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TONY BROOKS AND HIS ROVER P5B MOTOR CARAVAN

27th March, 2020

This P5B 3.5 Litre Motor Caravan owned by Tony Brooks goes by the name “Apollo”, and it is one of the most distinctive classics you are ever likely to encounter.

The donor car dates from 1969, and the one-off professional conversion was carried out two years later at the request of its second owner.

He was a Mercedes-Benz dealer who used the Rover as a holiday vehicle until the transmission failed.

Apollo was eventually sold, and by 1996 he was looking somewhat less than Olympian as he was suffering from both tin worm and woodworm.

Nineteen years later the caravanette was auctioned at the Restoration Show Sales and Tony remarks that its condition was ‘awful! It may have looked good under the lights, but when we got it home we found it was in a horrendous state! One thing led to another when checking over the Rover and before we knew we were left with a bare shell!’.

Since then, Tony and his friends & family have returned this unique Rover to a pristine state –‘my brother and partner in crime Garry and my wife Alison all put in an incredible amount of work’.

Apollo’s Facebook page will give some idea of the necessary work - https://www.facebook.com/RoverP5Camper/.

Today, the Rover is also ‘beautiful to drive. It uses the original running gear, and the only problem is that the extra weight at the back means he does wallow a bit, even though we have modified the rear suspension’.

Along the way, the decision was made to upgrade the cabin, for the reason that:

the original 70’s interior was beyond saving so whatever we put in to replace it would not have been original.

We could have done it 70’s “style”, but that is not a style we personally like, so we decided to go all out modern.

We were doing this restoration to use rather than just for sale, so we wanted as many mod cons as possible to make it actually useable and comfortable.

And today Apollo creates a stir at the NEC and any other show where he makes a stellar appearance.

‘Everybody, when they are overtaking, does not know what it is, and they all stare! I would say the reaction is 80 % positive – but no-one ignores the Rover, and no-one walks past it at shows’.

And this is quite understandable for Apollo is the sort of motor caravan that should have been used by Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders! – and defiantly a home from home.

WITH THANKS TO – TONY BROOKS, GARRY BROOKS AND ALISON BROOKS

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