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Dundee Rover: Queen’s ties to car will mean sombre 50th birthday for P5B Coupé

The Dundee Rover is celebrating a special milestone.
The Dundee Rover is celebrating a special milestone.

She was selected to represent Dundee and celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign during the unforgettable Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

Now the Dundee Rover celebrates 50 years since its first journey in the week the UK’s longest-reigning monarch made her final journey – to Westminster Hall.

Back in July the Rover P5B Coupé represented 1972.

At this time, the Queen was actually driving this same model privately – and it was also the daily transport of then-prime minister Edward Heath.

The Dundee Rover joined a fantastic array of cars at Windsor during the summer which included one from every year from 1952 to 2022.

Martin Robins and his wife alongside the Dundee Rover during the jubilee celebrations.
Martin Robins and his wife alongside the Dundee Rover during the jubilee celebrations.

The Car & Classic online selling platform was responsible for gathering the vehicles together on the Long Walk over the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

The Long Walk is a three-mile avenue from Windsor Castle gate to the foot of the statue of King George III (The Copper Horse).

Today’s celebration – marking the car’s 50th birthday – will be more sombre than perhaps might have been expected but the memory of the late Queen won’t be far from the thoughts of owner Martin Robins.

“We will never see her like again,” he said. “She has reigned for one third of the time the USA has been in existence.

“When, three months ago, we went to Windsor for the Platinum Jubilee in the Rover, which was a never-to-be-repeated occasion, the sense of a unique event was palpable.

“No British monarch had ever reigned for so long and the fact that the Dundee Rover was a 1972 model and at that time the Queen was driving one added to the poignancy.

“The car performed wonderfully and was the star attraction on the day

“The Queen clearly loved the Rovers – they, like her, displayed understated elegance.

“It is most humbling to own a car with such royal connections.”

The Dundee Rover is celebrating its 50th birthday today.
The Dundee Rover is celebrating its 50th birthday today.

Martin’s was originally bought from Rover dealer Rossleigh of Yeaman Shore in 1972 by wholesale newsagent David Fairweather.

Its owner never drove it in the rain and didn’t go outside Dundee with it.

Brian Clark, who worked at Rossleigh, carried out the pre-delivery check on the car.

He opened his own business and continued to look after the car for the next 37 years for Mr Fairweather and, following Mr Fairweather’s death in 1992, his son-in-law, Sandy Yates.

Martin heard about the car through a third party and contacted Sandy to ask whether he would be prepared to sell it to him.

Since Sandy used the car fairly infrequently, he agreed to the sale.

The car bears a Dundee number plate and remains a well-oiled machine after 50 years.

Martin said: “We feel a deep sense of gratitude to Mr Sandy Yates – from whom we bought the car – and Mr Brian Clark who maintained the car for 37 years.

“They both exercised great diligence in ensuring the car was kept in fine order.

“We have endeavoured to follow their example.

“We are planning to take the car to a local beauty spot to celebrate the 50th birthday and photograph her there for the 2023 Rover calendar we produce.

“The mileage is 51,700 and the car is used for high days and holidays.

“She is used to visiting houses of distinction as she features in our annual calendar.”

Dundee Rover ‘brings joy wherever she goes’

Martin lives in Wiltshire, which has a long association with the Queen dating back to when Prince Philip was a former Royal Navy Lieutenant living in Corsham.

The Duke was playing skittles at the Methuen Arms in Corsham when his engagement to Princess Elizabeth was announced.

Martin said: “On many a Friday evening Princess Elizabeth would catch the train from London to Corsham and Philip would drive them to the evening ball at Hullavington.

The car is a head-turner and draws the crowds.”

Owner Martin Robins

“Philip had a sports car and drove fast and although he was warned he had a valuable passenger, it had no effect.

“Both the-then princess and Philip were avid listeners to the radio programme called The Archers at the time of their visits to the ball.

“The writers of the script weaved in a story of a dashing young man in a sports car killing his fiancée through driving too fast!

“The story had no effect on Philip’s driving abilities, although he and his bride to be lived happily ever afterwards.”

The Dundee Rover has been turning heads for five decades.

Martin said his love of the Rover goes back to 1968 when his father bought a new one… and the rest is history.

He said: “The car is very special to our family.

“My father was a Rover fanatic and three months after the Dundee Rover was first registered he bought the self-same model – in zircon blue.

“Next year is our golden wedding anniversary and our wedding album is full of my father’s car, which unfortunately was last seen as a wreck on the Somerset Hills.

“For the family to look at the Dundee Rover brings back so many happy memories of my father’s car.

“The car is a head-turner and draws the crowds.

“To sum it up – the car brings joy wherever she goes.”

The Dundee Rover.
The Dundee Rover.

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