Specifications: 1949 Rover 75 P4 series

Steering:

Turns Lock-to-Lock:

Rover P4

The Rover P4 series was a group of saloon automobiles produced from 1949 through to 1964 designed by Gordon Bashford. The P4 designation is factory terminology for the group of cars and was not in day-to-day use by ordinary owners, who would have said simply that they had a "Rover 90" and so on. The P4 was also the basis of the short lived Marauder car. The P4 was also the basis of the short lived Marauder car.

Engineering

The cars used a Rover engine in 4- or 6-cylinder form which came from the 1948 P3 and had overhead Valves for inlet and side Valves for exhaust. A four-speed manual transmission was used with a column-mounted shifter at first and floor-mounted unit from 1954. At first the gearbox only had synchromesh on third and top but it was added to second gear as well in 1953. A freewheel clutch, a traditional Rover feature, was fitted to cars without overdrive until mid-1959, when it was removed from the specifications, shortly before the range rearrangements announced for the London Motor Show in October that year. The cars had a separate chassis with Independent suspension by Coil Springs at the front and a live axle with half-elliptical leaf springs at the rear. The brakes on early cars were operated by a hybrid hydro-mechanical system but became fully hydraulic in 1950. Girling disc brakes replaced drums at the front from 1959. The complete body shells were made by the Pressed Steel company and featured aluminium/magnesium alloy (Birmabright) doors, boot lid and bonnets until the final 95/110 models, which were all steel to reduce costs. The P4 was one of the last UK cars to incorporate rear-hinged "suicide" doors..

P4 75

The original P4, the model 75, arrived in 1949. It featured controversial modern styling which contrasted with the outdated Rover P3 which it replaced, and which was heavily based on the bullet-nosed Studebakers of the same era. The turning circle was 37 feet (11 m) .[4] One particularly unusual feature was the centrally mounted headlight in the grille. Known as the "Cyclops eye", it was removed after 1952. Power came from a 2.1 L (2103cc/128 in³) Rover IOE straight-6 engine. A four-speed manual transmission was used with a column-mounted shifter at first and floor-mounted unit from 1954. A car tested by The Motor magazine in 1949 had a top speed of 83.5 mph (134.4 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 21.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of 27.8 miles per imperial gallon (10.2 L/100 km; 23.1 mpg-US) was recorded. The test car cost £1106 including taxes. Production of this original model ended in 1954 with 33,267 sold.

Also see: Rover Reviews | The History of Rover