Roverarchives Special Edition Rover History

Dutch RoverArchives Special Edition Rover History

Dutch Rover Archives is the brainchild of René Winters. It is a free digital magazine.

René is a great Rover enthusiast, and since 1979 he has been passionately collecting all and any information on the Rover brand. Over the years this private collection has grown into a prestigious archive, a treasure trove of information and objects. By creating an e-zine, a digital magazine, René intends to share the information gathered with other Rover MG enthusiasts and to keep the memory of this fantastic brand – no longer around since 2005 - alive among younger generations.

Making magazines is not a new venture for René, as he already made club member magazines for the Dutch Rover SD1 foundation between 1990 and 1994. Apart from this, he also made a number of issues of Viking, the Dutch Rover Owners’ Club magazine. The latter were very well received by the club’s members but not by the board .

This special edition has been created together with various other Rover lovers who also want to share their interests and passion. A wide range of topics is dealt with, from the very first Rover bicycle to the Rover 75 V8 and the MG Zed models ZR, ZS, ZT and ZTT. Our motto is: be open, honest and transparent. We do not have a membership structure and therefore do not charge membership fees.

If you also want to have the next magazines, just send an email to [email protected]. Please put your full name, place of residence, telephone number, the type of Rover car you own and its number plate in your message. If you wish to send us a reaction or be informed of our activities, please join our Facebook group, because a lot of unique information is posted on this platform: www.facebook.com/groups/dutchroverarchives.

Editor and designer: René Winters Mail: [email protected]

Websites:

The world of the Rover SD1 www.roversd1.nl

DutchRoverArchives www.roversd1.nl/dutchroverarchives/index.html

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/dutchroverarchives www.facebook.com/groups/ dutchRoverarchivesSaleandwanted/ www.facebook.com/groups/rovermgclubnederland/ www.facebook.com/groups/ rovermgclubnederlandtekoopengevraagd/ www.facebook.com/groups/roverpartsholland

The opinions stated in this magazine are not necessarily the editor’s. Articles submitted to the editor are not checked on factual correctness and completeness. The editor cannot in any way be held accountable for the contents. Nothing from this magazine can be copied or publicized in print, in pictures or through digital channels without the express permission of the editor.

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Contents Editorial 5

The Rover Safety Bicycle 14 Crisis in the early 1930s 35

The sewing machine industry 7

The Pioneer era 1904 -1932 18 The Fresh product range 40

The velocipede 8

Rover in the war years The first Rover Car 21 1940 -1945 43

From two wheels to three wheels to four wheels 11

The impact of World War I 25 M1 or P3 46

John Kemp Starley 11

Advertisers FR59 4 Spencer Wilks and the Blue My old Shoebox Netzo Druk 50 Train Challenge 31 48

Dutch RoverArchives 3

4 Dutch RoverArchives Editorial

Dear Rover enthusiasts,

his is the first English-language issue of the free Dutch Rover Archives magazine. T

After making five magazines in Dutch, I felt it was high time to launch this first magazine in English, simply because my overseas reading public greatly appreciates my work but its command of the Dutch language is limited at best and in most cases actually non-existent.

Why this magazine? Many years ago Harry Hilgerdenaar and I decided Rather than compete with other Rover clubs, we to share the rich Rover history with Rover lovers. aim to complement the work of other organisa- We had a wealth of material and did not want tions and to cooperate with many Rover clubs all this to gather dust on shelves or mould in boxes. over the world. We do not want members and do Old-school Harry did not have a computer, how- not charge a membership fee. ever, so it was me who turned the Rover history into digital files. If you want to keep abreast of our activities and news, please join our Facebook group. Our passion for the Rover brand led to meetings On Facebook many nice-to-know and need-to- every fortnight, starting as early as 9 am and know details are posted. ending sometime in the evening. Time really flew www.facebook.com/groups/dutchroverarchives. and the memory of those meetings is still very sweet. The idea of a free magazine was a joint Our magazines can be downloaded on: one, and I hit upon the name Dutch Rover Archi- www.roversd1.nl/dutchroverarchives/index.html. ves. Harry was a veritable encyclopaedia of Rover Reactions can be sent to: facts and anecdotes, so contents creation was a [email protected]. breeze. Making this magazine has cost blood, toil, tears Sadly, fate struck unexpectedly in April 2012. and sweat. Without the help of the following per- For years Harry had bravely battled cancer, but sons I could not have made it: weary of the fight his body finally gave out. Harry Harry Hilgerdenaar (Ϯ) Reinhard Stadthaus had completed the history text only a few months Stewart Devlin Geoff Arthur before his untimely death. It was my task to make the text come alive with pictures and dra- Special thanks to: Peter Frambach (FR59) wings.

It is with this free magazine that Harry’s name goes into the Rover hall of fame. Harry, thanks for your friendship, the amazing stories and the information. What is our objective? Dutch Rover Archives is for anyone who holds the Rover brand close to his or her heart. It covers all possible Rovers. It is made by volunteers and it is for free.

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6 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

York to London in 14 hrs. 33 min. Rover bicycle was the fastest verhicle of the world The sewing machine industry

The Coventry Sewing Machine Company

The establishment of the Coventry Sewing Machine Compa- ny in 1861 marked that the beginning of Rover’s bicycle manufacturing activities and its later car building business. The British car and motorcycle industry originated in and evolved from the bicycle industry. What few people realise is that the bicycle industry in its turn sprang from the sewing machine manufacturing industry. This is where not only Rover’s roots lie, but also those of many other, once house- hold names, such as Rudge, Ariel, Hillman, Singer, Swift and Humber. This is now more than 150 years ago, and is The James Starley Queen of harts is where our story begins. machine

James Starley and the city of Coventry

James Starley and his nephew John Starley were to found the Rover Company. James Starley, was born in Sussex in 1830 and started his working life as an apprentice gar- dener. He changed jobs and became an apprentice mechanic, working for a man called John Penn from Lewisham, South-London. In Penn’s shipbuilding workshop his real career in industry took off. The Smith and Starley patent

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One day Ms Penn’s sewing machine broke down, and James was asked to repair it. He did such a good repair job that his boss, Mr Penn, introduced him to Josiah Turner, who was active in the above-mentioned sewing machine industry. Mr Turner hired the young, promising mechanic, and this is how James Starley started working in manufacturing and designing of sewing machines for Newton-Wilson & Co..

For a while he found much satisfaction in his new job, and it was not long before he had independently designed his own sewing machine and taken out a patent on it. This se- The Patent no: 1678 of 1868 for J. Starley wing machine was so modern that his employer Mr Turner was deeply impressed and convinced of its market potential. He persuaded James to go into business with him and founded a company to market the new sewing machine. As the place of business Coventry was selected as the place to run the busness. Why Coventry? Mr Turner, being a shrewd businessman, knew that Coventry’s industry was not doing well. The city, known for its clocks and textiles industry, was facing keen competition from abroad, such as from Swiss clock makers, and there were also plenty of strikes at the time. Many companies went bankrupt or were closed, which led to a high number of unemployed workers. Spot- ting an opportunity, Mr Turner went for Coventry where many suitable business premises stood vacant and where experienced clock makers could easily be turned into sewing machine mechanics. This is how the Coventry Sewing “Salvo” Safety Company came to be established in 1861. In that year Ja- mes Starley turned 31.

Then came the bicycles

The velocipede

The shift to bicycles was pure coincidence. Josiah Turner had a nephew called Rowley Turner, who was a student in Paris. In the best capitalist tradition of the Victorian era Rowley was fascinated by the French craze with vélocipèdes, literally meaning ‘fast foot’ and being the original word for a bicycle. Rowley Turner’s interest in the subject was so great that he became a shareholder in the French vélocipèdes factory Michaux. Next to his studies Rowley was also the Paris agent for the Coventry Sewing Machine Company, and on top of that the enterprising young man suggested a new business venture to his uncle Josiah: producing Michaux bicycles under licence in Coventry. One day Rowley simply turned up in Coventry, seated on a vélocipède, to convince his Michaux “walked” with this Véloci- pédes trough the station. uncle and his business partner James Starley to start producing bicycles. Although he claimed to have ridden his bike all the way from Paris, it was rumoured that he had only brought his bicycle from the Central station to the factory.

