Rover 12 Tourer

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The Rover 12 was one of the first cars with which the Wilks brothers established 'the Rover tradition', transforming the firm from a maker of cyclecars into the brand of choice for the aspirational middle classes in the post-Depression era.

Introduced in 1934, the Rover 12 (P1) was a top quality semi-handbuilt car that was good for an easy 70mph from its 1,496cc 4-cylinder OHV engine. An updated version, the P2 arrived in 1937, with a longer wheelbase and Girling brakes, this model spanning the war years. As with so many car companies during the period, they were so preoccupied with war work that they simply carried on where they left off after hostilities ceased.

The Tourers came with excellent weather equipment and a clever aluminium fold out hood cover which must have been one of the first of its type. The Rover 12 continued until the end of 1948 by which time well over 16,000 had left the factory, although very few were bodied as open cars, Rover subsequently choosing to go further upmarket with larger engined saloons.

First registered in late November 1935, the vendor has a letter on file from the Rover Sports Register who believed it to have been sold new through Gibbon’s of Glasgow.

An old registration document shows it was licenced between 1960 and 1964 – still in Glasgow and Peebles, although the vendor’s father acquired it in 1988 from a gentleman in Devon. It passed to his son – the vendor some ten years later and he has kept it ever since.

It has seen sporadic use it must be said, but is all up together and still exhibits those qualities that made Rover the success it was.

This lovely old Rover still offers pre-war open motoring at its best.