1958 Rover 3 Litre Saloon Pre-production MkI [P5]

1958 Rover 3 Litre MkI [P5] in In The Rover Tradition, Short Movie, 1958 Ep. 3

Class: Cars, Sedan — Model origin:

1958 Rover 3 Litre Saloon Pre-production MkI [P5]

00:03:34 Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
dsl ◊ 2019-03-14 22:22	By definition, all the fully-finished P5s in the film are pre-launch examples because the film was presented on the launch date of 22 Sept 1958. But they can be defined further as "Pre-production" as only 6 proper 3 Litres existed at that point and full production did not start until Jan 59. Development during 1958 missed many deadlines, particularly as it only had 6 cars (and the 2 1956 prototypes) to work from, tooling orders kept slipping, components were approved without proper testing then had to be revised, there were particular problems from inadequate pillar strengthening to cope with heavy doors, so body distortion and cracking windscreens, and so on. The 6 pre-pros were all built "summer" 1958, probably July until September and numbered P5/1 to P5/6. Differences from proper production seen in these include: - -R-O-V-E-R- badge on front wing between front end of side trim and indicator, dropped before launch, although apparently included in launch brochure pictures - no grille or boot badges; this may have been partly to avoid them being recognised pre-launch, but there was also a last-minute change for the grille badge of black sail on red background being reversed to red sail with black background - colour combinations - pre-pros had two-tone sandwich with roof matching lower body sides, which was changed at last minute to body colour roof. Not all the captures show every pre-pro feature all the time, so there seems to have been a fair bit of on-the-hoof tweaking. At least 4 of the 6 pre-pros seen, maybe more. Spiders eye headlights, as used on RR Silver Cloud I Finale sequence, with an apparently final spec 3 Litre in the showroom (final grille badge, no wing -R-O-V-E-R- badge), but the street car still has the wing badge (and no rear badge) 521(?) AC was August-Sept 58. -- Last edit: 2019-03-15 15:25:45

Author

Message

dsl

◊ 2019-03-14 22:22

By definition, all the fully-finished P5s in the film are pre-launch examples because the film was presented on the launch date of 22 Sept 1958. But they can be defined further as "Pre-production" as only 6 proper 3 Litres existed at that point and full production did not start until Jan 59. Development during 1958 missed many deadlines, particularly as it only had 6 cars (and the 2 1956 prototypes) to work from, tooling orders kept slipping, components were approved without proper testing then had to be revised, there were particular problems from inadequate pillar strengthening to cope with heavy doors, so body distortion and cracking windscreens, and so on.

The 6 pre-pros were all built "summer" 1958, probably July until September and numbered P5/1 to P5/6. Differences from proper production seen in these include:

- -R-O-V-E-R- badge on front wing between front end of side trim and indicator, dropped before launch, although apparently included in launch brochure pictures
- no grille or boot badges; this may have been partly to avoid them being recognised pre-launch, but there was also a last-minute change for the grille badge of black sail on red background being reversed to red sail with black background
- colour combinations - pre-pros had two-tone sandwich with roof matching lower body sides, which was changed at last minute to body colour roof.

Not all the captures show every pre-pro feature all the time, so there seems to have been a fair bit of on-the-hoof tweaking. At least 4 of the 6 pre-pros seen, maybe more.

Spiders eye headlights, as used on RR Silver Cloud I

Finale sequence, with an apparently final spec 3 Litre in the showroom (final grille badge, no wing -R-O-V-E-R- badge), but the street car still has the wing badge (and no rear badge)

521(?) AC was August-Sept 58.

-- Last edit: 2019-03-15 15:25:45

Advertising

Last completed movie pages

1958 Rover 3 Litre Saloon Pre-production MkI [P5]

1958 Rover 3 Litre MkI [P5] in In The Rover Tradition, Short Movie, 1958 Ep. 3

Comments about this vehicle

Add a comment

Advertising

Watch or buy this title - Powered by JustWatch

Advertising