Rover P6

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rover
Rover 2000 (1963-1977)
Rover 2000 (1963-1977)
P6
Production period: 1963-1977
Class : upper middle class
Body versions : Limousine , station wagon
Engines:
Petrol engines : 2.0-3.5 liters
(66-102 kW)
Length: 4590 mm
Width: 1680 mm
Height: 1400-1420 mm
Wheelbase : 2630 mm
Empty weight : 1310-1330 kg
Previous model Rover P4 , Rover P5
successor Rover SD1

The Rover P6 series (called 2000 , 2200 or 3500 , depending on the cubic capacity) refers to four-door sedans that were produced in Solihull by The Rover Company Ltd. from September 1963 to March 1977 . , after being taken over in 1967 by British Leyland UK Ltd. were manufactured. The Rover 2000 was voted first car of the year in 1964 .

2000

The P6 was the sixth and last of the post-war P models designed by Rover to go into production. The vehicle was initially sold under the name Rover 2000 . The P6 was a new design that should help increase sales compared to earlier models such as the P4. The P5 continued to be offered in parallel with the P6 until 1973.

The first P6 had a new four-cylinder in-line engine with 1978 cc displacement, overhead camshaft and around 78 kW (104 bhp) output, which had been specially developed for this model. Rover later developed it into a motor with SU - double carburetors and a power of approximately 92 kW (124 bhp) and sold the revised model as Rover 2000 TC (Twin Carburetor, so dual carburetors). The aluminum cylinder head was flat at the bottom, the combustion chambers were in the pistons (Heron combustion chamber). The sodium-filled outlet valves were unusual but advanced . The engines with the SU single carburetor continued to be used in the Rover 2000 SC (Single Carburetor). The engine block had an ancient design for its time: it was open on both sides, these large openings were closed with removable, screwed plates. The British press called this "like a vintage Bentley" - like a pre-war Bentley. Because of the low rigidity of the block, the resulting strong structure-borne noise resulted in rough and noisy engine running.

The Rover 2000 was ahead of its time with a fully synchronized manual transmission, four disc brakes ( inside rear ) and a DeDion rear axle . The rear axle was constructed unusually and had universal joint shafts with a fixed length, but the axle tube ("base unit") was equipped with a sliding piece to compensate for the variable track width when the spring moved. This solution was chosen because sliding pieces in cardan shafts were not trusted and therefore did not want to use a rigid axle tube. The axle was guided by four trailing arms , the upper trailing arms were directed backwards - in the side view, the upper and lower arms form a kind of Watt linkage , but the lower arms were also arranged diagonally with the joints on the outside of the axle by the wheels and on Car body inside next to the cardan shaft to guide the axle sideways. The front suspension was also unusual, with horizontally arranged coil springs and deflection arms at the top and wishbones at the bottom (a similar design was otherwise only available for glass ). It was designed so that there would have been room for the rover gas turbine in the engine compartment . In fact, this turbine was never used in production vehicles; Years after the introduction of the car, however, the wide engine compartment allowed the installation of an eight-cylinder - V engine . The self-supporting body was like the Citroën DS non-structural panels in a subframe.

The add-on parts were not chrome-plated, but the frames of the side windows, the decorative strips on the roof and the hubcaps were made of stainless steel . The bonnet and trunk lid were made of an aluminum alloy. The rest of the body was - not unusual at the time - exposed to rust without any protection, whereby Series 1 was considered to be significantly more rust-resistant than Series 2 - a phenomenon that occurred in many cars in the 1970s because of the high copper content in steel.

Test drives were initially carried out without doors, hoods and roof. The corresponding components were then painted and screwed onto the vehicle. The base frame and the visible frame parts, for example in the engine compartment, were painted in matt black.

The Rover 2000 won several industry awards for its safety features after its launch. The car was equipped with seat belts on request in all seats and had an interior designed with passive safety in mind. The extremely short steering column that kinks up in the event of an impact was new. Another new equipment detail was glass prisms on the front marker lights. They enabled the driver to estimate the vehicle width well even in poor lighting and also served to indicate defective parking light bulbs.