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Dutch RoverArchives 9 Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

Some Patents Whatever was the case, Rowley did manage to convince the two business partners of the magnificent future of the vélo- cipède. Only one problem obstructed the start of the production of bicycles: it was not possible to manufacture both sewing machines and bicycles in one and the same company. The company’s Memorandum of Association would not allow it. This hurdle was taken by renaming the company Coventry Machinist Coop. Ltd. and drafting a new Memorandum of Association.

The vélocipèdes, in English dubbed ‘bone shakers’, were The invalid “Salvo” produced under licence in the Cheylesmore district of Co- ventry. James Starley, however, was not very happy with the product. When he compared them with his intricate and highly effective sewing machines, he considered the bicycles bulky, clumsy and technically under-developed. He was cer- tain that he could immensely improve the design, and he pleaded with his partner for change and innovation. His partner, however, was reluctant to agree. After all, they did make and sell as many bicycles as they wanted and they were earning a lot of money doing so. “Psycho” Tandem Convertible

William Hillman and the high-wheel bicycles

James Starley decided to leave Coventry Machinist Coop. Ltd in 1870 to start his own company together with William Hillman, the foreman he had taken along from his former employer. They would build bicycles and in 1907 they were to build the first Hillman car. But back to 1871: James Starley and William Hillman started producing their high-wheel bicycles called Ariel, a brand that still has a magic ring to it. The first bicycle that they built was known as a high wheeler, a high wheels or Central gear “Salvo” ordinary type. It had a big front wheel and a small rear wheel. They strove to build light-weight, all-steel bikes, with hollow-section me- tal frames. The bicycle also had the state-of-the-art Starley tangent spokes patented in 1870. The standard model cost £ 8, and for an extra £ 4 Starley’s gears could be mounted on the bicycle. These may have been the first bicycle gears in the world.

“Psycho” Tandem Convertible 2 These days the name ‘penny-farthing’ is most widely used in the historic bicycle world. It refers to the British penny and farthing coins, the one much larger than the other, re- sembling the side view of the bicycle. It is hard to imagine that this type of bike was called ‘ordinary’ at the time, because stranger types of transportation are hardly ima- ginable. The enormous front wheel and the diminutive rear wheel meant there was a great risk of the cyclist falling over “Psycho” Safety the handlebars head-first.

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Apart from this, the extremely poor condition of the roads added to the danger, so riding this bicycle was not very safe. The instability of the bicycle led James Starley to concentrate on designing a safer means of transportation.

From two wheels to three wheels to four wheels

Starley’s 1876 ‘Coventry Lever Tricycle’ was a major step forward in safety, and from this tricycle he developed a four- wheel vehicle that was even more successful, was more James Starley’s Contentry Lever practical and could transport two persons. It was a sort of Tricycle 1876 tandem on which the riders sat back to back. He called it ‘Sociable’ and tested it together with his son William. The Sociable led to the development of the ‘Salvo’ tricycle, which had a differential. It became hugely popular and a bestseller. In fact, it was also the first bicycle that was bought and used in great numbers by ladies. At the time cycling was purely seen as a form of sports. It was hardly the serious means of mass transportation that we now consider it to be. The Salvo’s popularity was so great that even Queen Victoria bought two of them.

John Kemp Starley

In 1881 James Starley died. As with so many inventors, he had produced more ideas than he had earned money, but Queen Victoria bought two Salvo he died an energetic and happy man. In 1873 he had alrea- Tricyles in the year 1881 dy secured a position in his factory for his nephew John Kemp Starley, who was clearly a technical prodigy. After some time John Kemp Starley (J.K. Starley) joined the Hayes & Jeffries Company, who had taken over the production of The Ariel bicycles from James Starley.

Coventry thair

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12 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

This company was the first one in Coventry to concentrate 100% on the production of bicycles. In 1877 J.K. Starley left this firm again to start his own company, together with Wil- liam Sutton, at the age of only 23.

Mr. J.K. Starley mounting the “Rover cob” Starley and Sutton, as the new company was called, started its business activities in the West-Ireland district of Coven- try in premises known as the Meteor Works. They started with the production of Ordinaries, they also manufactured a folding bicycle that they had designed for their uncle James, the ‘Compressas’, under licence, and on top of this they also produced tricycles.

J.K. Starley’s first own design was a tricycle that he called the ‘Meteor’ and that was snapped up by the public. In no time nine out of ten bicycle manufacturers copied his idea. The very first vehicle bearing the Rover name was the next design, striving to be a light vehicle offering a comfortable ride and an absolutely safe construction that could conquer even the steepest hills. The first tricycle called the “Meteor”

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The factory The Rover Safety Bicycle

One year later, in 1885, after a long period of pondering and fine-tuning, J.K. Starley revealed the radically new, even revolutionary ‘Rover Safety’ bicycle, on which all our recent and current bicycle models are based. In those days Rover’s slogan was ‘The Rover has set the fashion to the World’, and there is more truth in this than they could realise back then. Between 1885 and 1888 the original design was changed quite fundamentally, and after that triumphal progress – both at home and abroad – it was unstoppable, which also explains why the Polish and Russian word for bicycle is ‘Rover’.

The bicycle was now a very comfortable and fast mode of transport, in contrast with everything manufactured up to that point. This was even the case with the solid rubber tyres of the day, as mass production of the pneumatic tyre was not there yet. It soon became the daily means of transport for workers, farmers, office clerks and shop owners. Although bicycles were expensive, the situation for the buyer improved very rapidly in the 1890s, because of the huge numbers of bicycles that were produced. Further- more, payment in instalments had become more common, so more people could afford to buy a bicycle. Those who wanted to buy, say, a Rover Safety could make use of the so

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-called Extended Purchase Scheme. The rise of the railway Some old Bicycles brochures network in the 1830s had made many travellers disappear from the roads, but now the simplicity and comfort of the Rover Safety brought them back by the thousands, in effect paving the way for the auto-mobile, as was the word for the autonomously working vehicle.

The early beginnings of motorised biking

In the course of the 1880s J.K. Starley had already experi- mented with an electrically powered tricycle, and in the first real Rover auto catalogue (1905-1906) this vehicle can be spotted being the very first car, built and tested in Coventry in 1888 by the late J.K Starley, of Messrs. Starley and Sut- ton, the founders of the Rover Company. Mind you, at that moment Carl Benz had not yet put a car on the road. That was to happen one year later, in 1889. 1887 catalog

The first Motor - Car built and tested in Coventry, in 1888 by the late Back cover of abridged illustrated list J.K. Starley, of Starley & Sutton, the founders of the Rover firm. This interesting Starley vehicle was put through its paces in Deauville, France, because the Red Flag Act in his own country made it impossible for Starley to legally try out his vehicle on the roads there. Because its top speed was a me- re 13 km per hour, reached within a few yards, this design seemed more like an expensive designer´s toy. However, on closer inspection, many interesting aspects could be noticed. The chassis was a tubular construction taking a U shape towards the rear. On the rear axle between both ends the electric motor was mounted, while the batteries were placed below the seat. As with all great technological innovations, at one point there is something brewing everywhere and this was now the case with the self-driven vehicle, the automobile. When par- liament in Great Britain abolished the Red Flag Act, automobile pioneers could really get going there as well. 1925 catalog

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Bicycle advertisements The best-known of them in those early days was Harry Lawson, who had acquired a licence from Daimler to build its cars in Coventry. Wolseley started in Birmingham, and so did Lanchester and the Riley brothers. The automobile industry could basically have centred in any city, but Co- ventry turned out to have the edge because of its transport industry.

Oddly enough, it was the four-wheel version of the motorised vehicle that took off best right from the start. The motorcycle industry only started to develop a few years later. In 1899 J.K Starley Jr. imported some Peugeot motorcycles from France and used them to experiment with. The nice thing about this was that, in contrast with most other manufacturers, Rover developed in a logical way, from bicycles to motorised bicycles to motorised four-wheelers. After tho- roughly studying the Peugeot motorcycles, they set their aim at motorising the Rover Safety. This took some time, because J.K. Starley unexpectedly died at the age of 46 in 1901. At the time of his death his bicycle factory was the biggest in Coventry, and it produced a whopping 17,431 bicycles in 1902.

