News : Rover Village to feature at NEC Classic Motor Show

JRC village

The organisers of this year’s NEC Classic Motor Show have confirmed that a special ‘Rover Village’ will be created at this year’s event to mark 130 years of the much loved marque.

Taking place at the NEC, just down the road from Rover’s spiritual home at Solihull, the three day event runs from November 14-16. Over 1,000 square metres in Hall 17, the focal point of the show, will be dedicated to cars bearing the Viking emblem, from the very first Rovers through to the last-of-the-line 75.

The focus won’t just be on the obvious classics, either, with clubs for many of the brand’s more modern offerings invited to take part.

The celebration is being led by the Joint Rover Club and will feature members such as the Rover Sports Register, the Rover P6 Club, SD1 Club, 75 and MG ZT Owners Club, The Rover Coupe Owners Club, and 200 and 400 Owners Club.

Celebration co-ordinator and Rover enthusiast Philip Copperwheat said: ‘The Rover Village will be a great opportunity for the Joint Rover Owners Clubs to come together in one area to display Rover Motor cars covering the years of Rover motor car production.”

As part of the celebration, show organisers also extended an invitation to the other Rover clubs for their members to take part as well. The 800 Owners Club, Maurauder Drivers Club, The P6 Rover Owners Club, and the Rover 75 and MG ZT Enthusiast Club accepted and will also feature in the display.

More information, along wth ticket details, is available from the Classic Motor Show’s website which can be accessed via that link.

Craig Cheetham

14 Comments

  1. I wish the organisers had made this point clear to the individuial Rover clubs when stands were allocated.

    The idea sounds a good one, and should enable the clubs and their cars collectively to be more than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately the intial message received by two of the major Rover clubs was that they were being isolated and allocated stands in remote locations some distance from synergetic stands, and Hall 17 was seen as anything but at the core of the Show, as Craig suggests.

    Both the clubs decided it would therefore be a waste of resources to attend, and will therefore be absent from a Show they would have been delighted to attend if the facts had been made clearer, and where I believe their cars would have added to the Rover story.

    • An interesting point, Tim, and I can see how that interpretation might have been made – you’d have thought they’d have made a bit more noise about this earlier on. To your other point, though, it may have more to do with where I always park, but Hall 17’s always the first one I get to…

  2. Aside from the above issues with stands and clubs, I am delighted to see recognition of the Rover marque. The Rover Company was one of the innovators of its age and produced many firsts. Most folk I’ve talked to have no idea that the modern bicycle (two equal size wheels driven by a central crank and chain) was invented by Rover’s founder, to name just one. Others include the Land Rover and Range Rover which, despite Land Rover’s historical bias, were Rover inventions.

    • You are not the only one pleased about this as it is high time the Rover marque and its many innovations were highlighted to enable people to realise what they achieved. Especially as this year is the 110th anniversary when the first Rover cars was built and went on sale. For me this will be the highlight of the NEXC Motor Show and will probably be where I spend a lot of the time – I can’t get enough of the Viking longship badge!

      However, I notice that theBRM.co.uk, an online forum for enthusiasts of the Rover 200 BRM LE is not mentioned, even though they have been exhibiting at the NEC since 2009. Who knows, but perhaps the Land Rover and Range Rover clubs should be located in the same hall too, as both were the products of the Rover Co. Ltd?

  3. Re-written because of typos and no editing facility (or Clive):

    You are not the only one pleased about this as it is high time the Rover marque and its many innovations was highlighted to enable people to realise what they achieved. Especially as this year is the 110th anniversary when the first Rover car was built and went on sale. For me this will be the highlight of the NEC Motor Show and will probably be where I spend a lot of the time – I can’t get enough of the Viking longship badge!

    However, I notice that theBRM.co.uk, an online forum for enthusiasts of the Rover 200 BRM LE is not mentioned, even though they have been exhibiting at the NEC since 2009. Who knows, but perhaps the Land Rover and Range Rover clubs should be located in the same hall too, as both were the products of the Rover Co. Ltd?

    • Good point David. The Range Rover was sold alongside the saloons for the first 7-8 years of its existance in any case, but many people forget this, so it would be good to remind some of the snobs that the RR and LR were ROVER products first and foremost.

  4. A Rover P6 estate in V8 form, this would have been really exciting if it went into production and would have complemented the Triumph estates.

    • There was one, albeit a conversion special built by FLM Panelcraft, called the Estoura. Only 160 examples were built as they were essentially brand new P6 3500s converted on order, with the final cost of the car being almost double that of a regular build P6 3500. Most were sold by esteemed dealers such as H.R. Owen to buyers living in London.

      @ Kev:

      My comment was aimed more at the organisers of the Classic Motor Show. Common sense based on the information they receive from the vehicle clubs when they apply to exhibit at the NEC would suggest they consider bringing all clubs with a common theme (i.e. Rover) together in the same hall. There were no sour grapes on my part about whether certain clubs were being offered space in general, more poor coordination on the part of Clarion Events for some of the clubs with a link to this specific theme. I am sure others would say the same for other marques with constituent specialist clubs (e.g. Austin, Ford, MG, Triumph…).

  5. In my experience, if your club gets offered a stand at the NEC you should be eternally grateful and be happy with the space and hall you’ve been given. Only the really flash stuff gets the carpeted main hall.

  6. @ Glenn – I agree about a Rover 2000 V8 Estate, but as I understand it BL didn’t want 2 competing cars, that the P6 and T2000 were. So the T2000 was halted. In addition, apparently the Triumph Estates sold far less quantities than their saloons.

    This sounds like a good event even just to see those imposing Rover P5’s

  7. It looks to be a good show hope to visit. As an owner of R420 gsi r reg. v reg R 825 sterling and past owner r800 vitesse it be good to remember what Rover had produced over the years, and shame its not still going, Regards Mark

    • Valid point, but the factory that built my car (P6) is still going. It’s just called Land Rover now. Same can be said about the Cowley built stuff I suppose….

  8. David 3500 FLM also converted cars that were not straight from the showroom.

    In the 80s there was an early 2000 estate in white that was located in Hemel Hempstead (very few 2000s were converted perhaps due to cost – i.e. the more affluent bought the V8) that seemed to disappear.

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