04/12/2008 - A thing about Rovers

I set up Summer Wine Classic Car Hire Ltd three years ago and if I am honest with myself, it was never purely a business idea. As is the case for most people who go into business renting out classics, I was attracted to the concept because I love old cars and it is really just a way to justify owning and driving a collection of wonderful classics. I am a freelancer and wanted something to provide a second income and cover for times when I am out of work but I never really expected to be able to give up the 'day job'. Just as well!

Anyway, there seemed to be a geographical map in the market in my part of the world and in the summer of 2005 I decided to go for it, so to speak. Certain cars are common in the industry and for good reasons. Hiring a Jaguar E-Types is all about wish fulfilment and MGBs are Britain's bargain basement classic convertibles. But more individual choices can be made to work and most fleets tend to have one or more cars that are indulgences. We sold one of ours last year, a Jaguar XJ6. It was very painful.

From the start I wanted a Rover P4 on the fleet and I joined the Guild in mid 2005 to learn about them, but wary of letting my heart rule my head on too many occasions I managed to talk myself out of the idea until early in 2006 when I went to Shropshire to look at a Jaguar 240 (a car I subsequently bought six months later, but that's another story!) The 240 belonged to brothers Tom and Will Swinnerton who run a splendid classic motorcycle business from a farm near Market Drayton. The brothers have all sorts of super old vehicles stashed away in various outbuildings and while I was there on that occasion they took me out for a spin in a rare and very original 1972 manual Daimler 4.2 Series One
(XJ6). Very nice. Then Tom let me drive his black Rover 100. Wow! I was instantly smitten. It was just fabulous. So characterful. So well made. Would he sell it? He is a businessman and he said he'd think about it but in the end, after a week of deliberating he e-mailed to say he would not be able to look in the barn without it being there. The answer was no.

No point in messing around. I went straight to the top and rang Stan Johnstone! Did he know of a suitable P4, preferably a 100? It turned out he did and he put me in touch with a club member who'd just treated himself to a concours car and needed to find a good home for the mid grey 1962 100 he had owned and enjoyed for the last ten years. Although the car was by no means a show winner, it had been looked after by Stan for a decade and mechanically it was in very fine fettle. A deal was done and soon SWCCH had a P4 on its fleet after all.

That car is still available for wedding and self drive hire and although it doesn't receive as many bookings as the 1960s Jaguars we have on the books, like Tom Swinnerton with his P4, I wonder if I will ever be able to part with it. It pays its way, well almost, and we have used it for many family trips and holidays (we use our classics whenever possible, even in the winter when our old Saab comes into its own!).

But this article is not really about our grey Rover 100. It is the story of an earlier car that is carrying on even more disgracefully well past  its scrap by date. Summer Wine Classics' cars are looked after and  stored by IK Classics, a company here in the Holme Valley in pennine West Yorkshire specialising in repair and maintenance of classic cars of
all kinds. We are very lucky to have them here on our doorstep and I hope the feeling is mutual to some degree. IK boss Ian Kellett's big passion is for building classic racing cars with 1950s saloons his particular area of specialisation. He has always had a high regard for P4s but as he got to know our car he came to appreciate the model more and more and he once mentioned he would like to build one as a race car one day. A few months later, while at John Wearing Rover Spares in Accrington buying a replacement rear bumper (after a twerp had reversed the grey 100 into a post) I spotted a likely looking candidate parked on its own to the side of John's scrapyard. Looking rather sorry for itself by the mesh fence was a Royal Blue car with a light blue interior that John had decided was too good to scrap but perhaps uneconomical to restore. He had begun taking a few bits and pieces off it but it was indeed for sale as a nearly complete car and a few days later I was on my way back to Lancashire with Ian Kellett, towing a trailer and with £650 burning a hole in my pocket.

That was in mid June last year (2008) and the car appeared to be essentially corrosion free and it seemed dry and reasonably smart inside. Ian liked the car and John was most helpful tracking down bits and pieces missing from it and offering advice. As you might expect, John is very knowledgeable about Rover P4s and he has subsequently proved to be a mine of useful information. Once back at IK Classics, Ian began pottering about and after half an hour or so he had the car running and starting on the button thereafter. Miraculously, despite the Rover's dashboard having been home to a family of mice at some time, all the electrics worked. And even the clock kept time!

I should mention at this stage the car has a co-owner, my good friend Howard Allen. Although Ian is building the car and he and I often seem to be the ones driving the project along, Howard pays a good portion of the bills and will be the main driver once he has qualified for his racing licence. Like lots of middle aged men, when he was a small boy
Howard wanted to be a racing driver. Unlike most of us, he is going to try to turn that childhood dream into some sort of reality. The plan is to race the car in the 'Oldies but Goldies' pre 1960 saloons class of the Masters Racing Series which holds meetings at circuits such as Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Mallory Park. And we also harbour the
near impossible dream of maybe competing at Goodwood one day. A quick call to Stan Johnstone before we bought the car confirmed the 100 model was launched in late 1959 and so is eligible.