For the Rover Cycle Company Ltd., established in 1896, J.K. Starley had laid down a solid financial foundation. The fully-paid capital amounted to £ 200,000. Furthermore, the factory had moved to new premises on Queen Victoria Road and was now called New Meteor Works. It was to stay here until 1932. When they started production in Queen Victoria Road the production number was 11,000, and, as mentioned above, the factory produced over 17,000 bicycles in 1902, showing clearly that the business was booming. One example of the financial figures: in 1896 the turnover was already £ 160,000 and the profits were £ 21,945. This was already a very good start for the new corporation.

J.K. Starley died a wealthy man. Just like his uncle James, he was known as a friendly philanthropist and as a religi- ous man, being a strong supporter of the Congregational Church. This church even published a new Bible under Starley’s name, which – contrary to normal practice – started with the New Testament and then went on with the Old Testament. It came to be known as the Starley Bible.

J.K. Starley’s son, J.K. Starley Jr., who had been working in the factory since 1897, was called John just like his father, so everybody called him Jack. On his father’s death he was too young to be his father’s successor, so Company Secreta- ry Harry Smith became the Managing Director. After a few years young Starley took over as Managing Director and would keep this position until 1929. He was also the last Starley to be connected with the Rover brand.

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Exploring the potential of ‘auto-mobiles’

In 1902 Harry Smith took the decision to start producing motorcycles. The decision was dated 10 October 1902, and the first Rover motorcycle (the 2¾ HP) appeared on 24 No- vember 1902. It can therefore safely be assumed that prepa- ratory steps had already been taken in the preceding years. However, the step towards motorcycle production was not the real strategy for the future. Hardly had the first buyers taken delivery of their Imperial Rover motorcycles, when the Rover Company made an adventurous leap forward. After all, it looked as though the, so far unreliable ‘self-movers’, auto-mobiles, began to get more stability, and – what’s more – were attracting great interest among well-to-do customers in Great Britain and on the Continent. A very interesting new market was in the making. One kick-starter moment was when Daimler managed to sell a car to King Edward VII. It led Harry Smith and his fellow Directors to venture into the fledgling motorised age by tapping into the new automobile market.

The big problem was that none of them knew what to do exactly in the new uncharted territory. After all, motorcycles were merely motorised versions of bicycles, but motorcars, they were a different kettle of fish. Another issue was the working space they had in the bicycle factory: would it be sufficient and suitable for making cars? Still, on 16 Decem- ber 1903 it was decided to design a small, light car. A boost for morale was the fact that they were able to snatch the successful designer Edmund Lewis away from Daimler. In hindsight, the decision for Rover to move into car production was taken at exactly the right moment. It was when almost everybody really started to make the same move. Apart from Daimler, there was Rolls Royce, Armstrong, Sid- deley, Humber, Lea Francis Singer and Standard taking the leap, just like Austin and Morris. Apart from the fact that the New Meteor Works were probably the most famous bicycle factory in the country, they would now also have a claim to fame as a car manufacturer. Who could have thought in 1903 that Rover would in effect be the last man standing in the world of British mass producers of cars?

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The pioneer era 1904 – 1932

Before we look at the development of the first Rover cars, an overview of the situation between 1904 and 1932 needs to be made. Why 1932? Because this was the year in which Rover nearly went bankrupt. It is common knowledge that the Great Depression, which started in 1929, had a devas- tating effect on business, and the automobile industry felt the blows as well. Everything that could go wrong in those years did go wrong and it is a miracle that so many car manufacturers managed to survive nonetheless.

Rover model 12 delivery car 1904-1914: the good years and the models 8 and 12

The funny thing is that in its first 10 years as a car manufacturer, 1904-1914, Rover had everything going for itself. Sales and prestige were great, and it can safely be said that Rover became one of the leading car manufacturers because of its image and profitability. In a pioneering era in which there were literally hundreds of car brands in the U.K., this is no mean feat.

In 1913, the last year before the Great War, 26,000 cars were built in Great Britain. Ford was by far the biggest manufacturer with 6000 of the Model T, and then Wolseley producing nearly 3,000 cars firmly in second place. With 1500 cars Rover rivalled brands like Austin, Morris and Singer. This gave the Rover management the idea that they were not only on the right track but were even leading the way. But they were wrong. The reason was that they started slowly and built up their business well but sold too few cars to make a good comeback after World War I.

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Contrary to Austin, Wolseley and Ford, Rover did not manage to conclude contracts with the government during the war. One of the reasons why they could not sell their cars to the government was that their popular model 12, which hit the market in 1912, was considered too light for use in and around the frontlines by the military authorities. Because all personnel and raw materials were primarily devoted to the war effort from 1915 onwards, no cars for the private market could be built. Rover therefore had no other option but to concentrate on government orders for motorcycles, and as far as cars were concerned they assembled staff cars together with Sunbeam and they produced three-tonne trucks with Maudslay. After the war had ended there was an enormous demand for cars, and Rover redirected its attention to the production of the model 12. There was a big difference now, though: in 1914 the 12 cost £ 350, and in 1919 it had doubled in price: £ 750. Of course other British car manufacturers also suffered from inflation and even more so from the import of inexpensive cars from the USA. Rover decided to produce the air-cooled 8 – more about this model later – next to the established 12, but they did not succeed in distinguishing themselves sufficiently in the mass production that arose in the 1920s. In short, one could say that Rover’s best years were between 1904 and 1914 and between 1932 and roughly 1970.

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20 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

The first Rover car

Back to 1904; the 8HP car that Lewis had dreamt up, the first of various ‘cars for the people’, cars with a small but efficient engine, was different from its rivals. Lewis was not a follower of fashion and did not stick to the common practice of the French and German car industry that flooded the British market with its cars. They built cars looking like mechanised horse carriages, but Lewis decided against this and chose not to use a steel-reinforced, wooden frame. Using his experience with Daimler he designed the All steel back-bone chassis first Rover with an all-steel back-bone chassis, far ahead of his time.

The new car had been developed in an amazingly short time span. Initiated in December 1903, the first prototype already drove around in 1904 and the first car was sold in De- cember 1904. The model 8 was an immediate hit, and not only because of its modern chassis. Also the way in which the rear axle was integrated, namely directly mounted onto the chassis and not as a sprung axle, the common practice of the day was revolutionary for that time. Furthermore, Le- wis also installed a mechanism allowing a pedal to close the The 8HP two seated Rover car inlet valve, so that the engine would slow down.

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The model 8 car was shown for the very first time to the general public on Bexhill promenade on a bank holiday in Au- gust 1904, and it convincingly beat its competitors Star and Ford in the class C trials. This led Lord Montague to write an article in his car magazine CAR Illustrated, saying that the Rover 8 model was a fast, remarkably vibration-free car that would undoubtedly get a great following, in view of its builder’s track record. The sales success was further boosted by journalist Robert Jefferson, who got Rover tremendous publicity by driving a Rover 8 model from Lon- De 8 hp two seated Rover car don to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 31 days, together with Rover’s manager and test driver Robert Weallans.

In those days this was an unheard-of achievement, imme- diately establishing Rover as a top quality car brand. The success of the 8 model gave Harry Smith so much confiden- ce in the future that he had Lewis design three more models: a light one-cylinder 780cc engine for the 6 model (the 8 model had a 1327cc engine), and two four-cylinder engines, namely the 10/12 1767cc engine and the 16/20 3119cc engine.

