Frequently Asked Questions about Classic Rover

Who founded Rover and when was the Rover name first used?

Rover grew out of Starley & Sutton, a cycle maker that John Kemp Starley and William Sutton set up in Coventry, England, in 1878, though some accounts give 1877. The firm was branding its products as Rover by 1883, and in 1885 Starley introduced the Rover safety bicycle, with chain drive and two wheels of similar size. The business became the Rover Cycle Company in the 1890s.

When did Rover start making cars?

Rover began building cars in 1904, three years after founder John Kemp Starley died. Its first model was the Rover Eight, a two-seater with a single-cylinder 8 hp engine, designed by Edmund Lewis. The company had already introduced the Rover Imperial motorcycle in 1902, and it was later renamed from the Rover Cycle Company to the Rover Company.

What is the Rover P5?

The Rover P5 was a large sedan built from 1958 to 1973 at Rover's Solihull works in England, sold first as the 3-Litre and later as the 3.5 Litre. It was Rover's first car with a unitary body instead of a separate chassis, and a Coupe body style arrived in 1962. British prime ministers including Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher used P5s.

Where did the Rover V8 engine come from?

The Rover V8 began as the Buick 215, an all-aluminum V8 from General Motors in the United States. Rover bought the tooling from General Motors in 1965 and first offered the 3,528 cc engine in the P5B of 1967, where the B stands for Buick. The same engine went into the Range Rover in 1970 and the MGB GT V8 in 1973.

Did Rover build a gas turbine car?

Yes. Rover's JET 1, unveiled in 1950, is described by the Science Museum in London, which holds the car, as the world's first gas-turbine-powered motor car. Rover later developed the Rover-BRM turbine racing car with BRM, which ran at Le Mans in 1963 and finished tenth overall in 1965.

Were Rover cars sold in the United States?

Yes. Rover sold cars in the United States until 1971, when the P6 was withdrawn, then returned in 1980 with the V8-powered SD1, badged Rover 3500, an effort that proved brief. For its last attempt Rover used a different brand name, selling the Rover 800 in North America as the Sterling from 1987 until it pulled out in 1991.

Who owned Rover over the years?

Rover was an independent company until 1967, when it became part of the Leyland Motor Corporation, which merged into British Leyland in 1968. The business, later called Rover Group, was sold to British Aerospace in 1988 and to BMW in 1994. In May 2000 BMW sold the Rover car operation to the Phoenix consortium for a nominal £10, and it traded as MG Rover.

Does Rover still make cars?

No. Rover production ended in 2005, after MG Rover went into administration on April 8, 2005, when a proposed deal with China's SAIC collapsed, and its Longbridge plant in Birmingham closed. Ford bought the Rover name from BMW in 2006, and it passed to Tata Motors in 2008 along with Jaguar and Land Rover, the four-wheel-drive line Rover had launched in 1948.