New member from Austria, Rover 90, 1954

[Klaus]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum as of today. I live in Vienna, Austria, and am a long-standing Rover fan. I sold my first classic Rover which I had for 14 years, a 1974 P6 3500, in March 2014 to be able to concentrate on my 'new' project, a 1954 model year Rover 90 (P4). The 90 is a LHD export model which according to its Heritage certificate originally was shipped to Stockholm, Sweden, on 15th May '54. I discovered in early 2013 that it was for sale at a dealer in Malmö, and having been on the search for this very model for some time I decided to travel north and look at it right away. Love at first sight and all that sort of thing.

The 1954 P4 is a special beast, as some of you certainly know, in that it has the low front wings and boot line, but it's the year Rover introduced the 60 and 90 to accompany the 75. Other peculiarities include the handbrake lever being located between the front bench seat and door (i.e. no sheperd's crook) in 1954 only, and the first year of the floor-mounted "mustard spoon" gear lever.

My 90 is in a totally original oily-rag type condition and oozes its serene and dignified charm all over the place. So far I fettled with brake cylinders, front suspension, steering linkages, carburetter gaskets and all sorts of rubber hoses and seals, so I now feel quite confident while driving it. I've also done very subtle cosmetic things like acquiring an original glass washer bottle, an original Lucas push-button starter solenoid and the like. The Rover still has its factory coat of paint which has been polished down to the primer in some places by a previous owner. The bodywork has some dents here and there, showing the car's age rather well. The interior does need some repairing as some of the leather stitching has come undone, but I decided to start with making the car fully roadworthy in a technical sense, which I believe it now is.

I'm contemplating having a prewar Rover as my next project, a 1934-1936 12 or 14 sports saloon, but that'll probably have to wait for another 10 years or so. I'm already a member of the P4 Guild and I'm active on both their forum and facebook group. I'm looking forward to starting to browse through your forum to prepare for my planned move further back in the history of Rover transportation.

Cheers for now,
Klaus

[Klaus]

Here's a photo of my Rover 90:

[Klaus]

Is there a book out there you can recommend which deals with the pre-war era Rovers in detail? I already have James Taylor's "The Classic Rovers 1934-1977" and many of his other publications which I like for giving lots of technical detail information and data. I also have Eric Dymock's book "Rover - The First Ninety Years" and Graham Robson's "The Rover Story".

[lakesrally]

Hi Klaus,

Welcome to the forum. Another book to look out for is 'The Rover' by George Oliver. It was first published in 1971 and has been out of print for quite a long time but copies do come up for sale on the second-hand market occasionally.

Regards

[Klaus]

Hi Stewart,
Thanks for welcoming me and for the hint to the book by George Oliver. I found it on the Bay and bought it right away.
Best wishes, Klaus

[lakesrally]

Glad to have helped, enjoy! It was the first Rover book I bought.

[Auntie1954]

Hello Klaus,
can you confirm that your P4-90 has this serialnumber? 45330525.
I just bought a 90 from 1954 with number 45330531.
Please see picture.www.mekanisk-museum.dk
Would be nice to compare these cars.
Looking forward too hearing from you.
Bart in Denmark

[Klaus]

Hello Bart,

Congratulations to your new arrival Yes, my 1954 90's chassis no. is 45330525. I've sent you a reply on Facebook as well, including two photos. Looking forward to hearing more about your 1954 90 too.

Cheers, Klaus