The model 6

Sales were going well: in 1906 the factory produced 756 cars and in the following year this rose to 1211 cars. The Rover 6 was an interesting model. Its price was low at £ De 6 hp Rover car 100, which was half the price of a model 8. It was also a Special finish real success, as was proven by an endurance test executed by Autocar magazine. In the winter of 1905-1906 the magazine drove a model 6 car for over 1001 miles in the course of five months, which was quite an achievement in those days. The experience was such, that the car was labelled ‘a good small car’. At night they managed an average of 18 miles per hour, and during the day they did 20 miles per hour. Throughout that winter the Rover 6 only had problems on three occasions, once with the carburettor and twice with the ignition. The high degree of reliability, including in bad weather, led the Rover 6 to become a favourite among doctors, most of who were switching from dog-carts and light vehicles to cars around that time. Perhaps this was the moment that the foundation was laid for Rover’s traditional position as a manufacturer of the British doctor’s car. In 1906 London phy- sician H. Crichton Miller M.B., reported on his journey from the Atlantic coast of France to the Riviera and back, which had cost him and his companion £ 20 for the car. The doctor said about his car: ‘She is simply a Daisy. She has her faults and the greatest of these is the combined throttle and De Tourist Trophy 1907 ignition control. It cost me precisely 3 shillings, 2½ dimes and two hours work to remedy that.’ The one-cylinder cars did best, but the four-cylinder ones were less successful. The 10/12 was soon taken out of production.

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However, the 16/20 surprised everybody by winning the These are the Rover models from 1913 1907 Tourist Trophy in the Isle of Man. In the very first TT in 1905, Rover had already participated with two Rovers; 16 12 hp. 4 cil. Doctor‘s coupe & 20. It had resulted in a 5th and 12th position, which is 12 hp. 4 cil. Two seater body not bad for a new brand. In 1906 Rover again went to the 12 hp 4 cil. Four seater body Isle of Man TT in high spirits. 12 hp 4 cil. Landaulette body The training rounds were all fine, apart from the fact that one of the racing drivers lost the mechanic who was with him along the way and noticed this only much later. The awful suspension may have caused this oversight. Autocar magazine called the suspension ‘distinctly unpleasant’. Just before the technical inspection another mechanic discovered that the petrol tanks were almost empty. Getting enough petrol from various places turned out to be so time- consuming that the cars appeared too late at the inspection station and were therefore disqualified. In 1907, however, they outshone everybody. It was really awful weather during the 6 x 40 miles of the TT, forcing many contestants to stop by the roadside with wet ignitions. Not so for Rover no. 22 with test driver Ernest Courtis at the wheel. He drove slowly and evenly, and finished 12 minutes before driver no.2, in 8 hours, 23 minutes and 27 seconds. Out of the 60 entries in the race only two finished: Mr Courtis and one other driver. For this fine achievement Mr Courtis’s reward was a golden watch and a week’s extra holiday.

Owen Clegg

At the end of 1905 the brilliant engineer Lewis had already left Rover for a job at Armstrong Siddeley, and it took until 1911 before the legendary model 12 designed by Owen Clegg was released. In 1910 Jack Starley had become Gene- ral Manager of Rover, and he succeeded in roping in the ta- lented and important designer Owen Clegg. Clegg had worked for companies like Wolseley and Austin, and since Le- wis’s departure there was enough work for him to do. Bicy- cles were then still a major part of production and the motorcycle production unit, which had stopped in 1905, had just been restarted. This was something that they were very happy with sometime later because it was a great help to compensate for the shrunken car production in the war years 1915-1919. The new model motorcycle, the 3½ HP, was a hit from the moment that it was introduced. Between 1915 and 1919 Rover built over 3,000 3½ HP motorcycles for the army. In spite of this, Rover opted for change and completely terminated both the bicycle and the motorcycle activities in 1924. Although Owen Clegg had only worked for Rover for one and a half years, he had an enormous impact and turned it into a totally different company. He convinced management to focus on the production of a single car model rather than on a range of cars, and with the model 12 he scored a hole in one.

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24 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

He also beefed up the production capacity of the factory, from 883 cars in 1911 to 1943 cars in 1914. Whereas profits were £ 7,100 in 1910, they rose to no less than £ 137,000 in 1914. The success of the model 12 was due to the golden combination of price, size and engine power. On top of that, the public soon discovered that the 12 was a pleasantly reliable car. Sim- ply, good news all round.

Unfortunately, Owen Clegg left Rover in March 1912, after having worked there for only 18 months. This was not because he had fallen out with Rover’s management but simply because of the fact that his 12 had become such a hit that he had become the most desirable engineer and all competitors wanted to employ him. His next employer was Darracq in France, which he went on to transform from a problem-ridden company into a flourishing one. If Ro- ver had then managed to use the model 12 as a springboard to become a leading car manufacturer, the next twenty years would have been much rosier for the company, but both business and political developments in the world had an adverse effect. In 1914 Europe found itself at the brink of disaster, with the beginnings of World War I, and in effect it meant the end of the rise of the Rover brand.

The impact of World War I

In Europe the First World War claimed the lives of 10 million soldiers, and about 21 million people, both soldiers and civilians, were injured. The U.K. alone lost more than one million of its soldiers on the battlefields in France. The total population of the U.K. at the time was 43 million, ruling an empire of 25% of the world population. Apart from unmentionable agony, the Great War also drove the economy and led to technical progress, as is the case with any war. In the war years nearly every factory and workshop was going full blast for the war effort, because the battles fought on the frontlines required the deployment of all available personnel and machines.

The war caused the phenomenon of emancipation to grow in countries like Great Britain, because the country could not do without women as substitutes for all the men who were doing their duty for their country at the front. After the war everybody was convinced that there would be a great demand for cars, and all manufacturers rushed to switch from war production to car production. In 1920 there were no fewer than 89 car producers in Coventry alone, with Singer and Rover being the largest. As was the case with both large and small manufacturers, Rover had to replace the worn-out war-year machines and create proper stocks in order to meet the expected demand. Rover was lucky in that it had just the one model to market, namely the model 12. The only problem was that this model costing £ 375 in 1914 now cost £ 750 in 1919. All British car builders had similar pricing problems, and it was in particular Morris who tried to capture market share by setting ultra-low prices.

Examples of prices in 1920: T-Ford £ 240 Chevrolet £ 450 Overland £ 495 Morris Oxford £ 590 Deluxe and a year later £ 446 Rover model 12 £ 750 More prices: 1922: Rover model 12 £ 650 1923: Entry-level model 12 £ 450 1924: Morris Oxford £ 320 1924: T-Ford £ 110

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Rover joined the competitive battle, and this helped to keep production going, but from a financial point of view it was risky. Another fact contributing to the financial problems The New Rover 8 HP was that Rover owned more factories at the end of the war than they had at the beginning. It was more than they could afford. Remember that there was keen competition: Morris was just one more of the luxury mid-range cars they had to fend off, and the T-Ford’s easy handling and reliability made this a formidable rival for the Rover cars as well.

In spite of this, Rover broke through the £ 1 million turnover barrier in 1920, it made good profit and it was looking to the future again. To Rover the future would be smaller cars, a market that they had abandoned earlier. They got in touch with a young, brilliant engineer called Jack Sangster, whose family produced the Swift automobiles, who were quite well-known at the time. Jack Sangster sold the design of a small air-cooled 8 HP engine to Rover. This completely new design could not be produced in the existing works in Coventry, so an old ammunition factory was bought in Bir- mingham, called Tyseley 1 in Rover jargon. On this site the so-called rolling chassis was built, which was then transported to Coventry to be finished with a full body. In the 1980s the Rover V8 engines for the Rover SD1 models were produced in this very Tyseley building in Birmingham. These engines were then put on trailers in a sort of court- yard and shipped to Coventry once a week. It was obviously a cumbersome and time-consuming way of working. But this is a side note.

Back to 1920; Rover’s new 8 HP, proved to be a success for a number of years. The British consumer, heavily affected by inflation and high taxes, was prepared to buy a simple and cheap car. Apart from the T-Ford there were only very few well-built cheap cars on the market at the time. The 8 HP was a brand new design in every respect: a simple chassis, an air-cooled 998cc engine with 85mm bore and 88mm stroke. It was the same bore/stroke ratio as the successful 3½ HP Rover motorcycle. With its 14 BHP and 3-speed gearbox it was also able to take on any hill, but speeds above 55 km became hard with its 1800 rpm. The other unique feature was that the 8 HP came with its own self-starter. Not less than £ 400,000, an unimaginably high sum at this time, had been spent on machines and tools for this model. After all, they did not trust air-cooled engines, so they were desperate to get them right. One of the gruelling tests they did was a non-stop trip from Land’s End to John O Groats, under the watchful eye of the R.A.C. At the beginning of 1920 the production of the 8 HP started. For the coming four years the 8 HP and the revamped model 12 were the only cars they had on the market, and the focus on just these two models proved to be a great strategy. In 1920 only 1400 cars were built (8 HP and model 12 together), but one year later in 1921 about 1400 model 12

26 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand cars were sold and no fewer than 3175 8 HPs. In 1922 the total number of cars sold rose even further to 6466, and in 1923 to 6749. Another high point was in 1924 when 5000 8 HPs were sold.

