I never set out last week with the intention of buying another car. However we all know how that goes. I found myself on the way to Bristol-ish on a rainy morning.
Also found myself cursing VW for having deleted everything aside from USB-C by way of charging ports in the Arteon. They also haven't added any actual functional suspension, though that's no huge surprise.
The rain did helpfully stop briefly while we did the handover itself and fuelled up for the trip home.
That didn't last however, and within about five minutes the heavens opened again, and continued to absolutely drench us the entire way home.
A roughly 150 mile trip in a 60 year old car which I'd never driven before, and while I knew had been regularly used I had no idea when had last been on a decent run. Nothing like a bit of a baptism of fire.
Despite the weather having claimed quite a few victims based on the number of cars we saw littering the side of the road on the way home, she didn't miss a beat and we go safely home.
Only complaints were really minor things really. The most troublesome was mainly that the windscreen demister was doing very little. It was just about able to keep up as long as we were moving, but immediately failed to cope if we stopped for more than 30 seconds. The windscreen wiper blades it turned out were a fraction too long for the screen and we're catching on the top windscreen seal, lifting the wiper off the screen for an inch or two of the sweep - of course nearly right in the middle of my field of view. Finally, the wing mirrors adapted the most aerodynamically advantageous position within about 90 seconds of joining the motorway.
In all though, nothing to worry about really. Not a single misfire the whole way and the temperature gauge didn't waver at all, if anything running a little on the cool side.
The weather meant that it was the next day before I was really able to take a closer look at things, combined with being really busy preparing for a trip abroad we had had to arrange at basically zero notice due to a bereavement in the family.
Day after it was more pleasant at least and I was able to take a quick run out to run a couple of errands in the car.
Far more pleasant when I could actually see where I was going properly!
I've driven quite a few cars from the 50s and 60s, but collecting this was my first trip even as a passenger in a P4. Have to admit to being quite pleasantly surprised. While it obviously requires rather more concentration than for example driving my Renault 25, it's nowhere close to as frenetic as quite a few things I've driven. It's also thanks to the overdrive, surprisingly long legged, being quite content to cruise comfortably at the legal speed limit on motorways, and has sufficient torque to not be really knocked back at all noticeably by hills.
That seems to surprise a lot of other drivers - which admittedly I can understand...I mean it doesn't exactly look like something you'd expect to see cruising past you on the M4.
Steering is a bit heavy at parking speeds, but is
absolutely fine when moving. Reckon it's a little lighter than on the Ladas I've owned, and controlled by a far nicer to hold wheel. It is something like steering a yaught though, there is absolutely no feedback through the steering whatsoever to indicate what the front wheels are doing.
The interior while a little threadbare in places is a very pleasant place to be.
Though we are missing one piece of equipment in there which will be getting installed pretty much as soon as I'm back in the country: Seatbelts! No, I don't just mean rear seat belts, I mean *any* seatbelts. There are currently none, and I'm not comfortable with that. Helpfully there is a company relatively local to us who specialise in period look installations, so they'll be seeing some business from me shortly.
Got an interesting little mini-project lined up inside as well.
That's the original valve based radio. I'm no stranger to reviving thermionic tech even if it's a hobby I haven't really touched in a few years, so sure we will get that up and going soon enough.
The clock is also currently non functional so is also on the list.
Actually quite high on the list as that's the sort of thing which will bug my OCD something rotten as it's so visible on the dash.
One detail in front of the driver which leaves no doubt as to the age of the origins of this car (even if this particular example is from towards the end of the production run) is the shepherd's crook handbrake.
Nicely chrome plated of course. Just like the gear linkage extension ball joint...they could have hidden this away under a rubber or leather gaiter or tucked it away on the other side of the transmission tunnel. However no, Rover chose to chrome plate it and just leave the engineering used on show.
A nice touch in the interior I would have missed if it hadn't been pointed out to me was this little wooden strip below the glove box.
Which is actually the handle to pull this out.
After 60 years I'm quite surprised how many of the original tools are still present.
Some nice engineering under here too.
In fact some over-engineering maybe in some areas...the intake setup for instance is a little over the top. I know Rover didn't want any of that uncouth intake noise escaping, but even so...
The giant silencer/air cleaner housing and that solid cast ally ducting to the carb just seems like slight overkill.
Currently a little futile at maintaining refinement too as there's a hole in the exhaust which is making it sound a little on the rowdy side - though I was absolutely not expecting the very classic Jaguar-esque howl that arrives at higher revs when accelerating. Kind of hoping that remains once it's sorted as it's a very nice noise.
