Founded in 1877 in a partnership between John
Kemp Starley and William Sutton, the Coventry
based bicycle company would be at the forefront
of modern bicycle design. Car manufacture would
commence in 1904 with a range of single and twin
cylinder sleeve-valve engines, one of their cars
even taking out the 1907 Tourist Trophy race.
The company would supply motorcycles to both
the British and the Russian Armies during World
War 1, along with Maudslay trucks and Sunbeam
cars to government orders.
Models released after
the war were much better sellers than the pre-war
sleeve-valve models, and from the 1920’s
the company expanded manufacturing a wide range
of cars, although it was not until the 1930’s
until the company managed to turn a healthy profit,
under the management of Spencer Wilks.
The Rover’s
became renowned for their quality, and by the
World War 2 the company had garnered an enviable
reputation among the upper middle class. The
1948 P3 was the first all new iteration to follow
the war, it sharing its new inlet-over-exhaust
engine with the other newcomer, the Land Rover.
The P4 would follow in 1949, featuring a beautiful
new saloon body and paving the way for a long
line of high class and beautifully made iterations,
including the P5 of 1959. Such were the profits
being made from the venerable Land Rover that
the company was able to experiment with such
things as gas turbine power, one even competing
at Le-Mans.
The 1963 P6 2000 set the benchmark
for executive style transportation, featuring
all-round disc brakes and independent suspension.
Rover would become part of the troubled British
Leyland conglomerate in the 1970’s, the
halcyon days now reserved for the history books.
1948 - 1949
Tim Brownell in How to Restore your Collector Car (1984)
wrote, "True 'Classics' are defined by the Classic Car
Club of America as follows: fine or unusual. motor cars
built between and including the years 1925 and 1948,
distinguished for their respective fine design, high
engineering standards and superior workmanship. Strictly
speaking, classics are distinguished by special styling
or mechanical features not found in run-of-the-mill cars." More>>
1954 - 1959
Conceived as a lower price alternative to the Rover 75,
the Rover P4 (60) was fitted with a 2 litre four cylinder
overhead inlet/side exhaust valve engine producing 60
bhp. More>>
1967 - 1973
The Rover P5 3 Litre range had established itself as one
of the best selling British luxury cars of the Sixties.
By 1967 the 3 Litre was beginning to show its age and
a new powerplant was needed, enter one the famous British
engines of all time, the Rover V8.
More>>
1963 - 1977
Rover announced one its most radical production designs
in 1963, the Rover 2000.With futuristic looks, the body
used an innovative "base unit" unitary bodyshell which
then had unstressed body panels bolted onto it. More>>
1968 - 1977
Rover introduced the V8 version of the P6 in April 1968 as the Three Thousand Five saloon, a designation it would carry until late 1970 when it became known as the 3500. More>>
1976 - 1986
The Rover 3500 V8 represented a major advance on its
predecessors. The David Bache designed hatchback was
well situated in performance, looks, and economy, and
helped bring back perhaps some lost prestige and desirability
to the famous British marque. But what made the 3500
so great was that, while broadening Rover’s appeal
to other buyers, it never alienated the traditional Rover
die-hards. More>>
1981 - 1985
Quality components were used throughout, typical of the Honda quality at the time. A Pioneer stereo cassette/radio was standard, as was timber trim, although the latter was pretty obviously only a veneer. The seats were well shaped and finished in a Moquette cloth trim, they complementing the wonderfully supple ride of the larger Civic. More>>
