Ash Sutcliffe This is a long story, so we are going to make it as short as possible. Back when MG Rover was a solvent company it was looking to offload as much of its IPR without selling its core models’ designs, going through its portfolio it was found that it had the Austin Maestro [...]

Richard Kilptrick Back in 1992, when I gained that hugely valuable slip of paper allowing me to drive anything, anywhere (within reason), I had one thing on my mind. Well, two. Only one’s relevant to this article though. I was utterly obsessed with topless models. Yes, the glorious red four-door Chevette that gave me those [...]

The car industry’s quest for tech is moving forwards at an incredible rate. Built in TVs, iPod players, key-less entry and tons of other great inventions are common in luxury cars, yet it takes some time for them to feed down to the cars we can all actually afford. Yet there are some gadgets and [...]

Anything but an average company? I rarely have much reason to be grateful to my 14 year old self, but searching through some old papers at the weekend, I was delighted by my youthful prescience in keeping a Financial Times article from 26 June 1973, the day of the Leyland P76’s launch in Australia. Don’t [...]

MINI, official partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB, has unveiled its new London 2012 special, limited edition models to celebrate the monumental London 2012 Olympic Games. There will be just 2012 of these special edition models built, which are available in Cooper, Cooper D, Cooper S and Cooper SD trims and come in the Union [...]

Keith Adams Here’s an interesting one. Well, when we say interesting, perhaps it’s more a case of scary. Whatever your opinions on the ‘Twini’ prototypes, it’s good to know that there are dedicated Mini enthusiasts out there who have recreated these fascinating might-have-beens. Even better to know that there’s one for sale on eBay… and [...]

During the Metro’s honeymoon period of the early 1980s, Austin-Rover’s designers toyed with the idea of a number of exciting variations on a theme. Here’s one that perhaps you weren’t expecting to see… Pick-and-mix Metro (Picture: Roy Axe) YOU can’t blame Austin-Rover for trying – the Metro was a hot little number during the early [...]

There have been plenty of stretched Rover 800s sold, but did you know that the factory developed one? The long… and short of it IN 1984, Rover and Jaguar parted company in a government-backed privatisation. It left Rover with a real dilemma – to surrender the director’s car market, or try and go head-to-head with [...]

Keith Adams In 1985, Citroën facelifted its long-running CX fastback. There was little wrong with the basic shape of the car, but with the onset of newer aerodynamically styled rivals such as the Audi 100 C3 and Renault 25, all of a sudden, the chrome-bumpered CX was beginning to look a little twee. So, the [...]

Two years before Leyland launched the Jaguar XJ-S, the Jaguar dealership HR Owen came up with a coupe of its own… HR Owen had a penchant for commissioning customised Leyland products. Having enjoyed moderate success with the Crayford/FLM Panelcraft Rover P6 Estoura, their next project was altogether more ambitious: in September 1973, they presented the [...]

Alex Sebbinger It was about two years ago that my good friend Rhydian Edwards and I decided to partake in a Banger Rally. Having read about the adventures of Keith et al’s previous adventures on StreetSafari trips, we decided that it would be fun to have a go for ourselves. After much decision (literally two [...]

Replacing the Montego with a Honda-based product was never going to be straightforward… …and in the end, the Rover 600 never replaced it at all. A new era begins THE fifth major Honda collaboration with Rover was a project to replace the upper Montego models, whilst opening up new markets for Rover – to produce [...]

We all know just how much of an underrated sporting saloon the Rover 620ti is – but back in the 1990s, Moss International tried to raise its profile by starting a sideline offering tuning parts… at a price. Kevin Davis tells the story, and recounts a failure in bonded plastic and carbon fibre. A kitch [...]

Featuring five-door supercar styling, and some of the nicest engine notes to grace an executive car, the Rover SD1 has a place in the hearts of most car enthusiasts today. However, when it was new, poor build quality, flaky paint, and the poor image of its builder meant that its sales potential went unfulfilled in [...]

The 800 emerged as the result of an ambitious programme to produce new Rover- and Honda-badged executive cars… However, the Japanese and British teams disagreed in so many areas that very little ended up being shared between the two cars in the end, thus re-shaping future projects Honda saves the day THE Rover SD1 was [...]

Designed for the US market, but introduced after the Sterling pull-out, the 800 Coupé was very much a car without a target audience. And here’s it’s story. Always the bridesmaid… THE future of Austin Rover looked brighter in 1982 than it did at any time in recent history; the green shoots of recovery were clearly [...]

Early sketches by Steve Harper show that Rover was thinking big for its range topper… Heading for the big-time August 1983, and the Coupe takes shape. Steve Harper pegs the wheelbase at 2650mm. Simple coupe lines adopted for the US-focused model… And here’s the open-top version… November 1983, and Stephen Harper is clearly thinking advancement…

Some radical ideas were tried before settling for the pleasingly ambient interior of the Rover 800 Saloon interior sketches Coupe interior sketches January 1984, and thoughts have turned to the Coupe version of the Rover 800. This drawing by Stephen Harper has annotations explaining all the features, in English and Chinese. The unanotated version – [...]

The 800 Fastback was an integral part of the XX design process, as these sketches by Steve Harper and clay models from the Canley Styling Studios clearly show. Development of the five-door might have come later in the programme, but it didn’t stop the final car looking stylish, desirable, and most importantly, fully integrated. Words: [...]

The Rover 800 underwent a very interesting development programme, with much work being undertaken at Canley before the Austin Rover engineers and stylists ever got near Honda in Tokyo. Some of the advanced theme were toned down somewhat for production, but the end result was still very pleasing… In time, the Rover 800 will be [...]