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pjb1969

Member
Hello all,

Ive just joined the forums as im an old car lover and i recently spotted an early 2000 for sale on a banger racing forum, as it was an early one (1964) i was quite intrigued to find out more about it ,to cut a long story short today i went and had a look at it and bought it.I dont know what im going to do with it yet as i already have too many projects including a very early P plate SD1, 3 classic minis and a mk1 granada but when i saw the p6 i had to save it even if i dont do anything with it but find it a new home with a p6 fan.

The car is a 2000 registered on the 26th march 1964 chassis number 40002144A and if somebody could tell me the build date from the chassis number the would be great. its wedgewood blue with grey leather.It has had 1 lady owner from new up until november last year when the chap i bought it off bought it.It appears to have never had any paintwork or welding anywhere and from a quick look doesn`t appear to need any major work just a light restoration ie recommisioning and some bodywork mainly the four wings.Its very original even down to the radio, the correct wheeltrims are in the boot and it still has its original dealer number plates with the suppling dealers name on "Murkett Bros".The last tax disc ran out in september 1987 and i am told has been unused and garaged since.

Heres a few pics

P6_Rover_001.jpg

000_0005.jpg

000_0004.jpg

000_0002.jpg


I shall collect it in the new year have a good look over it and decide what im going to do with it, in the meantime i thought joining the forum would be a good start to my p6 ownership and hopefully help me to gather some usefull info if i decide to have a go at getting it back on the road and if i decide not to have a go at it i dare say someone here could help me find it a new home.

Happy new year to all

Paul.
 
Well done Paul...great to see any P6 rescued from the Curse Of The Oval, especially an early Series I. If you have the time I'm sure you'll have hours and years of smiles restoring and driving her. If you do decide to sell on, I know someone who might be interested. Whereabouts are you?

Have fun...and welcome aboard! :D

Cheers,
 
Wow, that is a find an a half. Must be one of the first of the line? Must be in for a shout as one of the oldest saviours??? I'm sure if you find you have no time to work on her there would be a few on here that would bit your arm of for it.... :wink:
 
Thanks for the comments,the car has spent its life in kings lynn,its stored in wisbech at the moment but it should be with me in birmingham next week.

Could anyone tell me the build date? (chassis no 40002144A) as it would be nice to know how early it was and possibly find out where it comes in on the oldest surving p6 list.
 
That looks quite a nice old thing & very saveable & Wedgewood Blue a very rare colour if I'm not mistaken cant say I ever remember seeing one that colour, seen pictures though.

Regards Colin
 
2Diesels said:
That looks quite a nice old thing & very saveable & Wedgewood Blue a very rare colour if I'm not mistaken cant say I ever remember seeing one that colour, seen pictures though.

Regards Colin
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Thanks and you probably wont beleive this but i owned your black car breifly several years ago maybe around 2003, my brother was working for a vauxhall dealer in the south that was closing down there bodyshop and i think TYY 9E belonged to someone that worked there, if i remember correctly the owner of TYY 9E kept the car at the bodyshop/storage centre and as it was closing he had nowhere to store it, my brother rang me and asked if i fancied it , i agreed to buy it over the phone on on the understanding that i would have bit of fun with it and then pass it on to a friend of mine that deals in old cars.I remember that it was a very good car and everyone that saw it always assumed it had been colour changed and was shocked when i pointed out it was originaly black, i wondered if the combination of factory black with the distinctive reg number may have meant it had some special duties in its younger days ie embassy or something.I would of hung on to it if it wasnt a painfully slow auto and hadn`t had so many later mk2 additions as i remember the car itself was in good condition and was very solid.Im glad to see its still around and in good hands.

Cheers Paul.
 
March '64 is extremely early for a registration date. The chassis number tells you most of what you need to know - the 2144 bit is the sequential build no. Production build allegedly started at about car 53 in Oct '63 and allegedly ran at 250 cars per week from then, so by March '64 the chassis numbers ought to have been up around the 5000 mark. That yours is 2144 supports the generally acknowledged very poor start to production. I'm not entirely clear why this was, my strong suspicion centres on the new plant at Pengham in South Wales which produced the engines and rear axles being in serious dissaray. At any rate Taylor quotes no production at all in '63 and a mere 7,235 for the whole of '64. That averages out at roughly 125 cars per week, which would get them to about car 2800 in March '64. So on that basis your car's registration date looks pretty close to its build date.

Yours is potentially therefore extremely early! Also it looks in startlingly good condition! Our '65 car looked worse than that after SEVEN years, never mind 44! You'll find plenty of info elsewhere on where they go rusty really - the visible panels aren't really a very good guide - it's the base unit that matters.

