OVERDRIVE

A date with the Old Lady

1971 ROVER P5B COUPÉ

MARK DIXON

DO YOU EVER have that startling realisation that an event in your own past is closer to something that happened a really, really long time ago than it is to the present day? I’ve just worked out that more time has elapsed since I first photographed this Rover P5B for a classic car magazine than between that day and when the Rover was a brand-new car. In other words, I’ve known this classic Rover for more than half of its 50-year lifespan. Doesn’t seem possible!

Back in 1995, I did a cover shoot for a now-extinct magazine called , featuring three Rover P5s. I remember it well: we took the cars to a local beauty spot a stone’s throw from the British Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon, and hoped that the National Trust wardens were off-duty. One of those Rovers, a 1971 P5B Coupé, is now owned by Martin Robins, and 23 years after that shoot he re-enacted it at the same spot for the P5 Club’s magazine . I saw it on social media and mentioned that I’d taken the original