L istento almost any motoring expert, and they will claim that it was the baby boomers in America who drove a change in the automotive market dynamic of the post-war years, with the Mustang as its first fruit. But the two saloons we’ve drawn together here tell a different story.
The silent generation, those who had grown up during the war and maybe even some of those who had fought, found themselves constrained in post- war Britain by a market tailored to their forefathers. If you wanted to step up from the drab Morris Oxford or the dreary Vauxhall Wyvern, you had the choice of an establishment Humber or a badge-engineered big Wolseley, as driven by all the best policemen. There was nothing with dash, nothing aspirational for someone in their early-to-mid 30s with a decent job that spoke of sporting desire and of successful means.
Rover and Standard Triumph changed all that in October 1963, replacing the staid Standard Vanguard and P4 with models that spoke to a new generation. But for the welldressed chap who might have been contemplating either the Triumph 2000 or the Rover 2000, which made the better buy? And which makes a wiser classic investment today?
ROVER P6
Rover beat Triumph to the punch, launching the P6 a week before Triumph announced its car to the press. It was a clean sheet design; targeted at a market that sat somewhere between the conventional 1.5-litre saloon and the sort of larger model typified by the Austin Westminster. Cars like the Citroën DS would prove to be considerable influences upon both the P6’s styling and its
