AROnline » In-house designs

Concepts and prototypes : Allegro Equipe

Keith Adams — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:30:36 +0000

Keith Adams, photography, Stephen Harper In the lead-up to the launch of the series 3 Austin Allegro, newly-recruited Austin Apprentice Stephen Harper joined the team of young stylists tasked with raising the appeal of the Longbridge-built mid-liner. Harper had already come up with the LE limited edition, and the Equipe was a development of this [...]

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Concepts : 1991 Rover Metro SP

Keith Adams — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:35:17 +0000

Rover Special Products wanted to recreate the magic of the early-’80s by producing a spiritual successor to the MG Metro Turbo. The Metro SP was that car, and it made it to full-sized styling prototype. Keith Adams Special K While Rover Special Products had handed out the Montego Lifestyle and Maestro-based Tarka to Steve Harper [...]

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Concepts : Montego ‘Lifestyle’ estate

Keith Adams — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:51:30 +0000

Rover Special Products was one busy department during the early 1990s, and proof positive is this design sketch from Steve Harper. Keith Adams Jacked-up Monty As we know, Rover Special Products was a hot-house within the Rover Group, tasked with devising niche vehicles that could bring additional profit and glamour to the company’s model range [...]

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In-house designs : Land Rover LCV⅔

Keith Adams — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:31:20 +0000

Defending the 1990s The Lightweight Concept Vehicle programme was initiated by Land Rover in the early 1990s, and was a serious investigation into the production of lighter, cleaner and greener off-roaders. The idea was to test-bed new technologies, harking back to the days of the British Leyland Technology ECV programme, and one of the targets [...]

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Concepts and prototypes : ADO77

Keith Adams — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:12:47 +0000

The Morris Marina was conceived in a hurry, but designers consoled themselves in the fact that it was only going to last five or six years… Here we reveal pictures of the ADO77, and discuss why it never came into fruition. Missing Marina THE trouble with developing and launching a car in a hurry is [...]

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Concepts : MG Rexton

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 15:47:32 +0000

MGR’s Land Rover rival? IT’S fairly common knowledge within the industry that, when BMW and Rover cut their ties in 2000, there a certain number of conditions were imposed about the future use of certain marque names. For one, BMW decided to allow MG Rover to use the Rover marque name on its own terms [...]

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Rover 75 : 2005 facelift

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:48:33 +0000

It lives on: MGR’s secret Rover facelift The farce that was the arrival of the 2004 facelifts of the Rover 25/MG ZR, 45/ZS and 75/ZT will probably haunt anyone who worked at MG Rover for years to come. If you don’t remember it, then cast your minds back – MGR fans were eagerly anticipating the [...]

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In-house designs : Rover RDX60

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:26:45 +0000

The last chance saloon MG Rover. It was a brave new beginning for the remants of The Rover Group, split up and sold off by BMW in May 2000. The consortium responsible for the formation of MG Rover – Phoenix – was led by John Towers, and if anyone knew the machinations of Longbridge better [...]

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In-house designs : Rover TCV

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:19:11 +0000

The Tourer Concept Vehicle In the months following the formation of MG Rover in May 2000, many changes were quickly put in place that affected the make-up of the product range. Rover’s range was split in two, and the immediate marketing focus was shifted away from the existing brand in an attempt to establish MG [...]

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In-house designs : Rover R30

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:07:53 +0000

A class act BMW knew that in order to create a successful Rover for the 21st century, there needed to be a re-think of the range… a slimming down of model lines. After much consideration on how to go forwards with Rover, it was decided to continue down the road that was leading the company [...]

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In-house designs : Rover 425KV6

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:51:47 +0000

Sporting Rover ARGUABLY, the Rover 400 was viewed with disappointment among buyers and certain elements within Rover itself. That said, the Richard Woolley penned saloon version was a huge improvement over the five-door hatchback, and Rover admitted as much, when at the launch of the five-door hatchback, they told us that the “Real 400″ would [...]

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In-house designs : Austin AR16

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:36:48 +0000

Replacing Montego AFTER arriving at BL in the winter months of 1981, Roy Axe knew that little short of a complete overhaul of the entire Austin-Rover range would be required to return the company to profitability by the late 1980s. And although Harold Musgrove had achieved a near-miracle by getting the Metro, then the Maestro/Montego [...]

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In-house designs : Rover CCV

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:12:38 +0000

Coupe de grace Hot on the heels of the MG EX-E, the Rover CCV (Coupé Concept Vehicle) made its debut at the Geneva motor show of 1986. Unlike the MG, which there was absolutely no intention of putting into production, the Rover CCV acted as a toe-in-the-water exercise to preview the styling of the Rover [...]

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In-house designs : MG EX-E

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:59:56 +0000

MG’s future hot-shot First shown to the world at the 1985 Frankfurt motor show, it is fair to say that the MG EX-E shocked visitors simply because it was so attractive and so unexpected. At the time of the EX-E’s debut, MG could only offer the “M” cars – sporting saloons and hatchbacks – so [...]

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In-house designs : Aluminium Metro

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:47:04 +0000

A lesson in lightness FOLLOWING the success of the BL Technology developed lightweight ECV3 project, it was decided to evaluate a system of manufacturing for building aluminium structured vehicles and then test the structural integrity and durability. This Metro is one of six vehicles built as replicas of steel production vehicles, and employs the system [...]

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In-house designs : ECV Programme

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:28:08 +0000

Tripping the light fantastic IN many ways, the 1st November 1977 – the date that Michael Edwardes took the helm at British Leyland – can be seen as the first day of the rest of the company’s life. Of course the company was very much a rapidly sinking ship – the hull breached in many [...]

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In-house designs : Triumph/Morris TM-1

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:16:56 +0000

Last throw of the dice The SD2 was dead – long live the SD2… well, almost. Post-Ryder, the Specialist Division would fall into abeyance, and would become part of the all-encompassing “Leyland Cars” division. TM-1 was the result – a car to replace the Triumph Dolomite and Morris Marina. In essence, the car was almost [...]

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In-house designs : Rover SD5

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:04:26 +0000

New age Landie FOR all those who thought that the only Specialist Division prototypes produced were the SD1 and SD2, here’s something of a treat for you. During the early 1970s, BL management investigated the possibility of replacing its long-lived Land Rover, and tasked the Specialist Division to come up with a low-cost, easy to [...]

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In-house designs : The SSV cars

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 10:55:11 +0000

Safety first Following Ralph Nader’s 1965 report Unsafe At Any Speed, which highlighted the poor handling and/or crash-resistance of numerous cars sold in the US, the race was on by the car manufacturers to prove that they took the safety issue seriously, despite the old automotive adage that “safety doesn’t sell”. Like all other companies [...]

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In-house designs : Rolls-Royce projects

Keith Adams — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 10:36:10 +0000

Rolls-Royce projects During the early-to-mid 1960s, Rolls-Royce entered into a collaborative venture with BMC, with a view to jointly producing a range of saloons and coupés. Rolls-Royce was thinking in terms of down-sizing at this time, a reaction to the general down-turn in demand for their traditional coachbuilt models during the post-war years. In due [...]

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