FIVE CLASSIC TRIALS 1970 ROVER 2000 TC
Triumph wasn’t the only one with a close eye on the compact executive class when it launched its new 2000 saloon back in 1963 – Rover cheekily revealed its ground-breaking new P6 just a week earlier…
ENGINE 1978cc/4-cyl/OHC POWER 109bhp@5500rpm TORQUE 132lb ft@4000rpm MAXIMUM SPEED 108mph 0-60MPH 11.8sec FUEL CONSUMPTION 22-27mpg TRANSMISSION RWD, four-speed manual
It’s t’shard to believe now, but the UK car industry was quite the progressive and pioneering tour deforcebackin the early 1960s. We take the compact executive class for granted today, dominated as it is by the likes of the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, but there was a time when the British car industry rather caught the Fatherland’s heavyweight manufacturers with their corporate trousers down.
The Rover P6 and Triumph 2000 had been on sale for three years by the time that BMW got around to launching its new and considerably more expensive 02 Series and Audi its similarly pricey 80 in 1966. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, was later still to the party with the W114 in 1968.
The Triumph may have wooed buyers with its striking Michelotti styling and big six-cylinder engine but Rover parried easily with its equally rakish-looking P6. Industry giants Spen King, David Bache and Gordon Bashford co-designed the Rover whose monocoque construction and bolt-on panels clearly drew inspiration from the Citroën DS and whose technical specifications were sprinkled with exciting-sounding terms such as ‘de Dion tubes’, ‘all-disc brakes’ and ‘all-synchromesh transmission’. There was even talk of gas turbine propulsion – all very Jetsons anda far cry from its dear old ‘Auntie’ P4 forebear.
Approach our test subject today and your eye is drawn to its myriad design elements. There’s a pleasing shark-like element to the deep flanks and the styling is even more cohesive from the front three-quarters where details like the stepped bonnet line, sharply peaked sidelight/indicator lenses and grinning four-lamp ‘face’ add up to a whole that is as elegant as it is aggressive.
Enough ogling. Grasp the chunky driver’s door handle, thumb the button below and the door swings open, as hefty as a Fort Knox safe. Settle into the seat – the squab’s a little flat but the sculpted backrest keeps you in place and it’s very comfortable – and rest your hands on the classically large slimline two-spoke steering wheel before scanning your surroundings. Later cars gained sportier but somehow less fitting round dials but this late early car (if you see what we mean) has the classic pod-on-a-shelf affair (which the later SD1 would echo) complete with strip speedo, flan