I had a bit of a "what the?!?" moment looking at this side of the engine.
Yes, there are two valve covers. I had completely missed that this used an Inlet-Over-Exhaust engine layout. Then I started doing a little more reading on this exact power unit and discovered it's a really odd unit. Quite clever too, allowing far larger valves to be fitted than would be possible on an OHV design with this small a bore. The top of the block is actually machined at an angle (as is the top of the piston), with the "pocket" the exhaust valve and spark plug sit in being an almost perfect hemisphere (albeit the other way up to the combustion chamber on most hemi head engines), allowing far higher compression than most IOE designs. It's quite a fascinating bit of engineering. Can't really question the results either, it's a really torquey, silky smooth engine, and the rated 123bhp wasn't anything to be sniffed at back when this was a current model. It shows too, while she takes a bit longer to wind up to speed from a standing start than a modern car (you don't so much do anything as unrefined as accelerate as move off), she will happily cruise along with modern traffic no bother at all.
No oil or water were used during the run over, though the water hoses definitely need changing sooner than later if we're going to keep that being the case. A full set was provided with the car.
Mmm, crispy. They're actually not as horrendous as they look at a glance, it just seems to be the outer layer of rubber which has perished badly and all survived being squeezed just fine - but they're obviously in need of replacement.
The rubber the door seals are made from has survived about as well.
Which may explain the somewhat biblical levels of wind noise currently present (though I'm not expecting miracles in that department - aerodynamics weren't exactly high on the priority list back then). Despite a couple of seals being completely missing though the weather at least does seem to be staying outside which surprised me a bit. A new set of seals has been ordered though and will be fitted soon.
This car predates the time when cars stopped having proper bonnet emblems.
I think having had a look over the car the thing which surprises me the most is how much these cars seem to be overlooked by many people. They just seem massively under valued to my mind - I mean I have a soft spot for the Morris Minor just the same as the next person, but for similar money I know which of these two I'd chose...and it's not the Morris Minor.
Sadly because of the aforementioned trip to the US I had to pause everything there and won't have a chance to look any further at the car until I'm back home in about a week. So far I'm really quite pleased with the car and am looking forward to getting to know it better.
Also found myself cursing VW for having deleted everything aside from USB-C by way of charging ports in the Arteon. They also haven't added any actual functional suspension, though that's no huge surprise.
The rain did helpfully stop briefly while we did the handover itself and fuelled up for the trip home.
That didn't last however, and within about five minutes the heavens opened again, and continued to absolutely drench us the entire way home.
A roughly 150 mile trip in a 60 year old car which I'd never driven before, and while I knew had been regularly used I had no idea when had last been on a decent run. Nothing like a bit of a baptism of fire.
Despite the weather having claimed quite a few victims based on the number of cars we saw littering the side of the road on the way home, she didn't miss a beat and we go safely home.
Only complaints were really minor things really. The most troublesome was mainly that the windscreen demister was doing very little. It was just about able to keep up as long as we were moving, but immediately failed to cope if we stopped for more than 30 seconds. The windscreen wiper blades it turned out were a fraction too long for the screen and we're catching on the top windscreen seal, lifting the wiper off the screen for an inch or two of the sweep - of course nearly right in the middle of my field of view. Finally, the wing mirrors adapted the most aerodynamically advantageous position within about 90 seconds of joining the motorway.
In all though, nothing to worry about really. Not a single misfire the whole way and the temperature gauge didn't waver at all, if anything running a little on the cool side.
The weather meant that it was the next day before I was really able to take a closer look at things, combined with being really busy preparing for a trip abroad we had had to arrange at basically zero notice due to a bereavement in the family.
Day after it was more pleasant at least and I was able to take a quick run out to run a couple of errands in the car.
Far more pleasant when I could actually see where I was going properly!
I've driven quite a few cars from the 50s and 60s, but collecting this was my first trip even as a passenger in a P4. Have to admit to being quite pleasantly surprised. While it obviously requires rather more concentration than for example driving my Renault 25, it's nowhere close to as frenetic as quite a few things I've driven. It's also thanks to the overdrive, surprisingly long legged, being quite content to cruise comfortably at the legal speed limit on motorways, and has sufficient torque to not be really knocked back at all noticeably by hills.
That seems to surprise a lot of other drivers - which admittedly I can understand...I mean it doesn't exactly look like something you'd expect to see cruising past you on the M4.