All this was rather wonderful and profitable, and it really encouraged management and shareholders, but there were also setbacks. Since Owen Clegg had left the company in 1912, Rover was stuck without a chief engineer. Mark Wild, Clegg’s successor, was a manager rather than a technical innovator, and Jack Sangster, the man of the 8 HP, left Ro- ver in 1922 to become a Director at the Ariel motorcycle factory in Birmingham.

Competition from Herbert Austin

On top of this, there was another big problem that went by the name of Herbert Austin. Earlier, in 1919, car producer Austin had made the monumental error of focusing on the wrong, too expensive model 20 HP, but then Herbert Austin decided to muscle into the cheaper market segment with a revolutionary new model. This was the amazing Austin- Seven, which went into production in 1922. Austin had a much bigger dealer network than Rover, and the production capacity of the Seven was infinitely bigger as well. What made things even worse for Rover was the fact that the Austin- Seven was cheaper than nearly every other car on the market. It undercut the Rover 8 HP anyway by £ 15. By today’s standards that sounds like peanuts, but when you know that the price of a car at the time was £ 180 (for the Rover 8HP) and £ 165 (for the Austin-Seven), you can see the massive difference.

In its own ranks Rover also had a setback in management. Managing Director Harry Smith left Rover and was replaced by John Kemp Starley Jr. Although Starley had worked for Rover for 25 years and knew the company inside out because of his personal and professional background, he cut a poor figure as a manager. He was appointed in 1923 and he was fired in 1929, as you will read later.

In those years Rover never made a profit, not even a penny. On the contrary, losses amounted to a staggering £ 500,000. One of the reasons was that Rover decided not to compete with Herbert Austin with a revamped small 8 HP but to focus on a high-prestige car, a 3½ litre one with a £ 1050 price tag. The development of this so-called 14 model was the brain child of engineer / manager Mark Wild. The car had a V12 3446cc engine, and it had brakes on all four wheels, which was quite special at the time. However, the public was ‘not amused’ or perhaps simply indifferent, and the car simply did not sell.

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Rover Nine models Only three cars were delivered to customers in the end. In Also nippy named the ensuing panic over lost sales and in a frantic move to control costs, Starley decided to close down the New Rover Cycle Co Ltd and to transfer the production of bicycles and motorcycles to the car factory in Coventry. This was an impossible move and resulted in chaos, and in 1924 the production of both bicycles and motorcycles was terminated. From 1896 onwards 400,000 bicycles had been manufactured, and from 1902/1903 onwards over 10,000 motorbikes had been made. In the years 1923/1924 this trade came to an end for Ro- ver, and it developed two car models that would set the course up to 1930.

The nippy model 9

The 8 HP was already on the market, and now it got a successor called the model 9. This 9 had a completely new four -cylinder water-cooled engine, which was an easier sell than the loud air-cooled 8. The 9 had a 1074cc engine with a 60mm bore and a 95mm stroke. The engine produced 20 HP at 3000 rpm, and it remained Rover’s standard small engine until the summer of 1933, when this small engine was replaced by the 10, developed by Spencer Wilks. So when the 9 was announced in the spring of 1924, it was in fact no more than an 8 with a water-cooled engine. The downside of the 9 was that it had an outdated 8 chassis and weighed considerably more than an 8, so it was se- riously underpowered.

As to the bodies of the cars there were constant complaints, and Rover’s reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality cars suffered particularly from body defects in the ‘nippy’ 9, as it was known among customers. In order to reverse the negative trend and position the 9 as a reliable and economical car, Rover had the R.A.C. instruct two girls to drive the car on £ 5, to see how far it could take them. The idea was that the £ 5 would cover petrol, oil and any repair costs, and the result was that the car did 2,147 miles. The test was also repeated in France, because it was said that in the U.K. any car could be economical as the maximum speed was only 20 mph (=30 km/h). From the French test it appeared that petrol use at an average speed of 30 mph (=45 km/h) was the same. Although this was good news for the reputation of the car, all British car producers, including Rover, had little interest in exporting their cars to the Conti- nent. After all, it was very complicated and time-consuming, and most thought it was not worth all that trouble, because the British Empire was large enough as a sales market anyway, and the need for foreign currencies was non-existent.

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P.A. Poppe and his 14/45 14/45 Rover models

This was the time when P.A. Poppe of Dennis Motors, a Nor- wegian, was hired. He was the first engineer after Owen Clegg to design a pure Rover car, the 14/45. He had his own engineering office, called White & Poppe. On his own Mr Pop- pe had designed a complete car with a four-cylinder engine, semi-spherical combustion chambers, overhead camshaft, valves at an angle of 45°, a four-speed gearbox and a worm drive on the rear axle (crown wheel and pinions). This very much appealed to Rover management, so it was not long before the contract was signed. Mr Poppe was a first-rate engineer but his English was appallingly bad, so this led to much miscommunication. This was compounded by Mr Poppe’s ex- treme arrogance, leading to everybody getting sick and tired of him very soon. Rover’s staff cooperated with him as well as they could, but none of the members of Rover’s management had any technical knowledge, so the only thing they could do is hope that Mr Poppe’s technical acumen would work out well for their company.

What Mr Poppe guaranteed for his new car was this: • it would weigh less than 25 cwt (=1250 kg.). • it would do 25 miles to the gallon (1 to 10.5 litres). • it would be profitable at a consumer price of £ 450. • it would be an open four-seater. • it would have a top speed of 60 mph (95 km/h). This ticked all the right boxes for Rover’s management, so Mr Poppe could go right ahead.

Unfortunately, the brave new 14/45 did not live up to the expectations at all. It is a mystery how so much could have gone wrong, but when Technical Director Mark Wild saw the first cylinder head he left the company, never to return. When the first car was assembled, it became clear that it did not meet four of the requirements set from the start: • the new 14/45 weighed more than 25 cwt. • the new 14/45 could certainly not do 25 miles to the gallon. • the new 14/45 could not possibly be sold at £ 450 wit hout making a loss on the sale of every single car. • the new 14/45 could not reach the 60 mph top speed promised, unless it had a tail wind of wind force 10. What made things even worse was that the gear box made a loud rattling noise and that the engine sounded as if it had no bearings in it.

In spite of all this, the car was taken into production and was introduced to the general public at the 1924 Olympia show, with a price tag of £ 550. This proved to be a nightma- re for the service department. Because the car’s lack of power was so dramatic, the cylinders were drilled out, so that it would be upgraded to the 16/50. Its popularity also needed

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to be cranked up, so the marketers set another trail, this time a hillside climb in North Wales. This was done succes- sfully 50 times in a row, and it got Rover the Dewar Trophy. It marked the first time that the company could report on something positive.

Colonel Frank Searle and P.A. Poppe’s light Six Rover

Sales, however, were very disappointing, and as a result the financial position of the company was disastrous. In 1928 Rover was in fact nearly bankrupt. An army Colonel, Frank Searle, was hired as a crisis manager, and he started reor- ganising with the bluntness and ruthlessness that charac- terised him. He axed many positions at management level and in the various offices. Furthermore, J.K. Starley Jr., John Kemp Starley´s son, was sent off on a sales campaign around the world, only to receive his dismissal note by tele- gram when he had arrived in New Zealand. Just to get some cash, the cars in stock were sold at a very special price to a dealer in Manchester, and everybody was prepared for a complete change in products. To everybody´s surprise Mr Poppe had not yet been fired, and he came up with a new model, the ’light Six Rover’, with a sales price of £ 395. What Mr Poppe did not know at the time was that he would be fired less than a year later nonetheless. His light Rover Six met with an enthusiastic press, and at the 1928 Motor Show so many orders were taken that colonel Searle was taken aback. He could never have imagined this.

