1971 ROVER P6
Four generations of the same family
1971: Sidney Pester (told by his grandson, Martin Care)
It was my grandfather’s first new car at the age of 60 and he bought it for £1927. Sidney Horace Pester was a structural steel engineer for The Standard Steel Company from 1929 until 1971 when he was made redundant. At this time he was running a 1951 Triumph Renown, but with a redundancy cheque on the way, he decided he’d like to own one car from new. The surviving purchase invoice from Leathwood’s Garages Ltd of Thornton Heath reveals an interesting choice of extras, including an expensive radio (£43.46 from a total of £1927.26), an electric immersion heater to prewarm the engine and hence get the heater going on cold mornings and a set of deep-pile faux fur floor mats for a Rolls-royce touch.
He picked the car up on New Year’s Day, 1972. I was 4 ½ and remember the preceding Triumph Renown, but soon associated only one car with grandfather. My mum didn’t drive and my dad was a wireless radio car operator for the Metropolitan Police, so Sid drove us to school, on outings and on holidays - all in the P6.
Sid started work for a mower company and brought home little Jap engines to fix on the bench in his shed. It was my first exposure to mechanical things, and he soon had me helping with KUV 499K. He did a lot of his own work in maintaining the Rover to a high standard. The maintenance regime was thorough and included eliminating rattles. One day I found myself lying on the floor in the back after we’d
removed the rear seat. Off we went for a test drive, with Sid waiting for the rattle to show itself so I could call out where it was coming from. By 1986 when the decision was taken to replace the crankshaft bearings and side plate gaskets, grandfather was 75 and didn’t like lying on a cold concrete floor, so I got to do it. I passed my driving test in 1985 and began a tradition of taking my nan out for a ride in every car I bought. She would always complete her assessment with the same remark: ‘It’s very nice, dear, but it doesn’t ride like the Rover.’
In 1992, I bought my own P6, a 1970 V8 in the same Corsica Blue as grandad’s car. Sid and I were able to enjoy a season of P6 outings together in 1993. In 1995, Sid fell ill and handed ownership to me. When Sid passed away the following year at the age of
85, the car came to Bristol to live with me and my wife Karen, who by that time had a P6 of her own. Three of them proved a little too much for us. KUV struggled through an MOT in 1995, so I put the car into dry storage until we could raise the funds for a really good restoration. Our son Sam arrived in August 1996, then KUV followed us on house moves to Yorkshire and then another to Andover, then to Norwich and finally in 2007 to Derby. This finally gave me the impetus needed to sort the Rover.
I knew I didn’t have time to work on the car, but by then I’d found out about MH Annable and Son in Darley Abbey, near Derby. Clive Annable and his father Maurice have a very good reputation among Rover owners, and because they’d be near to our new home in north Staffordshire, I decided to entrust it to them. I didn’t want it to look concours, my brief for Clive was to preserve the touches that make KUV 499K my grandfather’s car.
KUV was with the Annables for almost a year, but there was plenty to do. Sills and all four wings were too rusty to save. The doors needed re-skinning, with one rear door requiring total replacement.
The car appeared at the NEC Classic Motor Show in November 2007 when it was featured on the P6 Club stand as a stripped-down, work-in-progress project, but by April 2008 it was back with a fresh MOT. Aside from a few teething troubles, the car returned happily to family duty for days out. My mum got the chance to ride in her father’s car again, prior to becoming ill herself – and passing away soon after. That day out sparked a host of reminiscing about my grandparents and events from my childhood – a priceless memory. Since then it has completed 12,000 miles on expeditions to classic car shows and on other journeys, plus an unlikely appearance for the blue Rover at a local high school prom.
2015: ‘Baby’ Sam
At 6ft 7in and 19 years-old, I need a larger classic, but the bug for fiddling about with old cars was passed down to me. When I was 13, Dad and I acquired an eighties Mini and together restored it to a Sixtiesinspired look. Sadly, by the time I was old enough to drive it, I had grown to 6ft 6in and the Mini was almost impossible to fit into. Rover P6s are much roomier, but the problem of insurance is keeping me out of the driving seat. But I still get it out of the garage and put it away, I come along with dad when we need to test it. It’s just like he did with his grandfather.
When I was young, KUV was just this thing in the garage, under loads of carpets and rugs at our house in Norwich. Then, when it was finished, Dad picked me up from school in it. I enjoy working on it, but I always worry when Dad says, ‘there’s a five-minute job on the Rover... can you give me a hand?’
Luckily, we share a lot of interests. KUV ownership will continue through the family, so it’ll stay.