Was Grace Kelly's Rover P6 Really Sabotaged?

falkor

Active Member
Yahoo! news covered this earlier this year

"While it remains well documented that Princess Grace of Monaco died after her Rover P6 3500 plunged off a mountain pass, what's less well-known are the mysterious circumstances thereafter...
"Old cars possess an almost talismanic quality. No other man-made object boasts the same disturbing allure of age-old metal and drivetrain. More emotions are involved with our classic cars than most human relationships.

"It’s why tales of crime and death surrounding vehicles – now cherished by devoted custodians – offers a mixed bag of perverse interest and cultural modelling. None with the same blend of mystery and uneasy fate as Grace Kelly’s accident behind the wheel of her Rover P6 V8.
"While France’s steep, winding southern roads of Corniche no longer radiate with the sun-drenched image portrayed by 1950s cinema, instead relegated to the contemporary curse of sluggish gridlock and nervous traffic lights, the tarmac undulations remain ultimately demanding.

"It was on this road – the D37 – that Princess Grace of Monaco suffered a devastating incident on 13 September 1982; her dark green Rover lurched over the edge of a 120-foot mountainside drop, rapidly spiralling into the undergrowth with a masticating crunch of metal.
 

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Considering how her daughter always was terrified of her driving I’m going to say no. I do think she was in a questionable state of mind though.
 
Yahoo! news covered this earlier this year

"While it remains well documented that Princess Grace of Monaco died after her Rover P6 3500 plunged off a mountain pass, what's less well-known are the mysterious circumstances thereafter...
"Old cars possess an almost talismanic quality. No other man-made object boasts the same disturbing allure of age-old metal and drivetrain. More emotions are involved with our classic cars than most human relationships.

"It’s why tales of crime and death surrounding vehicles – now cherished by devoted custodians – offers a mixed bag of perverse interest and cultural modelling. None with the same blend of mystery and uneasy fate as Grace Kelly’s accident behind the wheel of her Rover P6 V8.
"While France’s steep, winding southern roads of Corniche no longer radiate with the sun-drenched image portrayed by 1950s cinema, instead relegated to the contemporary curse of sluggish gridlock and nervous traffic lights, the tarmac undulations remain ultimately demanding.

"It was on this road – the D37 – that Princess Grace of Monaco suffered a devastating incident on 13 September 1982; her dark green Rover lurched over the edge of a 120-foot mountainside drop, rapidly spiraling into the undergrowth with a masticating crunch of metal.

and who spat in grandpas beer?
 
P6 rovers in the 1970s suffered from Brake fade easily confused with Brake fluid vapour lock IF the vehicles were involved in a prolonged series of braking going on well beyond the average braking that you and I encounter on an average run (e.g. up to a P6 rally)

Brake fluid vapour lock was the culprit in a number of 1970s accidents where the driver protested that the brakes failed (having put the vehicle through a recent period of continuous and repeated braking e.g. a car chase e.g. a long and winding descent) and then the P6 crashed into another vehicle, big investigation finally found the reason, it wasn't brake fade as was shouted about at the time, it was Brake fluid vapour lock, the worst part of it was, a few minutes after the crash, brakes were working perfectly again
 
Hmmmm I am upside down on the lid of my car....thought... Thank goodness those brakes are working again, Phew. :)
 
Would Grace Kelly's Rover have had single line or dual line brakes? The latter are supposed to be rather more safe so it is my understanding. My Rover suffered on a couple of occasions during the mid 1980s a very unpleasant brake fail, the pedal could be pushed straight to the floor with next to no resistance and no brakes o_O:eek: Release the pedal and press again, all good :rolleyes: Scary is an understatement let me tell you. That same troublesome and extremely dangerous behaviour also happened to another local Rover that I know of, also during the mid 1980s.

If my memory serves me, it happened after the master cylinder had been re-sleeved in stainless steel. I took my Rover to the local Rover dealer, the Service Manager there was extremely good. I told him of my unwanted experience, and he said that the valve wasn't seating properly, or at least that is what my memory tells me he said. In any case, I left my Rover with him and he removed the master cylinder and did something with the valve or possibly the seating area in the cylinder. Either way he fixed whatever was the problem as it has not repeated (thank goodness!!!). I also know that he fixed that same problem in the other Rover that I spoke of, and it too has never seen a repeat.

I remember my Dad speaking of Grace Kelly's Rover and how it may have had single line brakes in the same way that our Rover did. That was one thing that Dad did not like about the Rover, single line brakes, if they fail...….

Ron.
 
I use Super DOT 4 brake fluid in all my classics, it has the highest boiling point of all the DOT's until you get into exotic stuff, to date I have never managed to boil it, and I have tried very hard on various circuits. I used to boil DOT 4 no problem.
 
The first master cylinder l had re-sleeved came back to me mirror-finished. After a very hit & miss braking performance & two sets of seals l took it to my local, old-school motor factor who thought the finish may be to blame which a call to Lockheed's technical dep't confirmed. The staff honed it for me out back of the shop & the problem disappeared.
 
I've taken my 3500s round Silverstone on a pistonheads track day, all I ever experienced was fade when the brakes were hot, which is to be expected of any car in standard road going form really.
 
as has been said, brake fade feels totally different to boiling brake fluid,

i have boiled brake fluid on a race track, unlike fade where the pedal gradually feels worse, when you boil the fluid, the pedal almost instantly changes from being ok to non existent, when the fluid cools again it feels perfectly normal again
 
You are so right, arriving at your first corner after a pit stop to find no pedal is 'concerning' funnily after being caught you always prod the pedal to see if you have a brake before setting out.
 
I thought I read somewhere that rover sent engineers to inspect the car and found nothing wrong with the brakes.
 
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