Since trailering it home we have have bought various parts including a good three litre engine and manual gearbox which we will fit in the future. We took it from and then scrapped a 1959 P5 (not really a crime as the body was so rotten we could break parts of it up with our hands). We also acquired repair sections for the front wings (the only body corrosion on the car) and a front bumper from E-Bay. A twin carb head (from a 105S) was purchased from John Wearing and 'flowed' and Ian fitted it with a pair of big SUs from an XJ6.

Other work and expenditure so far includes having the radiator recored and rebuilt with new and larger bottom tank and designing a lightweight fuel tank which has been made to order and sited in the boot over the rear axle. All unnecessary items have been stripped from the engine bay and a firewall installed. The original fuel tank has been removed. Sadly
the carpets have had to be dumped (badly moth eaten) so we cleaned the bare floor and painted it after welding in the mounts for the racing seats. After the repair sections were welded onto the front wings and painted the rest of the bodywork was cut and polished. A professional and eye wateringly expensive custom roll cage was then designed and
installed and a custom-made racing exhaust system was commissioned, fabricated and fitted (a wondrous thing but also rather dear!). Finally we have bought a load of goodies and racing paraphenalia from race specialists Demon Tweeks including a rainlight, fuel filter bowl, harnesses, a pair of racing seats and sliders, a fire extinguisher, temperature gauge, cut out switches, oil pressure gauge, various pipes and fittings, a tachometer, a shift light, a fuel pump. Wider wheels (6") were made to order using the original centres and the front springs were cut down a little. Finally, a laminated screen was fitted and was cracked in the process (Doh!).

Apart from the front bench seat (which we intend using as a sofa in the paddock) we have kept most of the original interior in the car including door cards and furniture, the rear seat, all the wood and the clock! We could do with losing the weight but it looks too good to strip it out. After a week of frenzied activity the car was made ready in time to be
tested at a classic car charity trackday at Snetterton race track on Thursday 9 October and at 8.30 am we attended the drivers' briefing before a bacon butty and a last minute check over and final clean and polish. Then, after receiving some encouraging words from none other than circuit owner Jonathan Palmer who had just arrived at the office in his private helicopter, we were flagged off for our first lap of the ultra-fast former airfield circuit with Ian at the wheel. After playing himself in for a couple of laps Ian started hurling the Rover into the turns with gusto. With a squeal from its racing crossplies, the Rover heeled over on its springs at each bend before settling into a steady drift which Ian seemed to control effortlessly on the throttle. Soon he was able to drive absolutely flat out through Coram (a fast right hander) while chatting away about how impressed he was with the car. And it was pretty quick through all the other corners as well. Ian said it handled superbly and was completely predictable. he said it was a much better starting point for a race car than just about anything he had developed before.

But although the engine wanted to rev freely we were held back by a lack of power. Valve bounce was the problem and despite being quicker through the bends than quite a few sportier cars out there, and I particularly remember us hanging onto the tail of a Sunbeam Tiger for a couple of laps, we were being eaten up on the straights. Not a high revving engine
by design, our P4 motor was unable to get much above 4,000 rpm without the valves clattering away. Perhaps the poor old thing has got rather tired valve springs. Anyway, not possessing Ian's talent at the wheel, nor having any track craft, I was a bit put off by the fact everybody else on the track was so much faster than us and I decided not to have a
go at driving. Ian continued testing throughout the day, pushing the Rover harder and harder in the turns and making plans for future development. At various times I gave up the passenger seat and he took my friend, journalist Rod Ker and my stepdad Rob James, who lives locally and had called in to see what we were up to, out onto the track
to experience riding in a racing P4 around Snetterton circuit (in the tyre tracks of legends and miles better than any funfair ride!).

A fortnight later Ian raced it at the season ending meeting at Mallory Park and although still plagued by bouncing valves he was not in last place when he pulled in for his compulsory pitstop at half distance. But unfortunately, while in the pitlane, the car was seen by a keen-eyed marshal to be losing oil and Ian was not allowed back out to complete
the race. It turned out to be a just the oil pressure switch washer but we have no complaints. The car was losing oil and it was a sensible call by the official. It was great to see the car battling with other classic cars such as a Standard Vanguard, an Austin Westminster, a Morris Minor, Wolseleys, Austin A35s and A40s, a Jaguar Mk VII and a Ford Zodiac to name but a few, and we will be working on the car over the next few months and aim to be more competitive in 2009.

Over the winter we will strip and carefully rebuild the three litre motor and fit it with a Weslake head from a 110 which we have already obtained before installing it in the car. A special cam is also on the cards. The original engine will then become a back up, probably fitted with stiffer valve springs. We are also planning to lower the front and rear suspension and are exploring the idea of introducing some negative camber, although Stan has advised against this. We are also on the lookout for a limited slip diff as the car lifts its leg badly on hairpins and Ian feels it would help through the faster turns too.

Now Howard needs to take his ARDS test to qualify for his racing licence, I need to get confident enough to get stuck in at trackdays and then we need to get out there seriously in 2009 and surprise a few people. Racing is an expensive business but we have built the car on a tight budget (about a quarter of that spent by most of the cars on the
grid at Mallory Park). I hope to write another feature at some time in the future about our progress and it is possible we will offer trackday opportunities in the car next year so people can pay to drive it themselves. I will keep you posted! Meanwhile, my grey 100 is available for self drive hire, but I don't want anyone trying to find out if the valves bounce at 4,500 rpm!