Rover R30
A pretty downward extension of the 75 range, and a viable vehicle to build Rover's success in the 21st century?
The Rover 55 was a victim of BMW's sale of the Rover Group in 2000
A class act
Once concept produced for the R30 programme, as designed by the Solihull design consultants run by ex-AR Design Director, Richard Hamblin, OMNI Design. Neat, contemporary, and ever so wedgy, it's a far cry from some of the more traditional offerings that passed through the Product Planners' hands...
MW 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 toward producing relaxing and 'British' cars. The first true product of this thinking was the Rover 75 (R40), launched in 1998: it was an amalgamation of traditional Rover ideals and up-to-the-minute technology. The second phase of the plan was the MINI (R50), which we all know about, and the third car in the triumvirate was to be the Rover 55, which was codenamed R30.
The image shown above (which were published in Autocar in 1998, and are used here with permission), were early "themes" produced at Gaydon on their "Alias" imaging system - they were not representitive of how the car would end up looking, but they did demonstrate that Gaydon was thinking in terms of a "retro" feel (note the heavy use of chrome, and the "Auntie" grille).
Work on the R30 was started in 1996, and the plan was to produce a single model to replace the 200/400 range, and which would not share any componentry with the HHR or R3 (as they were to all intents, Honda-based products). The design team was headed up by Richard Woolley, and although the early design phase of the car was run in Gaydon, it soon moved to Germany, when plans became more advanced. As the car advanced, the politics in the company interrupted its development, and it soon became the focus of a political game of football that involved Bernd Pischetsrieder and the British Government.
The R30 was to be produced in Longbridge alongside the MINI, but in order to get the R30 into production, Longbridge would need some serious refurbishment. BMW in total costed the R30 project at approximately £2 billion, but asked the British Government for a £200m subsidy... the Government ummed and ahhed - and in the end, they agreed to £152 million, phased over five years. Following this, the subsidy became known as the 'R30 Subsidy', and the car became well known in the wider media - something Rover had not experienced in some years.
Interestingly, the R30 was engineered not to use the larger versions of the K-series engine, but the all-new NG (for "New Generation") 4-cylinder engines, to be built at the new factory at Hams Hall in Birmingham. It was also to have a Z-axle, just like the 75, and a meaty central structure - as well as, intriguingly, a crash structure designed for an in-line engine (something Rover had been experimentig with during the BMW era).
The R30 eventually emerged as a good looking design, which would have continued the engineering lead that the Rover 75 had established. However, it was not to be - at the time of the sell-off in 2000, the R30 was nearing the final stages of development, getting towards production readiness, although only one running prototype was produced.
The above image, published in Autocar at the time of the sell-off, "closely resembled the final design", according to a senior designer involved with the project. That being the case, it is a shame that the events that unfolded meant that the car never reached production. According to the same designer, it was a "cracking car"... so it is time that we lobby BMW to release details of the car, if only to preserve a part of the history of the British car industry!
There have been many subsequent rumours about the fate of the R30 project. Confined to the vaults in the BMW 4-cylinder headquarters in Munich, the sole remaining prototype was production ready, and BMW is believed to have tried to sell the project - first to MG Rover in 2001, for an alleged £300m and then to a number of Chinese manufacturers looking for a 'turn-key' entrant into the medium sector.
Beyond that, there have been persistant rumours that the RWD BMW 1-Series is closely based upon the R30; certainly from the A-post back. The idea of a small BMW isn't a new one, and the even before the Rover take-over in 1994, BMW engineers had been dreaming up baby cars wearing the propellor badge. However, the Rover ownership complicated matters and the idea was shelved as the company ploughed its resources into Rover.
However, once BMW realised the marque was strong enough to head downmarket, and its management had concluded that the Rover experiment failed - the emphasis shifted back towards a baby BMW, as it washed its hands of the UK division. If rumour is to be believed, the 1-Series project was resurrected from the R30, and that its body structure from the bulkhead back is exactly the same.
Our Photoshop certainly shows some similarities, if you ignore the typical Chris Bangle flame surfacing along the flanks...
1-Series renderings by Mark Mastrototaro
Please let us know your thoughts - do you think they are related, or is it coincidence?
NAH, I don’t see it myself. RWD/FWD sticks in my throat and I can’t see Rover having anything to do with a car so small on the inside – the car is as big as a 45 on the outside but only 2+2 on the inside. A Metro has more room in the rear.
NICK STEWART
THE 1-Series is RWD I think that it is very unlikely that Rover would ever have used this platform for a small hatch.
JONATHAN TALLON
IF you were BMW; and you had designed a new body for a small FWD car; and Rover didn't want it; and nobody else wanted it; and you wanted to build a new RWD small car; what would you do?
Start again for the hell of it, or build it? I think it's a no-brainer.
KEN STRACHAN
IT'S a nice idea that the 1-Series was based on the planned R30 but even if we ignore the Bangle flame surfacing of the BMW, there remains the fact that the glasshouse is pure BMW and that's even before the obligatory 'Hoffmeister kink'. Also the floorpan of the One has the transmission tunnel for the rear drive set up that is mandatory on a car carrying the propellor badge.
I find it hard to believe that BMW would badge engineer a dead Rover concept into such a focused drivers car such as the 1-Series, preferring to start from scratch.
MARTIN LOGAN
I CAN'T see the BMW 1-Series and R30 being related. The 1-Series is after all based on a shortened 3 Series platform and shares many parts with the larger car. The 1-Series hasn't exactly been a runaway success for BMW, its in line engine and rear wheel drive configuration making it very cramped compared to the Golf's and Focuses of this world. BMW's premium pricing just reinforces the view that the car is poor value for money.
It may well have been better for BMW to retain the R30 platform and reskin it as a 1-Series equivalent, after all front wheel drive doesn't seem to matter to Golf and Audi A3 buyers!
PAUL HAMPSON
THERE seems to be a blind acceptance that a FWD car cannot be converted to a RWD one but this is false. The Triumph 1300 of 1965 was driven by its front wheels but was later developed into the rear-driven Toledo/Dolomite range. There's therefore no technical reason why the R30 couldn't have been converted to be become the 1-Series, especially if Rover had already designed it's bodyshell around the possibility of going that way.
After all, it was suceesfully done with the Rover 75/MG ZT V8!
JOHN NORTHALL
I WOULDN'T be surprised if the R30 and 1-Series are (distantly) related. They had a good design on the shelf, so why do the job twice? The cramped interior of the BMW could be a result of the re-design from FWD to RWD.
NIELS KURSTJENS, Netherlands
NO doubt FWD platforms can be converted to RWD. But in the case of the 1-Series it is effectively a shortened hatchback 3-Series sharing a significant number of body pressings including the all important front crash structure. The cars even share the same production lines. The 1-Series shares nothing with the R30 except a vague styling resemblance.
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