow P6 owner ever driven in a P6 and did you take any spanners with you ?
 
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I picked one up off ebay, changed the oils & got the speedo working & went off the a meeting in Northern Netherlands organised by the Rover Owners Club Holland , about 800 miles round trip but I am sure this is fairly short compared with some. Took the supplied tools and my European breakdown cover! Friends of mine with an early P6 often visit Germany , about 2000 miles or so round trip,
 
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I used to commute weekly between Southampton and South Lincolnshire in mine, about 170 miles each way. I’d have basic tools with me for the journey, and do preventative maintenance when I was home at the weekends.
 
Trips to Cape Cod and back from NYC (google informs me that’s 460 miles around trip) on an annual basis. Day trips of 250 miles aren’t unheard of.
 
Just collecting mine from Colin Gould's in Faringdon. Will be driving it back to Zürich, Switzerland. That's about 1600 miles rounn trip.
 
Just been to Goodwood Revival this last weekend, a mere 400+ miles, car never missed a beat on the road. However idiot owner /driver left sidelights on in car park at 7.30 am on day 2 only to return to find all the electricity had escaped, was rescued by an Econoline van owner who drew up and removed his battery to start the P6. What a gent, only at Goodwood !
 
35 yrs ago with my first P6 spent 10 days on the road Victoria, BC to southern Oregon,Nevada,Utah which included a run at Bonneville, I did have to stop to fix an oil leak but had gasket paper with me a full toolbox and 2 1/2 ton floor jack. 10 yrs later one in winter were we froze using credit cards to scrape the inside of the windscreen 1500 miles each way.
 
I drove Sparky to Dorset for my Son's wedding, 570 miles there and back, didn't miss a beat :)

Richard
 
About 430 miles in a day: Anglesey to Bath and back. Didn't miss a beat. Been clocking up rather too many miles lately so engine rebuild on the cards. Time to rebore the 2.0 to 2.2 and fit the set of pistons I bought from Iran (!) via ebay.
 
About 430 miles in a day: Anglesey to Bath and back. Didn't miss a beat. Been clocking up rather too many miles lately so engine rebuild on the cards. Time to rebore the 2.0 to 2.2 and fit the set of pistons I bought from Iran (!) via ebay.
Having done that conversion I would say make sure you switch to HIF carbs when you do. I found the HS8's weren't able to give enough fuel even with the richest needle available with my car.
 
Drove from Perth to Tom price [west Oz] in a brand new P6b in 1972 -1500km in two days. Encountered bulldust ,road trains , kangaroos ,no traffic for hours and aborigine selling spears on the side of the road. The rover survived and didnt miss a beat.
 
Drove from Tom price to Melbourne in 1972 around 5,000km in a week.
Went through three States and drove the unsealed Nullabor route. Bloody Norah !! I passed near new dead cars on the side of the road. It was not looking good for Rover. Hit massif pot holes full of bulldust that could hide a Mack .
Crawled into a Melbourne Rover dealership with no exhaust and leaking shockies. The car looked decidedly second hand and had changed colour from Almond to Outback red.
Rover replaced all the parts under warranty. Incl the oil and chocker air filters.
Every crevase dust could enter was chocker full of red outback dust. Im still finding Red dust - I replaced the rear springs the other day and found rocks from the Nullabor on the bottom plate.
how's that for a good Ozzy yarn?
 
1971 when the car was one -year-old took the ferry from Dover and drove through Belgium, Holland, West Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway to the North Cape, Finland, Sweden, West and East Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, then by ferry to Israel (including the Sinai desert which was later returned to Egypt). From Eilat in Israel the car was shipped home to Melbourne Australia.
In Oz I can't compete with GRTV8 but at the end of 1975 drove to Canberra and then back to Melbourne via the Flinders Ranges which included a lot of dirt road driving and a few Creek crossings. Suppose it is interesting that the roads and tracks we covered in the Flinders are now used to evaluate 4WDs. There were also the odd interstate trips through NSW and SA.

Since the 70s it has not travelled as widely, but the plan is to go to the National in Kangaroo Island next year.
 
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Mike did you have the P6 from brand new then? you said when the car was one -year-old, I never knew anybody with a P6 that young!! so on the journey you detail above did anything go wrong with the car at all?
 
In May 2011 we drove Hazel to Lyon in France via Hull/Zebrugge, a total of around 2,200 miles, also visiting Geneva in Switzerland on a most miserable day...

