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Burble, burble, throb


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Introducing my latest purchase.

 

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I've had several P6s over the years, but they've all been four-bangers. Last week I decided to do something about the worrying modernisation (not to mention Nipponisation) of my fleet and splashed out on this. It's a 3500 V8 auto, 1971 vintage so the first of the Series 2's. It's had three owners from new and drives spot on. Despite the horror stories I've read in some road tests about V8s with unassisted steering, I've found it quite manageable. It's got the usual P6 non-functioning intermittent wipers, and the heated rear window doesn't appear to work either, but everything else does.

 

The engine is sweet and it pulls well enough - ideally I was looking for a manual but finding a tax exempt 3500S within my budget turned out to be a bit of a struggle. I actually quite like it as an auto though, although it has the usual Borg Warner 35 traits of holding onto lower gears for too long and clunking a bit on part-throttle upshifts. The T&T are fairly short, but it's only done 200 miles since its last test and it's been garaged, so hopefully it should pass relatively easily. It's got a bit of grot on the OSR arch, but I don't know if it'll be an MoT fail on this as there's no rear seatbelts so it's not near a mounting point. Brakes are all good and don't bind on, which is always a worry with these as the rear discs are inboard. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. It does need some black & silver number plates though.

 

The seller had a unit near March which was a bit of an Aladdin's cave - apart from the Citroën Xantia, everything in there was interesting. He had a C plate Audi Quattro (a proper one), another P6 V8 (manual, but rotten and not tax exempt), a gorgeous RHD DS saloon and an early '30s Citroën Rosalie (which apparently I was the first visitor to the unit to have identified correctly). Any or all of those would be welcome in my fantasy garage...

 

Anyway, I'm off to the bank to see if I can get a loan to put petrol in the old gal...

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Ah, I know who you've bought this off. He does have some tasty motors.Mexico brown? Not the best colour but hey, fire up the V8 and listen to it! Gorgeous. My old S1 V8 didn't have power steering. Can't say it was ever an issue. Now I've got a four-banger - can I live with half the proper number of cylinders?!Looks lovely though and I presume it's solid in all the correct places.

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That is top notch, a V8 auto in brown is pretty much the best spec in my eyes. Very nice!Required viewing for P6 fans is a scene in The Sweeney where a police one is chasing Regan/Carter as they attempt to hurtle away in a MK1 Escort 1100, it does a huge slide and the sills nearly scrape the floor! It'll probably be on Youtube somewhere.

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Dare one ask how much you paid for it?...

£550. More than I'd normally give for something with short T&T but I think this should be a good 'un. And the tax is free too, which helps.

Do these run on unleaded?

I'm not entirely sure - I think they should be OK as they're an alloy engine so should have hardened valve seats. It certainly seems to run a lot more smoothly on 95 octane unleaded than the Volvo 164 will.
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I presume it's solid in all the correct places.

I presume so too. :oops: I had a quick look around it and from what I could tell in the dark and without kneeling in the freezing mud it looked fine. The chap certainly seemed to think it was solid, and going by his feedback he seems to describe cars pretty accurately. It certainly "feels" solid - none of the creaks and groans and suspension clonks that you get in structurally unsound P6s.
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£550? Crikey. Much motor for the moolah. Even if it does need work, you can still listen to it!It gets confused re: unleaded. Early V8s ran a high compression as they were designed for 100 octane fuel. I ran my Series 1 V8 on 95RON with no issues though. Longer term, I have heard of people muttering that these engines should use an additive, but I've heard people say that about 2CVs as well - which is utter rot (similarly, an aluminium engine so has hardened seats anyway).

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I would defo stick unleaded in if I had one of these. As you say, ally heads, and they sold em in the states did they not? If so you can be sure that unleaded will be OK. Plus they are not exactly a highly-stressed lump, I bet the combustion temp is about 40 deg C or summert. On top of that how many motorway miles will you do? Not many i'll wager at 20mpg, you'd be talking years before any effect became noticeable/measureable, by which time the sills/inner tub/rear brakes/head gaskets etc will be long gone anyway. Bosh it in!Looks great, I would love one of these and £550 seems very reasonable.

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That is top notch, a V8 auto in brown is pretty much the best spec in my eyes. Very nice!Required viewing for P6 fans is a scene in The Sweeney where a police one is chasing Regan/Carter as they attempt to hurtle away in a MK1 Escort 1100, it does a huge slide and the sills nearly scrape the floor! It'll probably be on Youtube somewhere.

There's another scene where an unmarked P6 rolls over onto it's side during a chase,demolishing a fence.
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Top motor!Can you still get the kits to put the spare wheel on the boot? 8)

Yeah I think so, they had restored one in PC and put the wheel on the boot like that. I would be too paranoid that if I crashed it that the wheel would dislodge itself and come steaming through the car at high velocity - decapatiting various occupants :shock: Beutiful cars and an absolute bargain in my opinion! I get travel expenses for work, so am considering something similar which I will only drive when i'm getting paid to drive it!
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I had an identical P6 3500 to that about 15 years ago. Mexico brown auto with leather and pas. JUE 183N I think it was. Most of my early childhood was spent in P6s, they're the car that gave me the V8 fixation I've had ever since. I'd love another one one day. I only sold mine because it suffered from monumental fuel vapourisation issues and someone offered me a very lovely 2.8i Capri for it.One reason why I bought the 30 was my dad went hunting for a 30 to replace the P6 he had at the time. I couldn't for the life of me understand why he'd done that, so I got a 30 as well.

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WOW WOW WOW I like lots, that is exactly the same as my old one that I owned a couple of years ago-really regret selling mine. I was always very impressed with the ride quality it used to soak up the bumps like a Jaguar.I had a chance to drive one again last year and the smooth ride quality still impressed me. I'd love another. I love the view of the bonnet on the series 2, the bonnet bulge and the little fins of the wings-nicely.Sadly I purchased the boxed set of The Sweeney at the time of ownership as I was well into seventies stuff and I knew that blue P6 was in it :oops: I have a brand new rear door skin for one still.

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