A charming 1962 Rover 100 is the most recent vehicle to join the Summer Wine Classics fleet.

Our newly arrived dove grey P4 proved itself straight away by being driven to our Holmfirth base from Hampshire by its previous owner, who was anxious to see it delivered safely. Then it flew through its preliminary check over by mechanics at IK Classics and Racing Services who look after all our vehicles.

The car has been well looked after all its life by its few owners, not least by the last keeper who drove it regularly for more than ten years. It will make a wonderful wedding or special occasion vehicle and it will also do duty collecting our customers and their luggage from railway stations and taking them between Ash House and our car storage facility in nearby Jackson Bridge, freeing our Jaguar XJ6 to do more customer hire work.

Post war Rovers had an upmarket image and the company earned a deserved reputation for high build quality and engineering excellence. In 1953 the Rover P4 range was developed from the 1949 Model 75 into the Rover 90, and the 100 variant was produced from 1960 to 1962. The 100 featured disc brakes and, by virtue of its seven bearing crankshaft, its torquey 2.638 litre engine was superbly strong and smooth. A total of 16,621 P4 100s were built and although Rover went on to produce a faster 110 model before ending P4 production in 1964, to many enthusiasts the 100 represents the pinnacle of P4 development.

A well maintained Rover 100 is graceful, silent and totally sure of itself and considered by many to be superior to the Jaguars of its day. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s the P4 range was popular with professional types, especially Britain's bank managers and if Captain Mainwaring continued driving long enough after the war we feel sure he will have had one!