Steering is a bit heavy at parking speeds, but is
absolutely fine when moving. Reckon it's a little lighter than on the Ladas I've owned, and controlled by a far nicer to hold wheel. It is something like steering a yaught though, there is absolutely no feedback through the steering whatsoever to indicate what the front wheels are doing.
The interior while a little threadbare in places is a very pleasant place to be.
Though we are missing one piece of equipment in there which will be getting installed pretty much as soon as I'm back in the country: Seatbelts! No, I don't just mean rear seat belts, I mean *any* seatbelts. There are currently none, and I'm not comfortable with that. Helpfully there is a company relatively local to us who specialise in period look installations, so they'll be seeing some business from me shortly.
Got an interesting little mini-project lined up inside as well.
That's the original valve based radio. I'm no stranger to reviving thermionic tech even if it's a hobby I haven't really touched in a few years, so sure we will get that up and going soon enough.
The clock is also currently non functional so is also on the list.
Actually quite high on the list as that's the sort of thing which will bug my OCD something rotten as it's so visible on the dash.
One detail in front of the driver which leaves no doubt as to the age of the origins of this car (even if this particular example is from towards the end of the production run) is the shepherd's crook handbrake.
Nicely chrome plated of course. Just like the gear linkage extension ball joint...they could have hidden this away under a rubber or leather gaiter or tucked it away on the other side of the transmission tunnel. However no, Rover chose to chrome plate it and just leave the engineering used on show.
A nice touch in the interior I would have missed if it hadn't been pointed out to me was this little wooden strip below the glove box.
Which is actually the handle to pull this out.
After 60 years I'm quite surprised how many of the original tools are still present.
Some nice engineering under here too.
In fact some over-engineering maybe in some areas...the intake setup for instance is a little over the top. I know Rover didn't want any of that uncouth intake noise escaping, but even so...
The giant silencer/air cleaner housing and that solid cast ally ducting to the carb just seems like slight overkill.
Currently a little futile at maintaining refinement too as there's a hole in the exhaust which is making it sound a little on the rowdy side - though I was absolutely not expecting the very classic Jaguar-esque howl that arrives at higher revs when accelerating. Kind of hoping that remains once it's sorted as it's a very nice noise.
I had a bit of a "what the?!?" moment looking at this side of the engine.
Yes, there are two valve covers. I had completely missed that this used an Inlet-Over-Exhaust engine layout. Then I started doing a little more reading on this exact power unit and discovered it's a really odd unit. Quite clever too, allowing far larger valves to be fitted than would be possible on an OHV design with this small a bore. The top of the block is actually machined at an angle (as is the top of the piston), with the "pocket" the exhaust valve and spark plug sit in being an almost perfect hemisphere (albeit the other way up to the combustion chamber on most hemi head engines), allowing far higher compression than most IOE designs. It's quite a fascinating bit of engineering. Can't really question the results either, it's a really torquey, silky smooth engine, and the rated 123bhp wasn't anything to be sniffed at back when this was a current model. It shows too, while she takes a bit longer to wind up to speed from a standing start than a modern car (you don't so much do anything as unrefined as accelerate as move off), she will happily cruise along with modern traffic no bother at all.
No oil or water were used during the run over, though the water hoses definitely need changing sooner than later if we're going to keep that being the case. A full set was provided with the car.
Mmm, crispy. They're actually not as horrendous as they look at a glance, it just seems to be the outer layer of rubber which has perished badly and all survived being squeezed just fine - but they're obviously in need of replacement.
The rubber the door seals are made from has survived about as well.
Which may explain the somewhat biblical levels of wind noise currently present (though I'm not expecting miracles in that department - aerodynamics weren't exactly high on the priority list back then). Despite a couple of seals being completely missing though the weather at least does seem to be staying outside which surprised me a bit. A new set of seals has been ordered though and will be fitted soon.
This car predates the time when cars stopped having proper bonnet emblems.
I think having had a look over the car the thing which surprises me the most is how much these cars seem to be overlooked by many people. They just seem massively under valued to my mind - I mean I have a soft spot for the Morris Minor just the same as the next person, but for similar money I know which of these two I'd chose...and it's not the Morris Minor.
Sadly because of the aforementioned trip to the US I had to pause everything there and won't have a chance to look any further at the car until I'm back home in about a week. So far I'm really quite pleased with the car and am looking forward to getting to know it better.
