Too close to call? Two doyens of the British family car market slug it out in the first of a new series of road tests… First published in Classic Car Weekly in August 2005, KEITH ADAMS pitted the Hillman Avenger against its arch rival from Cowley, the Morris Marina. It was a close call… Introduction [...]

Avengers in New Zealand To celebrate the opening of Todd Motor’s Todd Park car plant at Porirua, Wellington, the December 1974 issue of NZ Motor World ran a large feature of Todds and their operations. Within the feature was a full page glossy colour spread of a car on their production lines, a yellow Hillman [...]

Rover comes good. NOW Rover was safely tucked under the wing of British Aerospace, the company was starting to begin to look like a viable, going concern: Graham Day had made some painful cuts in the business during his short tenure as Chairman and Managing Director of Rover, but thanks to the comparative excellence of [...]

Diesel disadvantage THERE has always been a big gap in demand for diesel powered car between Japan and Europe. In countries such as Italy and France, diesel has long enjoyed a significant tax advantage over petrol, meaning that during times when crude oil prices were at their lowest, DERV was little more than half the [...]

1989 Rover 200-Series In 1989, the 200 range appeared with the Rover K-Series engine (intially in 95PS form), with the upper range 216 models featuring the single-cam Honda D-Series engine. Initial range looked like this: 214Si, 214SLi, 214GSi, 216SLi, 216GSi (oh, how simple it looked back then…) The classy five-door soon picked up a following [...]

Buying an R8 Fancy a Rover 200/400? Here’s what to look out for… Words: Mike Humble Availability Years produced: 1989-1998 Body style: three- and five-door hatchback, four-door saloon, two-door coupé two-door cabriolet, five-door estate. Engine options: Petrol: 1.4 (8v), 1.4 (16v), 1.6-1.8 and 2.0 Diesel: 1.8-1.8 (turbo) Transmission options: Five-speed manual; four-speed Honda auto, and [...]