Built on 22 October 1969, this Admiralty Blue Coupé was delivered to James Windsor & Son Ltd., of Mansfield, England, and was first registered in Nottinghamshire as YAL 652 H on 1st November 1969.
The first owner was Mr George Allison, a solicitor from Worksop, Nottinghamshire. I believe Mr Alison was at some time the mayor of Worksop, and he once used YAL when he attended an official function at Buckingham Palace. In October 1977 the ownership transferred to his brother, Geoffrey Allison, who ran a model railway shop in Worksop.
When Mr Allison retired from driving, YAL652H was sold to Williams Garage, still in Worksop, where it is believed it was used by a Mr Maurice Harrison, one of their directors. The date of this transaction is not known, and the history contains a gap.
By the summer of 1994 the car was in Ulster,owned by a Geoffrey Blake of Newry, County Down, and in June 1995 the car passed into the possession of Martin Donnelly, the father of the Formula One driver of the same name.
I bought the coupé from Martin in November 1995, and repatriated it back to Scotland.
YAL was used in 2002 by the BBC for a "dramadoc" about an anarchist group. Follow the link for more information.
In 2003 YAL was awarded "Best P5" at the Scottish All Rover Rally at Kelburn Castle.
YAL and myself were featured by the Daily Record in May 2004 in a "Drive back in time" item within the Road Record supplement. We have also been featured in The Scotsman motoring supplement.
If you can help me fill in any of the gaps in this car's history between 1977 and 1994, I would be pleased to hear from you.
Engine.........Rover V8, 3,500cc....184 BHP @ 5200 rpm
Gearbox..........Borg Warner Type 35, 3 speed Automatic.
Weight...........3500 lbs (1,587kg)
Maximum speed......115 mph ( 185kph).
Fuel Consumption...........About 20 mpg on 4 star.
The P5B Coupé is recognised as the ultimate development of the Rover P5 series.
Styled by David Bache, the P5 first saw the road in 1958 as the 3 litre saloon, with a 2,995cc 6 cylinder engine. It was developed through Marks 1A to the Mark 2, which had a Weslake developed cylinder head to up the power from 115 bhp to 134 bhp. The coupé bodystyle became available for 1963 as part of the Mark 2 range.
The Mark 3 range was introduced in 1965, with improved gearboxes and restyled interior trim, and in 1967 the Buick derived light alloy V8 replaced the cast iron 6 cylinder to create the P5B.
Factory bodystyles were limited to the saloon and coupé, but a handful of drophead conversions were made by outside coachbuilders. One, maybe two, estate cars were also made in this manner, but the costs of conversion ruled these out of volume production. At least two cars were converted into hearses, and one into a motor caravan!
P5s were popular with the Government, with many saloons being used as ministerial cars, a very special version being built for Harold Wilson when he was Prime Minister. The Armed Forces also used them as official cars.
The British Royal family used P5s as well, with cars run by both the Queen and the Queen Mother.
The Rover Company rallied the P5 3 litre, and the works teams competed in the East African Safari Rally, the Leige-Sofia-Liege Rally, the RAC rally, and the Scottish Rally.
In all, Rover built around 69,000 cars in the P5 series, of which some 17,000 were coupés.