A village near Lyon:

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Lake Geneva:

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The local vinyards:
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Hazel went very well, with only the speedo drive disintegrating whilst we were there. We had a 'Tom-Tom' at the time which fortunately gave us the speed we were doing! Hazel did a lot of 130kmh (80mph) motoring & apart from the above, had no problems :D
 
Mike did you have the P6 from brand new then? you said when the car was one -year-old, I never knew anybody with a P6 that young!! so on the journey you detail above did anything go wrong with the car at all?
Yes, bought it in London, for export, in August 1970. Plenty went wrong in the first year, under warranty. On the trip apart from oil leaks, a voltage regulator died in northern Finland (so I actually stayed in a hotel room rather than sleeping in the car or a tent) and a heater hose went in Berlin.
 
Yes, bought it in London, for export, in August 1970. Plenty went wrong in the first year, under warranty. On the trip apart from oil leaks, a voltage regulator died in northern Finland (so I actually stayed in a hotel room rather than sleeping in the car or a tent) and a heater hose went in Berlin.

Mike - did Australia have a duty free entry for returning citizens back then too , as NZ did?
 
Mike - did Australia have a duty free entry for returning citizens back then too , as NZ did?
Yes, we could bring cars in Duty Free if they were owned overseas for 18 months. In the UK one could buy them without sales tax on the condition that they were exported within 12 months. So I took 6 months leave without pay from my job with Mobil Australia (through whom I'd been set up with a 1 year job with Mobil UK) to travel through Europe etc.
A number of Aussies availed themselves of the overseas delivery option, often ordering cars from home before leaving. I did it differently, trying to make up my mind on arriving in Rome meeting up with friends and spending a couple of weeks travelling to London in Henrietta a clapped out Austin A60.
In the mix were Lancia Fulvia Sport and Flavia Coupe, Citroen DS 21, Volvo 164 and Morgan plus 8. (I'd had FIATs at home 124 AC). Should've got the Morgan but girlfriend at the time was resolute that she would not spend an English winter in one, also the insurance quote for one year was an additional 50% above the cost of the car. Anyhow if I had have got the Morgan either it or I or both would not be here today.
 
Yes, we could bring cars in Duty Free if they were owned overseas for 18 months. In the UK one could buy them without sales tax on the condition that they were exported within 12 months. So I took 6 months leave without pay from my job with Mobil Australia (through whom I'd been set up with a 1 year job with Mobil UK) to travel through Europe etc.
A number of Aussies availed themselves of the overseas delivery option, often ordering cars from home before leaving. I did it differently, trying to make up my mind on arriving in Rome meeting up with friends and spending a couple of weeks travelling to London in Henrietta a clapped out Austin A60.
In the mix were Lancia Fulvia Sport and Flavia Coupe, Citroen DS 21, Volvo 164 and Morgan plus 8. (I'd had FIATs at home 124 AC). Should've got the Morgan but girlfriend at the time was resolute that she would not spend an English winter in one, also the insurance quote for one year was an additional 50% above the cost of the car. Anyhow if I had have got the Morgan either it or I or both would not be here today.

Mike -I went down the same road. Was called the NZ Tourist delivery Scheme. In essence I was working in an iron ore mine in the NW west Oz.
I actualy ordered my P6 through a Perth dealer [Faull's] when I was a year out from returning to NZ.
The P6 duly arrived and it spent a year in the Pilbara before "driving it across the bottom" for shipping out off Melbourne to NZ.
Cars were expensive in NZ back then , so a 22yo driving a Rover V8 was unusual.
Just dropped some yellow walls onto her. A sort of thank you for a great companion.
 

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Look great but just a word of caution: if they are separate from the actual tyres, as they appear to be, there is the risk of heat building up.
Happened about 15 years ago to a Sunbeam club member who had whitewall flaps over his radials on a 1954 (Talbot) Alpine Mk 1 causing a blowout.

Can relate to the young person driving the Rover bit. In Geneva in 71 a couple of Dutch businessmen wanted to have a look at the car and then asked me where I was staying, as in which hotel. I pointed vaguely behind me not having the heart to tell them that I was showering in the railway station and sleeping in the car wherever I could find a quiet spot. I was 25. For much of the trip the front passenger seat was turned around so it could be reclined toward the dashboard allowing me to stretch out in the back with somewhere to put my legs.
 
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