The trunk was small. The reasons for this included the voluminous De-Dion rear axle, the fuel tank placed behind the steel wall of the rear seats for safety reasons and, in the Series 2, the battery moved to the rear. Because of this small trunk, Rover made it possible to mount the spare wheel on the outside of the trunk lid - as standard in the 2 series.

All P6 variants of Series 2 were revised in 1971; For example, a plastic radiator grille replaced the aluminum component, the cars received new bonnets (with bulges for the V8 engine, which were also given the 4-cylinder versions) and rearranged reflectors at the rear. The 3500 and 2000 TC received new round instruments, while the well-known hiking speedometer was retained on the 2000 SC. In all Series 2 models, the battery was now in the trunk.

3500 V8 - 3500 S.

After around 100,000 Rover 2000s had been produced , the Rover 3500 was presented in April 1968 and manufactured until spring 1977. With its V8 engine with 3528 cm³ displacement, the former Buick Small Block with 158 kW in the Buick Special , one saw an opportunity within the British Leyland group to set itself apart from the sporty competitor model Triumph 2000 . Since 1967 this very light aluminum engine was already in use with a slightly higher output in the solid Rover 3½-liter .

In the Rover 3500 the engine had an output of around 110 kW, with exhaust gas decontamination in the Mk2 around 104 kW. The car had the three-stage torque converter automatic transmission from Borg-Warner , Type 35 (often abbreviated BW 35 ), later Borg-Warner Type 65. In 1971, the Rover 3500 S came out with a manual four-speed gearbox, "rostyle" wheel caps and about 113 kW . Thanks to an unladen weight of around 1300 kg, a top speed of around 188 km / h and an acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h in around 11 seconds were possible. In its day, that was enough to make the Rover 3500 one of the most powerful sedans on the market.

  • Rover 3500 V8 (1968-1976)

  • Rear view series 2

  • Cockpit Mk2

  • Rover 3500 S (vinyl roof)

  • Rover 3500 S, standard wheels

2200

Rover 2200 (1973-1977)

The Rover 2200 SC and Rover 2200 TC replaced the 2000 and 2000 TC models. They were manufactured from mid-1973 to spring 1977 and had a modified 2.0-liter engine with a displacement of 2205 cm³ and 98.5 kW.

The last 2200 left the factory on March 19, 1977. It was a left-hand drive export model; this was later converted back to right-hand drive by the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham .

NADA models

Rover made some unsuccessful attempts to establish itself in the US market as well. One version of the P6 was the NADA (North American Dollar Area) with a higher level of equipment than the vehicles on the home market. Visible differences were bumper horns and, on the 3500 S model, three air scoops on the bonnet. The cars did not sell well in the US, however, and were therefore later sold in Europe, with vehicles destined for Great Britain being switched back to right-hand drive.

Some copies were used as police cars in the film Gattaca ; this takes place in an unspecified future. In the second film in the Austin Powers series " Spy in a secret missionary position " (1999), Mustafa ( Will Ferrell ) chases CIA agent Felicity in a black right-hand drive 3500 S in 1969, who cannot shake him in her Corvette with Austin as co-driver on a winding mountain road ; she has to shoot him through a tire so that if he loses control he breaks a guardrail and the P6 falls into a valley - which his driver survives. The vehicle type also made a brief appearance in the remake of the Battlestar Galactica television series (2005), which was set in another universe.

The last P6

Rover 3500 S (1977)

The last Rover P6 was a 3500 S and left the factory on March 19, 1977. The Rover archives refer to it as the 'Last of Line'. This vehicle with the British registration VVC 700S went first to the Leyland Historical Vehicle Collection , then to the Donington Park Circuit. From 1980 it was exhibited in Syon Park . In 1990 the collection moved to Rover-owned Studley Castle and in 1993 to its new home in Gaydon , initially called the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and later the Heritage Motor Center .

The VVC 700S was on display there until 2003 when it was sold in Banham. After that, it was first exhibited again in Gaydon in 2006. It was still in its original condition and never restored. When the car left the collection it had run 12,300 miles.

