75 P6 V8 - Bye, this car

[SiC]

My knowledge of old cars is still expanding as I've really only taken a keen interest in the last year or so. Hence I "discovered" the P6 before the P5. For me the P5 is more of a old Rolls Royce style classic. The P6 is cooler.

 

The P6 is what you pick the date up in, tear up the roads and crash into the hotel swimming pool, while the P5 is what you get married in and take the kids to the seaside with.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Fix it, buy a Triumph 2000, and revel in the increased reliability and similar dynamics.

 

 

FTFYM8

[SiC]

I'd love a P6. However given I'm struggling to keep a lowly MGB functioning. So going by this and Junkman P6 threads, I think I'd end up pushing the P6 off the side of a cliff.

[danthecapriman]

My knowledge of old cars is still expanding as I've really only taken a keen interest in the last year or so. Hence I "discovered" the P6 before the P5. For me the P5 is more of a old Rolls Royce style classic. The P6 is cooler.

The P6 is what you pick the date up in, tear up the roads and crash into the hotel swimming pool, while the P5 is what you get married in.

Maybe, but I'd say you could be the man running the country in the P5. Because they did. Not much makes a statement like rocking up in a huge old P5 (probably while smoking a pipe), they are just gorgeous looking imposing old things.

They're like chalk and cheese really.

 

For me the P5 is a bucket list car. The P6 isn't. Hard to explain why really?

Even the P6's competitors, Jag XJ, MK1 Granny, Volvo 164... I'd have any of those before a P6. But not before a P5! If you see what I mean.

[danthecapriman]

FTFYM8

Sorry JM, but I'm with the Reverend here too. I'd have the Trummy in preference!

[danthecapriman]

Austin 3 litre a P6 competitor? I'd rather have one of those too...

 

 

 

 

Thank fuck JM doesn't know where I live!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Austin 3 litre a P6 competitor? I'd rather have one of those too...

 

 

 

 

Thank fuck JM doesn't know where I live!

 

 

The Austin 3 Poundsfifty was exactly the kind of hopeless old shed the P6 and Triumph 2000 were designed to eliminate. With the six cylinder Triumph, you really didn't need a 3 litre land beast.

 

 

 

See also: Ford Zephyr Mark IV. Ford learned from Rover/Triumph and made its replacement smaller and neater.

[danthecapriman]

I like the 3 litre Oztin tbh, nice looking car. I think anyway!

And the mk4 Z cars, the 'aircraft carrier' I'd have one of them in a heartbeat too!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

'shudders'.

 

I once drove a Mark 4 Zodiac, absolutely bloody awful. You really don't want one. Not driven a 3 Litre but I've heard they ride very well - I did ride in the back of one once.

 

The brown Square Wheel Rover 3500 lasted until late 1983, so nine years on the road. 

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Yes Please.

 

 

[LC Torana]

Well, I have to say I've owned a P6B for 33 years, and mine has been a paragon of reliability.

 

Sure, there have been FTPs, but only when components wore out from old age.  Such as the time my ignition coil failed, and when I pulled it out, the Lucas date stamp showed it older than the car.

 

Things are repairable on a Rover.  You can shove your hand in tight places with confidence, knowing all the internal welds are finished off and you can trust you won't cut your hand.  Yes it's complicated, and yes, mechanics hate them, but once you're hooked, they just become... ...necessary.

 

Could you imagine the divine Elina driving a bl**dy Volvo 740?  No, nothing less than a silky smooth Rover 3500 will do.

 

 

(skip to 3:38 to see the feeling that only driving a P6 can give)

[forddeliveryboy]

P6 > W123 > 740. Btw, those are 'greater than' arrows. I struggle to see any similarity between an old Volvo and a P6 in the way they go. One is semi-Soviet and so both indestructible but joyless, the other a plutocratic attempt to do without the butler - charming and imperfect but with depths of qualities few appreciate.

 

Inboard caliper to come off? Easier than replacing a headlamp bulb on many a modern.

