The Rover P5 was a luxury saloon car built by Rover from 1958 to 1973, and very rarely sold in North America, but was very popular in the UK. The first three series of the car was powered by an inline 6 cylinder engine with a Harry Weslake designed Intake-over-exhaust “F” head design, which was done to allow for the fitting of larger valves than would physically fit within the confines of the cylinder bore. Although it is an intake-over-exhaust design, its combustion chambers are of a hemispherical shape, with an angled meeting surface between the head and block and a wedge shaped piston. There were two different body styles of the P5, one being a saloon like this car and the other being a 4 door coupe, with a different roof line and trim. In 1968 the Rover P5 Mark 3 was replaced by the Rover P5B, which was fitted with the newly licensed 3 ½ liter Buick 215 cubic inch aluminum V8 (Hence the “B” in the model name), making it the first British car to feature the engine that continued in production until 2004 when it was finally phased out. The Rover P5 was an institution in Britain and examples were owned by Queen Elizabeth II and other royalty, as well as the Prime Minister’s car in government which had a fleet of them, in use into the 1980s. The Rover P5 Mark III that is part of the collection was purchased new by the actor Telly Sevalas while he was in the UK filming “The Dirty Dozen” After filming he shipped it back to the United States and kept the car until his death in 1994. After that, it had changed hands a couple of times and was briefly in a museum in Southern California. I found the car while buying another car from the same collector who had aquired it in a package purchase with other cars from the museum when it closed. At the time it had been off the road for years and the person I bought it from had never tried to get it running. Although it was a low mileage car, it turned out the engine was seized likely due to water intrusion caused by corrosion between the cylinder and water passages after the engine had been filled with straight water without anti-freeze allowing the electrolytic corrosion to damage the head. The engine now has a fresh, complete rebuild, along with a rebuild of the automatic transmission. Various other parts were repaired or replaced to get the car back in running order. Otherwise, the majority of the paint on the car is original, as is the interior. The interiors of these cars are incredibly comfortable with very plush leather seats, and wood trim. The car is very solidly built with an eye towards quality, making it much like a British version of a classic Mercedes in feel. It’s also the earliest car in the collection to have cup holders fitted as standard, though only for the rear seats. The car is fitted with power steering and power brakes, making driving it fairly effortless, especially as it is a large, heavy car. It can hardly be called sporting, though the engine is capable of getting it up to speed and the suspension is very plush.