1957 Rover P4

Rover P4 (Saloon), 1949-1964

The Rover P4 was in production from 1949 to 1964. Styled in house, it is a front-engine, rear wheel drive saloon car seating four adults.

Replacing the Rover P3, the P4 offered a new school of thinking from within Rover. Its advanced body owed much to the Studebaker cars of America, though the drivetrains were resolutely Rover - the same fours and sixes that had powered its predecessors. Launched as the Rover 75 in 1949, the most striking element of its design was a centrally mounted lamp in the grille - giving it the "Cyclops" nickname. The 75 was the only model - Rover choosing to offer a single model only range in the wake of the war to maximise profitability. Four years later Rover would introduce a four cylinder 60 and a larger capacity 90 to broaden the range. These cars would also bring a new floor mounted gear lever to replace the column change - and were never fitted with the original "Cyclops" nose; this having been replaced in 1952 by a more conservative grille.

A new body with a larger boot and more conservative nose was announced in 1954, and two years later Rover expanded the range upwards with the 105R and 105S. The 105S was a higher powered 90 to take advantage of higher octane fuel, the 105R used a new Roverdrive automatic gearbox. Later models included the Land Rover-engined 80, the economy focused 95, the powerful 100, and the final range topping 110. Rover would replace the P4 with the P6 of 1963, though the ranges overlapped for around seven months. 130312 P4s were produced in total.

Competition in period would have come from the Humber Hawk and Super Snipe models, as well as possibly cars such as the Wolseley 6/90 and Riley Pathfinder. Today people would reasonably consider a P5 3-litre to be a good alternative to a later P4, or might consider a Vanden Plas Princess 3-litre if the appeal of the P4 came from its walnut and leather interior. A Riley RM would make an interesting driver-focused alternative, but at the time it would have looked old-fashioned when seen next to the Rover.