IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: Rover P5B

Today's video is on the Rover P5B! The Queen has two, so there must be something in it! Watch for more info on the V8 powered, Rover P5B.

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It’s sometimes called the Poor Man’s Rolls Royce, but as you’ll see on this test, it’s not the poor man’s anything. This car in many ways has aged better than a Rolls, the quality is comparable and the ride is just as charming.

Over 20,000 were sold in less than a decade and for a car that was far from the cheapest on the market, that’s pretty good going!

Kicking off with engine chatter, The P5 had packed what at the time appeared to be plenty of power with the six cylinder engine, but the P5B went a leap further with the introduction to the car of the Buick-supplied Rover V8 engine.

The reason Rover decided to go for Buick engine and not go to the chalkboard and design their own was down to cost: the money just wasn’t there to design something new and the Buick unit was well known and tried and tested; so essentially there wasn’t a gamble putting it into the new P5B giving it 160hp.

The car did zero to 60 in around 12 and a half seconds and the top speed was 110mph. This might seem positively lethargic in today’s modern world, but at the time it was respectable and put it ahead of many other cars. The MK3 3 litre auto of old had peaked at 104mph and took 17 seconds to reach 60, which meant buyers saw a real uptick in performance.

Performance wise within the range, the car was almost bang on with the 2000TC, which at the time was Rover’s fastest car on sale.

It wasn’t only the performance which improved, the MPG saw a slight improvement with an increase in around 3 to 4 miles per gallon. Hardly amazing, but for Rover, it showed improvement.

The engine was paired with the three speed auto with torque converter and brakes were discs all round with a servo to front.

We look at these cars today and they’re majestic and head turners, but at the time the production volumes were never intended to be massive. Although sales peaked very quickly, the early days were good, with 85 cars a week planned and production volume doubling to meet demand.

By the end of production, the average weekly number produced was around 50; hardly much to shout about.

Despite this, the P5B was never intended to set the world alight, Rover just wanted to keep the target audience warm whilst they came up with something new.

If you’re watching from abroad and this isn’t a Rover you’re familiar with, it might be because it never reached you! America for example never got these cars because the American Rover division felt the focus should be on the P6.

However if you’re watching in the Netherlands, this might be a familiar car due to the fact it was the most popular European export destination.

This is a brief overview, but I used a book for research called Rover P5 and P5B by James Taylor, which I’d heartily recommend if you’re wanting to buy one of these cars or learn more.