rover / scale 1/43 | thebiggarage

The company was formed in 1878 and began manufacturing the most famous car, the Land Rover from 1948, until it became its own brand.

Rover is a British automotive marque that was used for over a century, from 1904 to 2005. It was launched as a bicycle maker called Rover Company in 1878, before starting to manufacture autocars in 1904. The brand used the iconic Viking longship as its logo. The rights to the marque are currently part of Jaguar Land Rover, but no Rover vehicles are currently in production and the marque is considered dormant.

Headquarters Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom

P5b 1967-1973

The Rover P5 is a series of large saloon and coupé cars that were produced by Rover from 1958 until 1973. The models were marketed under the names Rover 3 Litre, Rover 3.5 Litre and Rover 3½ Litre.

The P5 was a larger car than the P4 which in some respects it replaced. 69.141 examples were built.

It was the first Rover car with unitary bodywork, styled by David Bache. This model combined elegance with dignity, and had a traditionally well-appointed interior. Later developments of the P5 included the more rakish coupe with a lowered roof line, and the 3.5 litre V8 model of 1967 which for the first time used an all-aluminium V8 engine design purchased from the Buick Motor Division of General Motors Corporation in the United States.

The 3- and 3.5-litre models became favourites for transport of dignitaries, including British Prime Ministers from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher. The Queen also used several Rover P5 cars for her private motoring.

The final iteration of the P5 appeared in September 1967 as the P5B. The B stands for Buick, the engine's originator.

The Buick-designed V8 produced 160 PS at 5200 rpm and 280 N⋅m of torque at 2600 rpm. The greater power of the engine, along with its lower weight, provided improved performance as well as fuel economy.

The P5B existed as both the 4-door coupé and saloon body style until end of production. Production ended in 1973, by when 9099 coupés and 11501 saloons had been built.

Rover P5B

sd 1976-1986

The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the Jaguar-Rover-Triumph division), and finally the Austin Rover division of British Leyland from 1976 until 1986, when it was replaced by the Rover 800. The SD1 was marketed under various names. In 1977 it won the European Car of the Year title.

In "SD1", the "SD" refers to "Specialist Division" and "1" is the first car to come from the in-house design team.

The SD1 was the final Rover-badged vehicle to be produced at Solihull. Future Rover models would be built at the former British Motor Corporation factories at Longbridge and Cowley.

Series 1 (1976–1982)

This car was launched on its home market in June 1976 in hatchback/fastback form only, as the V8-engined Rover 3500: SOHC 2.3 L and 2.6 L sixes followed in November 1977, when the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000 were finally discontinued. Although there was no four-cylinder version of the SD1 at this point, British Leyland produced 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2 versions of the smaller Princess in order to compete with the entry-level versions of the Ford Granada, as well as more expensive versions of the Ford Cortina.

Series 2 (1982–1986)

A 1983 Rover 2000 (a Series 2 car with revised headlights, interior, and C-pillars)

Early in 1982, Rover unveiled the Cowley-built, facelifted line to the public (although the final Series 1s were also built at Cowley). These cars benefited mostly from small cosmetic changes on the exterior as well as a quite extensively redesigned interior.

Car spotters can distinguish the two series by the headlights, which were chrome-rimmed and flush fitting on the Series 2, recessed on the Series 1, the deeper rear window, now fitted with a rear wash wipe, and the new plastic wrap around bumpers which replaced the three-piece rubber and stainless steel ones.

1982 was also the year when SD1 buyers could finally opt for a four-cylinder engine. The Rover 2000 was not particularly fast and was particularly aimed at company car fleets where its size enabled it to beat a taxation threshold.

The SD1 continued until the launch of its successor, the Rover 800 Series, in July 1986, the third product of the British Leyland/Austin Rover venture with Honda, which had been in development since 1981 as "Project XX" and also formed the basis of the Honda Legend.

303.345 were produced.

Rover SD2

rover 75 1999-2005

The Rover 75 is a car which was manufactured from 1998 to 2005 and sold under the British Rover marque. It is a large family car and came in four-door saloon and five-door estate body styles. Initially built only with front-wheel drive, a rear-wheel drive variant with a V8 engine was later sold. There was also an extended-wheelbase model. In 2001, MG Rover launched a badge engineered variant, the MG ZT. A coupé concept was built, but did not receive further development.

Rover 75s were manufactured by the Rover Group at Cowley, Oxfordshire for one year. After owner BMW sold Rover, the 75 was manufactured by the new MG Rover Group at their Longbridge site in Birmingham. The Rover 75 debuted at the Birmingham Motor Show, with deliveries commencing in February 1999. As the last large Rover saloon, production of all models ended in 2005 when MG Rover Group entered receivership.

The Rover 75 (and MG ZT derivative) were powered by a combination of Rover's own petrol and LPG K-Series and KV6 engines as well as Ford's Modular V8 and BMW's M47 diesel engine. The latter was designated M47R to identify the unit as a Rover special.

Initial sales of the Rover 75 failed to match the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. The public unveiling of the car at the Birmingham Motor Show drew favourable reactions, but was unfortunately overshadowed by a press conference afterwards by BMW chairman, effectively suggesting that Rover was in crisis. Press reaction interpreted this as saying that BMW were unhappy with continuing financial losses and were intending to close Rover down. This undoubtedly scared off many prospective buyers, despite the very positive reaction to the car itself. Indeed, it did (and still does) hold up very well with the Jaguar S-Type that was unveiled at the same show. Rover's brand image also hurt the 75 against competitors despite its positive reception.

Sales picked up substantially during 2000, and it was Britain's fifth-most popular new car in the month of April of that year. It was still selling reasonably well at the time of MG Rover's bankruptcy in April 2005, and a small number of unsold 75s were still in stock as of early-2007, as Nanjing Automobile was preparing to reopen Longbridge.

Rover 75 (youtube.com)