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 seen as a suitable replacement for the SD1
The new age arrives
1981 and Roy Axe’s styling studio presented these images to ARG management. This was their vision
of how a future executive car should look, and interestingly, much of the character of the final car
shone through.
…and then DEV3 is translated into clay at Canley.
DEV3 mid range clay model in near-final guise for evaluation by the management and potential
customers (above) and a Sterling spec model mocked-up (below).
- The converters : Crayford Metro Politan - 28 March 2024
- The cars : Range Rover P38 Vs Jaguar X300 - 26 March 2024
- Opinion : Welcome to the classic fold, Ford Focus - 23 March 2024
did they really achieve .27? by comparison the Ford Sierra was a brick (.34 cd)
The Calibra had a Cd. of 0.26, and when launched was pushed as the most aerodynamic thing on the road…
The Calibra was probably only beaten by the mk1 Honda Insight, and in the US by the short lived GM EV-1.
The early sketches and model have a strong resemblance to a Talbot Tagora although with better detailing than that car.