Rover 16/50 © Stewart Devlin.

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Rover Light Six 1930

Spencer Wilks and the Blue Train Challenge

The best thing that Colonel Searle did was convince Spencer Wilks to become Rover’s Managing Director. In early Ja- nuary 1930 he and the newly appointed Spencer Wilks decided on a stunt that would make Rover front-page news and would make the general public love the Rover Six to bits overnight. The idea was to pit the Six in a 24-hour race against the famous Blue Train, which was immensely popular in the days before flying. The train was called the Blue Train because its de-luxe carriages were painted blue, and it took the train about 24 hours to reach its final destinati- on in Ventimiglia, Italy. They had calculated that it took the train one minute to do one mile, which meant that the average speed was 40 mph (= 64 km/h). This fairly low average speed was caused by the fact that the train had to pause for about 45 minutes in Paris for a change of locomo- tive. Rover forked out £100 for the journey to cover the costs of fuel, oil, tyres and accommodation. The exclusive of the story went to the Daily Express. All this preparation led up to the day of the trial, 21 January 1930.

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It was then that the Rover light Six took up its position beside the train, manned by factory driver F. Bennett, Ro- ver’s PR man Dudley Noble and the well-known Daily Ex- press sports journalist Harold Pemberton.

Everyone knows the outcome of this remarkable event: Ro- ver won. Unsurprisingly, Rover hit the front page of the Dai- ly Express, and that was only the beginning of a flood of positive publicity. The eventual result was a 20% boom in turnover. In a year like 1930 this was no mean feat. From that moment onwards Rover went from strength to strength, innovating and building sales volumes as they went, all under the inspirational leadership of Managing Director Spen- cer Wilks. In Spencer Wilks, who had risen to the top of the pyramid in the automotive world, Rover had found the ideal manager. At the end of the 1920s he managed Hillman Mo- tor Company together with the notorious captain John Black, who was to become Managing Director of Standard at a later stage.

Spencer Wilks hired ex-Hillman engine designer Major B.H. Thomas to design a new, small six-cylinder engine, to bridge the gap between Mark Wild’s 1185cc model 10 engine and P.A. Poppe’s 2023cc / 2565cc six-cylinder engine. Mr Tho- mas did an expert job, turning the four-cylinder engine from the model 10 into a six-cylinder that was all the rage at the time. During the 1930s this engine proved to be the backbo- ne of the whole engine and model range. It also exemplified how Spencer Wilks planned his models strategically with the long term in mind. The first model for the new engine was the Pilot, which was not a success, but Mr Wilks planned beyond just one model.

The ugly 7 hp Scarab

Every car brand has cancelled models and every Production Manager has skeletons in his closet, and Rover was no ex- ception. A car brand that has never launched a model just like that is a rarity. Rover for instance had its own skeleton in the form of the small Scarab, its 6 HP M-type, the ugly Road Rover. Projects like this were often not terminated for technical reasons but mainly because Rover was always prudent from a financial point of view. Of all the cancelled projects the Scarab was an odd for Rover. Internally the Scarab was known as the ‘7 HP’ car, and it should have been launched at the Olympia car show in London in Octo- ber 1931. The recommended retail price was £ 85.

The idea for the Scarab was Colonel Frank Searle’s, who started the project after his appointment in 1929, but the project was abandoned as soon as he had left Rover in 1931.

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The Rover Scarab

The Scarab project had been approved earlier in an attempt to prevent bankruptcy, because the company was in such dire straits that it could have gone bankrupt in 1931 or 1932. After all, in 1928 Rover only produced 3,766 cars, whereas Morris produced 55,000 cars in the same year, and the entire car production in England was 165,352 cars. Ro- ver simply had to do something, anything.

In order to boost turnover the range of models had to be extended and a larger number of cheaper cars should be made. Morris as well as Ford had proved that sales opportunities in the lower price brackets were enormous. This is why Frank Searle and chief designer Robert Boyle started on the design of a revolutionary small car in Decem- ber 1928. They soon got assistance from Maurice Wilks, Spencer Wilks´s brother, who was given his first job at Rover. It was decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of the factory and work in secret, so the whole operation was moved to Searle´s Branston Hall estate, on the A45 not far from Rugby. The resulting Scarab design had none of the Rover hallmarks and earlier techniques.

Not only its retail price of £ 85 was amazing but also its unorthodox design and styling. To make this ultra-low price a feasible one, the car had to be the simplest car design ima- ginable. This was purely Frank Searle’s idea, because the Ro- ver designers as well as Maurice Wilks shuddered at the me- re thought of such a daring idea. Although the Scarab had an air-cooled engine, it was completely unlike the model 8 air-cooled engine from 1920. The chassis was very futuristic, as was the suspension, the engine itself and the gearbox.

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Van Boven naar beneden:

2 litre Rover Sportsman’s Coupe Weymann Body

2 litre Rover Sportsman’s Saloon Weymann Body

Rover Meteor Sportsman Saloon Weymann Body

Rover Four-Door Light Six Saloon Weymann Body

2 litre Rover Weymann Saloon

2 litre Rover Coachbuild Saloon

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Rover got patents on all components, which is quite remarkable. The wheel base was 84 in- ches (234 cm), the chassis was a simple, so-called ladder design and the engine was rear mounted. Nevertheless, a fake radiator was placed at the front end, in order not to upset the rather conservative British public too much.

During the first test drives the car turned out to have quite a few problems: it made far too much noise, the engine did not run smoothly and quickly overheated, and last but not least it was not considered a Rover. In August 1931 the Scarab was shown to dealers and in October it was displayed at the Olympia Car show in London, but the public was not amused and not responsive. After an investment of about £ 65,000 Rover management did not dare to go ahead and take the car into production. In hindsight this was a good decision, because if they had started producing the Scarab, it would definitely have ruined them.

Crisis in the early 1930s

Eventually, the whole Scarab affair led to Searle´s downfall, as he got fired. Still, Spencer Wilks had to wait until January 1933 before he was appointed managing Director of Rover. In the meantime Mr Wilks started the transition from an ailing and nearly bankrupt Rover to a reasonably successful company in the 1930s. His motto was that quality was always more important than quantity. It was to be the guiding principle throughout his 30 years at Rover.

As far as quantity was concerned, more than 180,000 cars were built in England in 1929, 4% of which - 7,200 cars - were Rovers. One year later total production shrunk to 170,000, and Rover’s share was only 5,950 Rover 3½ types. In 1931 total production decreased further still to 159,000 cars, but now Rover’s share grew to 10,144 cars, which was 6% of total production. It should be noted that these figures relate to cars ‘produced’, not cars ‘actually sold’. Because of the crisis there were fewer and fewer buyers, the quality of the Rover cars had gone down and the stocks, especially in dealers’ showrooms, were growing.

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Rover 10/25

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Management under Frank Searle had been warned that about 280 cars were produced per week in 1931 whereas only 55 were actually ordered per week. Searle’s production policy led the company to the brink of bankruptcy.

In 1930 the model 10/25, the successor to the model 9 and in fact also to the air-cooled model 8, was phased out. The ‘Weyman body’, a plywood structure covered with artificial leather, which was quite common then, was replaced by the ‘family 10’ type with a pressed steel body and a wider and lower chassis. The price was reduced from £ 250 to £ 189. There was a ‘10 special’ edition in 1932. Although the body had not been changed, this particular car came with an improved chassis, suspension and a four-speed gearbox with a free-wheel - semi-automatic - concept. This freewheel concept was to be retained until the introduction of the 1956 model year P4, and it was to make the Rover brand very popular later on. It is funny to see that Rover had become so poor in the early thirties that it shared the bodies, made by Pressed Steel in Birmingham, with Hillman. It was a deal that Spencer Wilks had made with his former employer. This is why the Rover model 10 and the Hillman Minx looked almost identical. The cars with bigger engine power that were based on the six-cylinder Poppe concept were replaced by the new Wilks six-cylinder engine in 1934/1935. However, in 1932 the so-called Light Six was still Poppe’s old 2023cc six- cylinder. The Light Six car therefore also had bicycle mud- guards, no footboards, a longer front-end and only two doors. The engine was then scaled up from 2023cc to 2565cc for the new ‘Meteor’ model. This Meteor, which was later also called Speed 16 and Speed 20, was more luxurious, better equipped and of course more expensive.

