In-house designs
In-house designs : Vanden Plas
Vanden Plas prototypes The coachbuilding firm of Vanden Plas had been purchsed by Austin in 1946, and thus became part of the BMC empire that was created by the merger of Austin and Morris in 1952. Until the end of the 1950s, the factory at Kingsbury in north-west London was chiefly used for the production [...]
June 25, 2011
· 
Keith Adams · 
5 Comments
Concepts : Austin AR6
Paradise lost The Roy Axe studio in Canley had been created to move Austin Rover forwards with a new design direction. Interesting projects were soon underway, with the initial effort being concentrated the XX Programme – however, by the end of 1982, ARG designers were also working hard on the replacement for the Metro, dubbed [...]
June 25, 2011
· Keith Adams · 6 Comments
In-house designs : Triumph SD2
Keith Adams The SD2 was the logical next step in the rejuvination of the Specialist Division’s range of cars. The plan had been kicked off in 1969/70, when Rover and Triumph produced their own big car proposals; of which the Rover version, penned by David Bache, was chosen over the Triumph Puma, as penned by [...]
June 14, 2011
· Keith Adams · 15 Comments
Rover 55 : The new-age midliner
Keith Adams The Rover 45 was one of the longest-lived stop-gap cars produced in a very long time. We all think of the Morris Marina as a car that outlived its usefulness by many, many years (1971-1984, if one considers the Ital a Marina), but the Rover 45 equals that achievement when one considers that [...]
August 8, 2010
· Keith Adams · 140 Comments
AR18/R16 : the missing Rover
Keith Adams Back in 1988, when Rover was getting down to the business of devising a replacement for the XX-Series 800, there were still questions over financing the project. It was clear that, under BAe’s control, Rover wasn’t going to be getting the development resources that it had under Government ownership and the Design Department was now [...]
August 6, 2010
· Keith Adams · 38 Comments