Best of luck with it.

Chris
 
Thanks for the information,
When i first heard of the car it was the combination of the colour and the reg date/age that intrigued me so i had to go and see it even though it was over 100 miles away.When i saw the car i was pleasantly surprised to find it still in fairly good and very original condition, when i looked at the V5 and noticed it was owned by the same lady from new until last year i knew i had to save it as it was potentialy a very rare find.I have since spoken to a friend of mine thats a bit older than me and very much a rover man and he seems to think that a car this early may even of been ordered on the stand at the motor show, he also added that for the first few years these were one of the coolest cars of the time and in his opinion this was the best colour combination.Even though its a bit of hassle logisticly im glad ive saved it and hopefully secured its future either in my hands or another enthusiasts.

Cheers
Paul.
 
Hi Paul,

What a find! I have an early P6 2000 registered on 6th May '64. Its chassis number is 3607, so yours is a bit before mine.

Your car stands well & looks in reasonable condition (for any age of P6, let alone an early one!) Wedgewood Blue is a very unforgiving colour on a poor car, so you seem to have saved a nice one.

I just wish mine had been in better condition. It's nowhere near as good as yours yet & I've had it for getting on 5 years (I was welding it for 3!)

Anyway, welcome aboard, & have a Happy New Year!

Phil. :D
 
pjb1969 said:
Thanks and you probably wont beleive this but i owned your black car breifly several years ago maybe around 2003
Click to expand...

Well there's a turn up for the books. I bought it in December '04 of a local classic car enthusiast who did very little to it & got bored with it very quickly as he seems to do with most cars.

pjb1969 said:
I remember that it was a very good car and everyone that saw it always assumed it had been colour changed and was shocked when i pointed out it was originaly black, i wondered if the combination of factory black with the distinctive reg number may have meant it had some special duties in its younger days ie embassy or something.
Click to expand...
I recently did a DVLA history trace & it belonged to a woman called Mrs. Gross in Westminster for the first 11 years of it's life & then passed on to a man in Surrey I think it was who had it 27 years according to the logbook & then the man I got it off who got it early 2004, so I think you probably got it from it's 2nd owner who was called Raymond but I cant remember his Surname.

As for the condition it's not all that good & actually had aluminium screwed over the bottom of the inner sill to hide the holes but I'm slowly chipping away at all it's little faults. Oh & it's manual now I got sick of having trouble with the auto box

Regards Colin
 
2Diesels said:
I recently did a DVLA history trace & it belonged to a woman called Mrs. Gross in Westminster for the first 11 years of it's life & then passed on to a man in Surrey I think it was who had it 27 years according to the logbook & then the man I got it off who got it early 2004, so I think you probably got it from it's 2nd owner who was called Raymond but I cant remember his Surname.
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I think your right as my brother lives in surrey and i remember him telling me that he knew of the owner and he had owned it for a long time, surely if it was registered to a woman in westminster theres still a chance it had some significant or even goverment connections.

Great to see it again as only the other day due to finding the blue one i wondered what became of TYY 9E

Cheers
Paul.
 
On my database I have a 2000 with one number higher than yours, Paul. I don´t know the date of built of this 2000 but she was first regeistered in March 1964.

Rudiger
 
Rudiger Wicke said:
On my database I have a 2000 with one number higher than yours, Paul. I don´t know the date of built of this 2000 but she was first regeistered in March 1964.

Rudiger
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I emailed you via your website yesterday with all my details and pics for the database, where is the car with one number higher than mine ?

Cheers
Paul.
 
Rudiger Wicke said:
My last info is of 2005 - so I don´t know if she is still in Lancashire.

Rudiger
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Is my car new to your database or did you already have the details listed ? Out of interest what colour is the car with the one digit higher chassis number?
 
DaveHerns said:
Nick Dunning would be salivating at the thought of such an early series 1 P6 !
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Too right.

NO car that old should be broken, pre-1966 Dunlop braked cars are so rare now.

This one looks excellent - in my knowledge Wedgwood Blue is actually one of the more plentiful of the original colours, the really rare one being Willow Green, of which I've only seen or heard of four existing ones in recent years.

If it comes up for sale of course I am interested, please give me a shout.

I'd say, with that chassis number, that the car was built only just before it was registered (February 1964). The first thousand cars were still being built in the January. They managed to speed up a bit then, but there were major gearbox problems at the factory which meant that full scale production didn't really start until the Summer of '64.

Cheers
Nick
 
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