Rolling chassis

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Overslung Suspension

Underslung Suspension

Harry Hilgerdenaar Speed Pilot In 1932 Rover introduced the Speed Pilot, in answer to the Wolseley Hornet, and in 1933 it was fitted with an underslung chassis, meaning that the axle was placed on top of the suspension packages rather than under it. An underslung chassis was very popular for sports cars at the time, because ground clearance was less, road holding was better, and the car looked lower and sportier. The car had a 1577cc six-cylinder engine with 3 SU carburettors. In the Hastings RAC Rally of 1933 the closed-top two-door coupé model was awarded first prize for the bodywork, which prompted Rover to market this model as the ‘Hastings coupé’. In 1933 and 1934 the open-top model was also for sale as a ‘rolling chassis’, which meant that customers could have any bodywork made for it by any specialist bodywork company, like the Speed Pilot Four doors Tourer from Harry Hil- gerdenaar.

In 1930 Rover could only just manage to keep its head above water with a profit of just £ 30,000, but in 1931 there was a loss of £ 80,000 and in August 1932 a loss of no less The 3 SU carburettors than £ 250,000 was reported.

Rover’s financier, Lloyds bank, therefore wanted to appoint a Financial Director, for the first time ever. This new Finan- cial Director was Howe Graham, and he worked closely with Spencer Wilks. This turned out to be a winning team, and they were to stay together for over 20 years. In 1932 their cooperation resulted in savings of £ 100,000, and at the end of 1932 Rover’s first factory, in Queen Victoria Road in Coventry, was closed, causing bitterness and pain all round. The slow recovery from 1933 onwards

Harmonic stabiliser

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The fresh product range

From top down: One thing and another ushered in a new era, and a fresh "Ten" Saloon spirit in the factory, making Rover a more successful com- "Twelve" Saloon pany from 1933 onwards. In August 1932 they launched "Twelve" Sports Four-Seater the following models: "Fourteen" Saloon • the P2 10 and 12 saloon 4 cylinder "Fourteen" Sports Saloon Four-Seater "Fourteen“Streamline 4 -door Coupe • the 6 cylinder 14 saloon • the Speed 14 coupé • the Speed Sports Tourer • the Speed 16 • the Hastings coupé and • the Twenty Sports Tourer All these models had an engine with a 100mm stroke. They also had an underslung chassis and the improved engines. On top of this they had the overrated ‘harmonic stabiliser’, supplied by Wilmot-Breeden, which was a sort of prefix bumper that was supposed to cushion small collisions and to improve road holding. These special bumpers were to remain in fashion until production of the P2 was ceased in 1947. Apart from all these models there was the big 2565cc Speed 20, which was only sold by Rover’s London dealer Henly’s. Not many changes were announced for 1935. All models were kitted out with the Luvax Bijur automatic lubricating system. The Speed 16 was dropped from the production list, and in the Speed 14 range the Streamline Coupé popped up, more or less inspired by Chrysler’s Airflow models, just like the cars of Bentley, SS (Jaguar) and Hillman. In 1937 the six-cylinder engine created by Robert Boyle was replaced by Spencer Wilks’ new six-cylinder engine. This engine was placed in the new 14 and 16 models, which were in fact the new P2s. Of all the models they sold, the 10 was the best one. Turnover was very good and the profits could even be called spectacular. All the old debts had disappeared in 1935, and they could again pay out part of the profits to shareholders. With the average selling price standing at £ 300 the average profit was £ 14, so the net yield was nearly 5%. This may not sound wonderful at all, but it was in the middle of the depression of the 1930s.

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The 1938 product range

As from 1938 the product range was this: • the 10 Saloon (P2 model) • the 10 coupé (two-door) • the 12 Saloon Six Light • the 12 Sports Saloon 4 Light • the 14 Saloon • the 14 Sports Saloon • the 16 Saloon • the 16 Sports Saloon • the 20 Sports Saloon

Until 1937 the 20 Sports Saloon was still called Speed Sports Saloon and the 14, 16 and 20 six-cylinder Drop Head Coupés were made by bodywork builder Salmons & Son in Newport-Pagnell. The bodywork designs were made by Rover itself, which is quite remarkable and admirable, knowing that there were only 15 people in all to design the bodywork, the chassis and the engine of every model. A closer inspection of the range of models reveals how well considered the P2 range was and how optimum standardisation led to a coherent and elegantly styled P2 range from the 10 to the 20 model.

All cars, both in the four-cylinder and six-cylinder versions, had five different bores and cylinders, the same gearboxes, free-wheels and axles. There were three wheel base versions of the chassis and there were two types of them. All cars had synchronisation to second gear, it would not be until 1953 that the first gear was also synchronised, on the P4 model. Road holding was improved for 1939 on all six- cylinder models, and spoke wheels were replaced by pressed steel rims. They had finally become the ultra-sturdy, practi- cally indestructible cars, so that Rover could truly live up to its slogan ‘One of Britain’s Finest Cars’.

The world smiled upon Rover, but as always there were dark clouds overhead. It would not be long before the breakout of World War II changed everything. Since Februa- ry 1933 Germany had a national-socialist government under Führer Adolf Hitler, and in the six years between 1933 and 1939 he managed to reinstate Germany as an economic and political powerhouse on the world stage. Germany evolved from a chaotic, ruined country into a strong and expan- sion-oriented state under a totalitarian regime. All Western democracies were in denial for most of the early thirties, but as from 1936 / 1937 it became clear to most governments that Hitler was not only a warmonger but would definitely start an actual war. After burying their heads in the sand for years, British politicians finally came to realise that re- venge for the humiliating defeat in World War I would make Germany go to war, so they decided to rearm on a massive scale.

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The shadow factories

This rearming policy would also change Rover dramatically. In April 1936 Rover was approached by the Ministry of Avia- tion with a clear and simple request: would Rover be prepared to participate in the production of engine parts for planes together with some other car manufacturers? These parts would be made in so-called ‘shadow factories’ and the government would amply remunerate Rover’s cooperation, which management felt was a welcome addition to the an- nual profits. In the worst-case scenario, in an all-out war with a flood of orders for planes and other war supplies, the aviation industry would not be able to cope with demand, so the government wanted to have ‘shadow factories’ that could cover the extra production needed. Now that things could still be arranged fairly simply, it was deemed best to set up completely equipped factories together with the automotive sector. This was to make sure that Britain would have enough planes when the time called for them. This brilliant idea was crucial to winning the Battle of Britain in late 1940 and was one of the first steps leading to Hitler’s downfall.

The fact that the British government asked Rover to lend a helping hand in 1936 was in fact recognition of the technical and business acumen of the two Wilks brothers, Mauri- ce and Spencer. It was only three years earlier that Rover was in a really bad state and would never have been approached for such a prestigious and important government order. But in 1936 things had turned around in the Rover company, and they were now in the same league as Austin, Daimler, Rootes and Standard. Three years later, on 3 Sep- tember 1939 Rover said goodbye to its pre-war era, and things would never be the same.

42 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

Rover in the war years 1940-1945

In the summer of 1939 it became clear that war was inevita- ble and Rover management realised that their plans for car production for 1940 would have to be shelved. There was no doubt about this, because the deal with the government was crystal clear: in case of war the war effort would get top priority and the production of cars for private use would be scaled down rapidly and drastically.

The first shadow factory was built in Birmingham Flocks Green, a few miles from Rover’s parts factory in the Tyseley district in southern Birmingham. This fully government- funded factory produced parts for the Bristol Hercules aeroplane engines. The second shadow factory was built in Solihull, between Birmingham and Coventry, initially cove- ring an area of 263,055 m2. On top of this Rover was given the opportunity to buy over 800,000 m2 of agricultural land. Their purchase of the extra land would turn out to have been a brilliant move some decades later as the sixties and seventies the P6 and SD1 factories were to be built on this site.

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In September 1940 the second shadow factory was ready, and in October 1940 the first complete Hercules aeroplane engines rolled off the production line. As to car production, Rover depleted its stocks as far as it could in 1939, and the last pre-war Rover left the factory in May 1940.

