Registration No: OSL 404
Chassis No: 9432628
MOT: Exempt

Motor Car Location: Nottinghamshire

• Owned by the late vendor for some twenty-two years
• The subject of past renovation work including a colour change in the early 2000s but now in need of recommissioning/re-restoring
• Offered with original workshop and instruction manuals
• A rare survivor of the refined six-cylinder P3 Sports Saloon

With new designs having been shelved and materials in short supply, most manufacturers' post-WW2 offerings were understandably closely related to those sold before the onset of hostilities. This was certainly the case with Rover, whose P3 of 1948/1949 shared the general styling of the old 12 and 16 and the actual wings and bonnet of the 12. The marque's old hydraulic / mechanical braking system was also retained. New, however, and a first for Rover, was the independent front suspension. Also fresh, was the engine. A unit that had been on the stocks since the late '30s, its cylinder head was configured with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves. Two versions were offered - the '60', which was a four-cylinder unit of 1595cc and the '75', a six-cylinder version of 2103cc. The box-section chassis was somewhat unusual too, in that it ceased ahead of the rear axle and the semi-elliptic leaf springs were attached direct to the body. Always intended as an interim model, it was replaced by the all-new P4 in 1949 after some 7,837 '75s' had been produced.

Manufactured in 1949, the P3 offered was registered new in the United Kingdom on the 4^th of October that year. Finished in Maroon, having previously sported Black paintwork, the Rover has been subject to much past renovation work during 2000-2003, which comprised new floors, bodywork repairs (including new doors) and said repaint with colour-change, a replacement clutch, braking and suspension renovation with new springs, engine fettling with many reconditioned parts and much additional work was completed by the vendor.

Entering into current ownership in 2000, the Rover has been retained in current ownership until his passing in August 2021. Showing four former keepers on HPI, the P3 has a recorded mileage of 44,282 miles. Remaining unused since the vendor's passing, the Rover is now offered as in need of recommissioning/re-restoring. ‘OSL 404’ is offered with an original workshop manual and instruction manual, a P3 parts list, a hand-written book documenting the work completed in the early-2000s, a previous logbook, and a current V5C document.

For more information, please contact:
Paul Cheetham
paul.cheetham@handh.co.uk
07538 667452