Rover P4 Restoration: A Rovin' to Victoria

This is the trip I've been preparing for for months. The Rover P4 90 that I rebuilt was a Victoria BC car from 1956 to 2001, and as chronicled earlier, it's owners lived right next door to the house that my wife, Pat lived in as a child. This was unknown to us when we obtained the car in Gibsons last year; a coincidence discovered after the fact. So this four day weekend trip was our opportunity to reenact the fact with photos of the car at the two still existing heritage houses. It was also the weekend of the "British Car Affair in the Park" at Fort Rodd Hill. Here is a photo chronicle of the trip.

Catching 6:20 am ferry from Langdale.

Coffee stop in Chemainus BC

Waiting for ferry to Saltspring Island at Crofton. We side tripped to visit Pats brother and family for a night. 19 year old nephew, Chris, had a nice part in a production of "Rent" at Artspring.

It was a huge and energetic production. Chris had three or four secondary roles, but he was delightful. He surprised us with the strength and purity of his singing, as well as his very confident stage presence in this difficult production. He obviously has the talent and grit to continue in performing as he is considering.

Ferry to Vesuvius.

Historic Rover in front of historic Mouats Store in Ganges.

Next ferry was from Saltspring to Swartz Bay Saturday morning. You can see how beautiful the weather was all weekend.

Saturday noon found us at the AGM of the Old English Car Club at the Waddling Dog Inn in Ssaanich BC with 30 or so cars and owners.

Twin Singer Gazelles.

Following the AGM we joined the club for a 2 hour fun rally through the Saanich Peninsula countryside. This is one of our 5 instruction steps along the route.

Cars at one of the rally stops.

The Rally took us a block past Pat's paternal grandparents former house so we detoured over for a photo.

Another rally stop with a MGB and a Triumph TR4. The majority of cars were roadsters like these. We were one of the only conventional sedans.

Ok, here we are at 1009 Cook Street where this car resided from brand new in 1956 to 2001 when it's owner became to old to be able to handle it. The peaked roof in the background is 1005 Cook Street where Pat resided from about 1954 to 1958. 1005 Cook Street was the Victoria School of Expression from 1935 to 1958, owned by Pats grandmother, Marion Ord.

One of Marion Ord's pupils was Basil Plimley. As a further coincidence, Basil Plimley was of Plimley Motors, one of the most historic automobile dealerships in Victoria and Vancouver. My Rover has two Plimley Motors service records in its files. This building is the original Plimley Motors in Victoria, built at Yates and Vancouver streets in about 1895. It is now a Moxie's Classic Grill, so of course we had to go there for dinner Saturday night. The food was good and the service was excellent. We were having a good time so did not notice that the food was taking a long time. nevertheless, the manger came and apologized and sent us a second round of beer free! We were walking back to our B and B by the way!

Our BandB was a spectacular little house on Superior Ave, the Albion Inn. The entire house is decorated by the Seville native owner with mostly his own work.