In the night of 14 November 1940 Coventry was bombed so heavily by the German Luftwaffe that a new word was coi- ned in English: ‘to coventry’, i.e. to destroy completely. Ro- ver’s factories on Helen Street and its main buildings in Co- ventry could hardly be used as a result of this, and after the car production was ceased parts of Albemark and Cheetac planes were assembled here. The offices were moved to the Total Destroying of the fabrik Chesford Grande Hotel in Kenilworth, and from 1942 the Rover-led war industry was spread over 18 locations, six of which were shadow factories. Rover knew what to do because they had become familiar with what a war effort involved during World War I. Back then Rover built Lorries and motorcycles for the army, and they even built artillery ammunition. In 1944 Rover had 3,780 regular employees in its factories and some 20,000 shadow workers.

Jet engines for aeroplanes and a disinterested Rolls-Royce

One of the main projects in which Rover engineers played a development and improvement role was the construction of a jet engine for aeroplanes. This was to be the ‘gas turbine jet engine motor’, invented by Frank Whittle. The latter had founded a small firm in the market town of Lutterworth, 22 kilometres from Coventry, called Power Jets Ltd. It was the Grande Hotel world leader in jet engine technology, but it had a shortage of production space. The deal was that Rover would make the Whittle design ready for the production phase and that it would subsequently produce the engine for the RAF. The aeroplanes for which the engines were meant were built by Gloster Aircraft and they would become famous as ‘Gloster Meteors’.

It is funny to think that at that time Rolls-Royce was not interested at all in the production of jet engines and it was totally committed to producing the V-12 cylinder Merlin aeroplane engines. However, this was to change very soon. During the development of the Whittle jet engines serious personal problems soon occurred between Frank Whittle on the one hand and the Rover engineers on the other. The main thing was that Frank Whittle had discovered that the Rover engineers had made various modifications and impro-

Frank Whittle vements to ‘his baby’ without telling him. When the best possible jet engine, dreamt up by Whittle and tweaked and produced by Rover, was nearing its com- pletion and Gloster started the production of the Gloster Meteor fighter planes, it was Rolls-Royce who started taking an interest.

44 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

They wanted to take over the production of these jet engines, also because Rover management itself was not sure whether they wanted to continue this sort of production of aeroplane engines after the war, despite its success. After all, for the Wilks brothers, car production was really closest to their hearts. Eventually, therefore, Rolls-Royce and Rover came to an agreement in late 1942 that they would swop their jet engine development and production along with a major government contract for Rolls Royce’s tank engines and the Meteor V-12 (the Merlin engine).

The Meteor name for tank engines had already been created Gloster Meteor prototype by Rolls-Royce. From 1943 onwards Rover improved the Mer- lin engine and added an 8-cylinder version. These engines were not just built for tanks, but they could also be used in ships and stationary machines under the name ‘Meteorite’. In addition, heavy lorries such as the Mighty Autor, built by Thornycroft, was fitted with a Meteor engine. Production was centred in Acocks Green and lasted up to 1964. Obviously, the gas turbine jet engines were the most impressive things coming from Rover’s factories during the war, but there was also an amazing diversity of other products. These included piston engines, starr engines, aeroplane frames, aeroplane wings (e.g. for Lancaster bombers), repairs of aeroplane dy- namos, aeroplane testing equipment and last but not least ‘webbing’, which was a type of fabric used to make such things as slings, coverings and bullet bags.

The war was exacting, the pressure was high and the working hours were incredibly long, sometimes up to 12 or 14 hours a day. After the allied forces landed in Normandy in June 1944 however, most felt that things would soon be turning around and the war would not be going on for further years. It also led Rover’s management and staff to make plans in the latter part of 1944 to resume normal production as soon as the war was over, but deciding what to do was not easy. Rover realised that it could never be the same car company that it had been before the war. Firstly, all its old production facilities had been destroyed, and secondly, it had grown into a much bigger company than it had ever been. Spencer Wilks was not sure either which political developments to expect in post-war Britain and which customer demand he would have to cater to. The English economy was very much weakened, but Rover was not destitute and crippled. Despite a huge shortage of raw materials and regular power failures, Rover managed to have the first post-war Rover 10 models ready in December 1945. Mighty Autor by Thornycroft

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Strategic plans for the post-war era

To manufacture the first batch of post-war cars Rover was allocated an amount of steel, since everything was rationed. This steel was used to produce 500 model 10 saloons, 500 model 12 saloons and 8 cars yet to be developed. All this was done in Solihull, and in Claylane in Coventry, some 30 employees worked in a small testing facility designing a four -cylinder car. It was decided it was best to continue the pre- war series for the time being as it was feared that developing a successor to the P2 would be laborious and time- consuming. The only model that was discontinued was the model 20, and as to the other models – the 12, 14 and 16 – only saloon versions were initially produced, in the colour black with a brown leather interior. This was the Six Light model. Prices had risen steeply due to increased labour and materials costs as well as the newly introduced purchase tax. Whereas a model 10 saloon cost £ 275 in Britain in 1939, the same model cost £ 588 in 1945.

M1 or P3

Spencer Wilks hoped to build 20,000 cars in Solihull in 1946, 5000 of which were meant to be of a new design. This new model, The M1 type, was designed as a small car, the size of an Austin A30, a Renault 4 or Citroën 2CV. It had a 196 cm wheel base, a water-cooled four-cylinder 700cc engine. Bore and stroke were 57 mm x 68.5 mm, and the engine power was 28 HP at 5000 rpm. This was the first Rover that had a monocoque chassis made of aluminium. The technical design was made by Gordon Bashford and the body design was Harry Loker’s brain child. The code name for the M1 type was P3, which was later used for the more widely known P3 60 and P3 70 models. Although the M1 unmistakably showed resemblance with the fortcoming P4 Rover M1 type models, it was too small a car, almost a miniature car. The government meanwhile pressured the British automotive industry to focus on just one model.

46 Dutch RoverArchives Rover: the early history of a legendary car brand

And there was another thing that occupied the managers’ minds, namely the Land-Rover project that was sticking its head around the corner. Although the M1 was technically at least 10 years ahead of its time, it was decided to abandon the project in the spring of 1947.

The small group of top designers headed by Maurice Wilks, who had been busy developing jet engines and tank engines in the pre-war years, were assigned to start developing new models for the future at the beginning of 1945. Tim Barton, (later Mr Land Rover), was one of them. He went back to the more or less rebuilt facilities on Helen Street in 1945 to design the first left-hand drive Rovers in view of the expected post-war exports, saying that ‘we have built cars since 1904’. Gordon Bashford was also on this team of designers. Since his start at Rover in the early thirties he had been Ro- ver’s main designer and maker of plans. This was why he was commissioned to think of ideas for post-war cars, next to the task of doing the M1 model. ‘I had a drawing board, ‘he said ‘a models workshop and a photographer to assist me’. The preliminary, basic design for a new six-cylinder flathead, side-valve engine had already seen the light of day in 1939, but now the time had come to fine tune everything. The point was now to create a new body on the drawing ta- ble that fitted in with Rover’s tradition of top quality and reliability.

The first design beginnings were basically those of a P3, which were in fact meant to be a P4. When it became clear that the real P4 would only be ready for sale in 1949 at the earliest, it was decided to go for a half-modernised car, code named P3. The P3 strongly resembled the P2 from the out- side. The body parts made by Pressed Steel stayed practi- cally the same, the interior was only 63.5 mm wider than the old P2, and the bonnet and the wings were copied off the old P2 model 12. The P3 came in a saloon and in a sports saloon version, the Six Light and the Four Light res- pectively. Technically, however, there were great differences with the old P2 model. The chassis was brand new, there was the independent suspension system and of course the cars had the new four-cylinder and six-cylinder flathead, side-valve engines. The heating, cooling and ventilation sys- tems of the cars were good and a radio could easily be (retro) fitted. The newspapers and the car magazines were very enthusiastic about the new P3 models, and by introdu- cing just these models Rover met the government’s request to restrict the number of new car models ●

Dutch RoverArchives 47 My old Shoebox

48 Dutch RoverArchives My old shoebox

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