GIANT TEST
P6 STARTED ROVER'S INNOVATION ADVENTURE. RICHARD BREMNER REVIEWS THE RESULTS
In the 42 years spanning the 1963 launch of the Rover 2000 to the 2005 demise of MG Rover, the marque produced a surprising number of landmark cars. Rover itself was gobbled up by Britain's most troubled company of the Seventies, was for many years state owned and would later embark on a couple of far-reaching liaisons, one dangerous. Ultimately it lives on to flourish as Land Rover, and there’s an echo of the brand in China – increasingly distant – through Roewe.
Each of these cars signalled a new direction and often a major change of circumstance for Rover, but the threads of the company’s engineering and design philosophy could be seen in them all.
We are indebted to the Rover Sports Register for gathering these magnificent Rovers together for the photoshoot. Like the P6, the club is celebrating this year because 2023 marks the 70th birthday of the RSR. It will be celebrated in style. Over the weekend of June 9-11 the Platinum Anniversary Rally will be held at the Abbey Hotel in Malvern, Worcestershire and at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. It's a great club, so if you like your Rovers, join at thersr.co.uk.
ROVER 2000 (P6)
Rover was deep into a period of fertile creativity when the P6 arrived. This was a small company largely run by long-serving engineers that built cars to last, the 2000’s P4 predecessor living a long, 15-year life. By the time production ended this tall, formal car had aged to the point that it was colloquially known as the 'Auntie' Rover, making the arrival of the low, sleek and almost futuristic 2000 as much of shock to Rover owners as the P4 had been back in 1949.
The P6 was the product of a new, young generation of engineers and designers who were keen to move the company on. The P6 received an all-new engine, the 1978cc ‘four’ featuring combustion chambers cast within the piston crown rather than in the head itself, five main bearings and an aluminium cylinder head into which the inlet tracts were cast.
The 2000 was rich with clever design, ranging from dashboard switches of varying shapes to ease identification, zero-torque door catches for effortless, high-quality closing and a modish strip speedometer. At least as important was the car’s sophisticated De Dion rear suspension, which kept the wheels upright at all times for extra grip. More obvious than any of this, however, were the P6’s rakishly modern proportions. Against the upright, patrician and weighty P4 the new 2000 made a startling contrast. In 1963 it looked positively sporty – just the car for the country’s slowly unroll