Conversions

Combinations

Rover 3500 Estate

There was also a station wagon of the Rover P6 known as the Rover Estoura , which was derived from the sedan version. About 160 to 170 copies of the station wagon were produced. The conversion was initially not authorized by Rover ; later designs received the approval of Rover, so that the factory warranty was retained.

The conversion was complex. The sheet metal for the station wagon model was manufactured by Coachwork FLM Panelcraft , the conversion itself and the completion, however, took place at other bodywork companies, above all at Crayford and HR Owen. It was possible to have conversions carried out on vehicles that had already been delivered. In this case, most of the conversions were commissioned within twelve months of delivery so that taxes were not incurred as with new vehicles.

The rebuild cost was around £ 800 and most rebuilds were done on 3500 models, to a lesser extent on 2000 or 2200 versions.

Landaulet

The French coachbuilder Chapron made a four-door landaulet version of a 3500 V8. It was a one-off piece that was commissioned by the Parisian entrepreneur Alain Bernardin, the head of the Crazy Horse cabaret . The car had fixed doors and a fixed C-pillar. The fabric roof could be folded down and lay folded behind the rear seats. It remained a one-off.

Convertible and Coupé

In 1965, the Bern-based bodybuilder Graber , known for his conversions and developments of vehicles from Alvis Cars, which Rover took over in 1965, created a four-seater convertible for a series considered by Rover; after being presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966, it was approved for public transport in Switzerland. In 1967 and 1968 he was followed by a number of Graber coupés, one of which was based on the Rover 3500.

Unrealized models

Rover P7

Shortly after the Rover 2000 was presented, considerations began to optionally equip the P6 with a larger engine in order to compete with the Triumph 2000 . For this purpose, Rover developed two alternatives based on the four-cylinder engine: an in-line six-cylinder with 3 liters and a five-cylinder with 2.5 liters displacement.

In around 1964 five prototypes were built with this six-cylinder engine; in the factory they were named Rover P7 . They were largely based on the P6, but because of the larger engine they had significantly longer front sections, the design of which differed greatly from one another. The cars were fast - the British magazine Autocar spoke of a top speed of 140 miles per hour (= 224 km / h) - but had poor handling as they were very top-heavy.

Development was stopped at the end of the 1960s. With the takeover of the compact eight-cylinder from Buick , which Rover had cultivated in the meantime, there was no longer any need for an own six-cylinder. The eight-cylinder was a lighter and cheaper alternative, which began its triumphant advance in the P5 and later - without a new front end - in the 3500 and Range Rover . A prototype called P7A still exists.

Rover P8

Another project that was ultimately not realized was the Rover P8 , a large sedan with the in-house eight-cylinder, the drive technology of the Rover P6 and an independent design. The car was developed to the point of series production, and even the assembly lines were already being prepared for series production when the project was canceled without replacement in March 1971.

The oil crisis (1973/74) and stagflation in many European countries contributed to this.

Clubs

In Great Britain, Rover P6s are dedicated to:

  • The Rover P6 Club and
  • The Rover P6 Owners Club,

in German-speaking countries

  • Rover Friends Germany eV,
  • Rover Club Switzerland and
  • Austrian Rover Club.

Web links

Commons : Rover P6  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/others4/69ro/bilder/12.jpg prospectus from 1969
  2. ^ Press publication The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd., London, Dt. Cologne press office of April 4, 1968, released from April 17, 1968, here called "Three Thousend Five"
  3. ↑ Oldtimer Markt 2/88, p. 185
  4. ↑ Repair instructions for Rover 3500 and Rover 3500 S from British Leyland UK Ltd., 1972 with additional deliveries, group 44
  5. ↑ auto Motor und sport 19/1969, p. 37, austria Motor journal 2/72, p. 95
  6. ^ Dominique Pagneux : Henri Chapron. Car body française. ETAI, Boulogne-Billancourt 2002, ISBN 2-7268-8602-7 , p. 182.
  7. ^ Rüdiger Wicke / Luder Das Graber 2000 Cabrio
  8. ↑ Rüdiger Wicke A Graber Coupé ...