Specifications: 1953 Rover 60 P4 series

Steering:

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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 60

A four-cylinder version of the P4 line was introduced in 1953 as the P4 60. Its 2.0 L (1997cc/121 in³) 60 bhp (45 kW) engine was the same one Rover used in the early Land Rover, with modifications including an SU carburettor. As the block was shorter than that of the 6-cylinder engine, it sat further back in the frame, and this is sometimes held to have resulted in better handling and compensated for the lack of power. It was replaced in 1959 by the P4 80, which used an updated version of the overhead-valve 2286cc (138 in³) four used in the Land Rover by that time. In their test of the Sixty in 1954 The Motor magazine recorded a top speed of 76.0 mph (122.3 km/h) and acceleration from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) of 26.5 seconds. A fuel consumption of 25.8 miles per imperial gallon (10.9 L/100 km; 21.5 mpg-US) was recorded. The test car cost £1162 including taxes.

Also see: Rover Reviews | The History of Rover