page_title: Rover P4
section_title: Gas turbine cars
hierarchical_section_title: Rover P4 / Gas turbine cars
caption_attribution_description: Summary Rover Jet1 Gas Turbine car, on display at the Science Museum London.
context_page_description: The Rover P4 series is a group of mid-size luxury saloon cars produced by the Rover Company from 1949 until 1964. They were designed by Gordon Bashford.
  Their P4 designation is factory terminology for this group of cars and was not in day-to-day use by ordinary owners who would have used the appropriate consumer designations for their models such as Rover 90 or Rover 100.
  Production began in 1949 with the 6-cylinder 2.1-litre Rover 75. Four years later a 2-litre 4-cylinder Rover 60 was brought to the market to fit below the 75 and a 2.6-litre 6-cylinder Rover 90 to top the three-car range. Several variations followed.
  These cars are very much part of British culture and became known as the 'Auntie' Rovers. They were driven by royalty including Grace Kelly.
  The P4 series was supplemented in September 1958 by a new conservatively shaped Rover 3-litre P5 but the P4 series stayed in production until 1964 and their replacement by the Rover 2000.
context_section_description: The P4 platform was used in Rover's gas turbine programme, most notably as the origin of the JET 1 prototype shown to the public in the United Kingdom and United States in 1950 and subjected to speed tests on the Jabbeke highway in Belgium in 1952. JET 1, a mid-engine two-seat open tourer, was based on the P4 bodyshell. The original JET 1 is on display in the London Science Museum.
  Two further prototypes powered by gas turbine were based on the P4. The T2 had a four-door body and its gas turbine under the bonnet at the front of the car. Problems with the T2 caused Rover to abandon the front-engine concept and rebuild the car, redesignated T2A, with the turbine over the rear wheels.
caption: Rover JET 1 gas turbine car, on display at the Science Museum London
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