I asked Roland for a couple of paragraphs about his car. He only sent me one, but it's a whopper! Good read, though, so here it is in its entirety.  Roland writes:

I purchased my car about 7 years ago from Harold Samarin. It belonged to his father, Howard Sr. who lived in San Gabriel, CA. I gathered that Harold's father purchased the car second hand around 1967, as I have many receipts for the car, none earlier than January 12, 1968. The car was originally purchased from Peter Satori Co., LTD. 285-325 Colorado Blvd. Pasedena, CA. I still have one of the license frames on the car. I've also sent for the Heritage Museum certificate for the car. It states it was built 7 April 1959 and shipped out 26 June 1959. It was light grey with red interior. I also saw the order sheet for the car while at Gaydon. I recall only two P5 cars shipped to the Los Angeles port that month, mine and it's sister car, a white one. (keep reading below images)

It spent almost it's entire life in southern California and it shows. All the rubber bits were destroyed, as was the leather by the intense sun. The windshield rubber was so bad, it allowed water to ruin the dash wood on the end fillets and the condensation to corrode the interior chrome. Howard's son brought the car up to the San Francisco bay area to get back in running condition. He had a difficult time and in short, gave up on it. Howard Jr. decided to either sell the car or send it to the breaker's yard. I had my Austin A40 Somerset and a Rover P4 90 at the time and had stumbled onto this car. After driving both the Austin and the P4, I realized I wanted a more modern riding car. This car was what I was looking for. Since I see hope in almost any car, I could not bear to see something like this going to the wrecker's. When I saw how complete and good this car was, I had to have it. It had 63K miles on it and had been left on jackstands, carb in the trunk, wheels unmovable and needing a total redo of the interior. But the body was straight and except for a few rust spots in the common areas, it was near perfect. Howard Jr. and I struck a deal, freed up the brakes, removed the driveshaft and loaded it up, with my brother, onto the car dolly and my waiting Astro van. Let me tell you something, this is a SUBSTANIAL car! At 3,970 lbs. according to "Autocar Road Test" 21 August 1959, it's on the bulky side. It taxed the Astro van, with it's 4.3L V6, to the limit in both acceleration and stopping. Thirty-six miles later, I got it home. By the end or 1999, I got the car running. All it needed was a complete brake redo, battery, carb overhaul, fuel tank cleaned and sealed, and the primary leads on the coil reversed.
 

The Practical Classics crew was coming to our local Palo Alto Show in September 2000 and it seemed a perfect time to bring my car, despite the rough body and tattered interior. They took some photos of it and even took it for a road test. John Pearson, Russ Smith and Phil Bell were fine folks and commented on how rust free it was. If you'd like to see the article, you can get the February 2000 back issue of Practical Classics. I was very proud to see my "sunbleached" Rover on those pages. Since then, I've only driven it another 150 miles or so before I sent it to the body shop. Once the body was stripped to bare metal, the body guy invited me down to see it. I was amazed at the total lack of filler on the car. He only had to weld two spots on the car, the left rear door and fender area. The holes were only about the size of silver dollars. Not bad for a 40 year old car. The body man wanted me to get the interior done before he finished up with painting the car. I have to disagree with this process and wish I had protested and had him paint it first. So, the interior was redone, but not fully installed anticipating the finish painting. The car just wasn't running right though and after a compression test, revealed cylinder #5 is low. Probably due to the location of the vacuum booster take off right at #5. The booster was bad and I feel caused a lean condition, burning the valve. I removed the head, replaced the exhaust valve and lapped both valves into the seats.
 

Not much got done in the next few years and fast forward to September 2006. With inspiration, I got a battery and tried to get the car running. The battery was installed, the key was turned, the lamps light, no fuel pump tick-a-tick. No problem, I don't want fuel yet anyway. I crank the engine and reluctantly, the starter whirls to life. I crank the engine until the oil lamp flickers which indicates oil has pumped up. Good so far. I take a hammer handle and strike the fuel pump and it comes to life, but doesn't stop as it should. Since I know it's just a matter of a few minutes to remove the float bowl and free up the needle and seat, I'm not worried. I change to fresh plugs, and it fires up. The fuel is 3 years old and shows it. The smell and color cannot be good for the running, but it's a good old car and runs, albeit roughly. So, I air up the tires, add some brake fluid to the clutch master, a leak at the slave to be fixed today, and down the road I go. It stumbles a bit, but starts to run better and better as I drive it. I get it on the ramps to change the oil and get it ready to replace the clutch slave seals. It's such a good feeling to drive the car again. The feeling of solidity and elegance is soothing. A real gentleman's car. Drives like a much more modern car than either the Austin or the P4.
 

So here it stands as of 24 September 2006. I will be searching out painting options very soon. Here's an interesting note:  While I was at the 2000 Palo Alto show, a gentleman named Michael Brown approaches me and states he has a 1960 Rover in white as well. He mentions he purchased it not more than 5 miles away from where I live. I purchased my car not too far from where he lives. Ironic, could this be the sister car to mine that was shipped out the same time? He even told me he saw us towing the car home, but by the time he turned around, I was gone. He was braver than I as well. He towed his car behind his ancient Toyota pickup. Swore he'd never do that again. My advice, don't wait too long to get the car out on the road. I could have been enjoying it all those years. But like me, life does cause an intermission in the classic car hobby. Do try to limit the waiting though.

                                                                                            Roland