[Junkman]

Could you imagine the divine Elena driving a bl**dy Volvo 740?  No, nothing less than a silky smooth Rover 3500 will do.

Yeah, exactly like Big Chris.

[danthecapriman]

P6 > W123 > 740. Btw, those are 'greater than' arrows. I struggle to see any similarity between an old Volvo and a P6 in the way they go. One is semi-Soviet and so both indestructible but joyless, the other a plutocratic attempt to do without the butler - charming and imperfect but with depths of qualities few appreciate.

Inboard caliper to come off? Easier than replacing a headlamp bulb on many a modern.

Sorry but you iz rong!

A W123 is vastly inferior to a 740. Not even half as good. German rust buckets! A Granada is better than a W123 easily.

[forddeliveryboy]

Sorry but you iz rong!

A W123 is vastly inferior to a 740. Not even half as good. German rust buckets! A Granada is better than a W123 easily.

 

Ikwym but was talking about how well (for me) they drive and how high the feeling-good factor is (again, for me). Of course from a shiter's pov 123s are over-priced rotboxes, 740s the height of rwd Volvo sensibility and still bargainous.

 

Wasn't looking to dis 740s, I know how capable they are, just personal preference I find them as I do. But as I increase the numbers of mini-fdb sprogs and the older I grow, the more I see their qualities.

[danthecapriman]

Ikwym but was talking about how well (for me) they drive and how high the feeling-good factor is (again, for me). Of course from a shiter's pov 123s are over-priced rotboxes, 740s the height of rwd Volvo sensibility and still bargainous.

I've never really seen much in them tbh (123's) I like them as old cars of course but... I dunno, they just don't really do 'it' for me. Everyone's different I suppose!

[forddeliveryboy]

Exactly. Trouble is too many 123s have been to the moon and back (and again) and can feel rather African Peugeot. Perhaps one of the Volvo's best qualities is that there's nothing to annoy/confuse mechanics and so are generally serviced correctly whereas Mercs are typically more fussy regarding service work.

[danthecapriman]

Sorry for the thread hijack btw Conrad! It has wondered a way off topic!

 

Fixed the leak yet?

[forddeliveryboy]

Aye, don't be buying any K-seal yet.

[danthecapriman]

Aye, don't be buying any K-seal yet.

Indeed, stick some of that into the brake lines!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

W123's are alright, especially compared with what came afterwards. The 200/230E was a good old plodder, the diesels horrifically slow and the 280E savage on fuel. They were superbly made though and a good 230E with the black top motor and four speed auto a very nice drive.

 

But the 240/740 Volvos were very possibly of higher quality. That red block OHC engine is just insane. 

[Junkman]

You can't compare a W123 with a P6 V8, it neither has the soul, nor the panache, nor was it even made in the same era.

Let alone one of those atrocious agricultural implements from that Sweden.

[danthecapriman]

You can't compare a W123 with a P6 V8, it neither has the soul, nor the panache, nor was it even made in the same era.

Let alone one of those atrocious agricultural implements from that France.

Fixed!

[Junkman]

At least those have a certain chic and don't look like they were delivered as flat packs.

[LC Torana]

Ironically, my P6 V8 WAS delivered from Solihull to Nelson as a flat pack.

[danthecapriman]

We're never going to agree here are we!

It's like arguing over what the best colour is (the answers blue btw!).

 

C'mon Conrad. Fixed it?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

No, of course not. My usual P6 mechanic is too busy for it. I have consumed two bottles of brake fluid though. 

[danthecapriman]

No, of course not. My usual P6 mechanic is too busy for it. I have consumed two bottles of brake fluid though.

 

You have? It's not that bad is it!?

 

Presumably its new calliper time then?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

This is three days of leakage. Drip, drip, drip. 

 

 

The fact it's come on suddenly and very severely makes me hope the caliper is okay, just one of the seals has suffered a complete failure. 

[mrbenn]

I have consumed two bottles of brake fluid though. 

 

I bet you can stop anytime.