THE BIG RESTORATION Practical Classics Restorer of the Year oncept cars: The outcome of British Leyland. The ever-active BL design and designers’ playtime, when engineering department came up with an manufacturers let stylists and assortment of production-ready delights, engineers off the leash and permit including the Maxi-based Aquila, Ogle’s 1978 them an expansive gush of creativity. Princess Triplex 10/20 Glassback, Austin Rover’s These wild visions of the future are ECV3 of 1982 and the beautiful 1985 MG EX-E, all Cusually destined for a rotating motor show plinth, of which should have made it to the showroom. ➽ most of them so preposterously audacious that they disappear without trace. However, there AS FOUND have been notable instances when it felt like the concept could become production reality. History is littered with them – but taking the biscuit for ‘cars they should have built’ is surely Oct 14 No sooner had the donor car arrived than Gerry set to work with his angle grinder. Fantasy COUPÉ Gerry Lloyd liked MG Rover’s 75 Coupé concept so much, he decided to build one himself WORDS JAMES WALSHE PHOTOS LAURENS PARSONS 44 spring 2018 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS practicalclassics.co.uk restoreroftheyear.co.uk PRACTICAL CLASSICS // SPRING 2018 45 THE BIG RESTORATION Practical Classics Restorer of the Year THE RESTORER at the time. The public approved. The prospects were good. And then, tragically, the surrounding factory WHAT’s iT LIKE TO DRIVE Here’s how Gerry did it Builder Gerry Lloyd moved sheds fell silent. to Pembrokeshire with wife Sally after retiring in 2001. Having built his house single- Bright idea handedly, he then made his own The 75 Coupé didn’t go unnoticed by Gerry Lloyd. The Oct 14 workshop. ‘Nowadays, I get up retired builder turned restoration enthusiast was, in his 1 Choppy and do what I want to do, own words, disappointed when the car failed to make it instead of doing what The first stage saw the I have to do!’ out of the factory. But he shrugged his shoulders and central pillar carefully carried on with his Triumph restoration and plans to chopped and moved design and build his own house in Pembrokeshire – back along the sill. complete with a heated garage for the TR6. ‘If you’re going to build a house, you have to build a suitable nest for your classic!’ House finished, 70-year old Gerry was having a dinner party and following ‘too many bottles of Having owned a 2001 attention to detail is wine’ hatched a plot to make a double-fronted car ‘for V6 Club SE long before truly extraordinary. no particular reason’. It didn’t take much MG Rover went pop, There is not a single encouragement. ‘A friend suggested it wouldn’t be I get the charms of the shutline out of sync, possible to get such a thing road legal and I disagreed.’ original pre-cost not one globule of glue An unexpected love affair with the Rover 75 began. cutting Rover 75 – from visible. The precision Having looked for suitably cheap cars, Gerry found two the sturdy construction engineering of Gerry’s identical 75s, chopped them in half and then expertly and quality mechanical outstanding creation – stitched them together, proving his friend wrong while engineering to the and the slick way in creating a significant stir at the annual Pride of softness of the which it silently glides Longbridge event. During the process, he got to the cosseting cabin. you around – is beyond know the 75 extremely well. ‘As each day passed, Honestly? I really anything I’ve seen I began to appreciate just how well-engineered these wasn’t expecting much before. It isn’t a mere cars are. I felt like I had got to know the 75 inside out, as from Gerry’s car. recreation. This 75 much as any of the factory workers who built them at But the quality and Coupé is the real thing. Longbridge and Cowley – if not better, since I was working on the whole the car and not just certain aspects of it.’ regularly noticed a great deal of chatter on the forum ABOVE Standard When the Longbridge lines finally came to a grinding Members of the Rover 75/ZT Forum were especially regarding a certain defunct 75 Coupé concept car. Rover KV6 engine halt in 2005 and MG Rover vanished from the kind to Gerry, who keenly sought advice and wisdom of That was when the fun really began. retained. BELOW Roofline is an inch automotive map, the last of these British ‘nearly cars’ a passionate band of enthusiasts – especially when he With the double-fronted 75 and pick-up complete, lower, giving the went with it. The 75 Coupé concept was unveiled in revealed plans for a 75 pick-up. ‘Why not?’ Gerry shrugs. Gerry began to hatch a plot to create the coupé MG DEC 14 JAN 15 Coupé a more 2004 to celebrate 100 years of Rover and appeared to ‘Why would you not want a Rover 75 pick-up?’ He says Rover should have built. ‘I wondered how close I could 2 Stretched out 3 Inner space purposeful stance. be almost production-ready. MG Rover’s design director the forum was heaving with help. ‘They were obviously a get it to look like the concept car but then realised that Doors had to be stretched in length by ten Outer door is 75, the inners are from Peter Stevens suggested his newest creation was a real little bemused at first but later fascinated and since I was starting from scratch and making a one-off, I inches, with new sections fabricated a 2-door 3-Series, to accommodate point of difference – elegant and refreshing when completely brilliant. Always supportive and very eager felt inclined to make some modifications to the design from scratch by Gerry. windows, regulators and door cards. compared to the ‘post-modern brutalism’ of other cars to assist. Just how a club ought to be.’ Gerry also which would not only make the car better looking, but improve certain aspects of the detail too.’ We stand in JULY 15 Gerry’s garage and study the pictures of MG Rover’s Blowing 4 concept. ‘I always felt the rear windows of the concept the roof off came down too sharply, while the chrome strip After months of stretched too far back along its flanks to the rear.’ His work to calculate eye for detail is clearly impeccable. ‘The high-level stop the dimensions and lamp just didn’t work for me so I wanted to incorporate fabrications that it into the chrome strip on the boot lid’. would be required, the 75’s old roof For my next trick… was replaced by one from a donor Within weeks, Gerry had taken the design and two door BMW development process outside the workshop and bought 3-Series. himself a donor car. ‘I chose a V6 model and decided to base the car on that. The unit is smooth and powerful and befitting of the Coupé’s ethos.’ Much analysis led him to deduce the new roof should come from a BMW SEPT 15 3-Series. ‘I spent hours studying the dimensions, shapes 5 Clear and proportions of other cars and settled on the two view -door, as it was closest to the measurements of the 75. sideways Calculations complete, Gerry went at it with cutting More careful analysis saw discs and a grinder, a hack saw and the odd glass of fitment of side windows wine each evening. ‘For those moments of reflection.’ from a BMW 4-Series. The first job was to slice the roof off. From there, Gerry Roofline is an inch lower would be able to work out how to build the rest of the than standard 75. Gerry did his own painting and fitted car around the rest of the shell. He chopped the the interior but disliked B-pillars and moved them backwards, welding them into doing the roof lining. ‘That place so that work on the doors could commence. bit was really fiddly.’ A challenge, since they’d need to be extended by ➽ 46 spring 2018 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS practicalclassics.co.uk restoreroftheyear.co.uk PRACTICAL CLASSICS // spring 2018 47 THE BIG RESTORATION Practical Classics Restorer of the Year Practical Classics Restorer GERRYS OTHER GEMS of the Year 2019 This car is entered into the Rover 75 pick-up Restorer of the Year 2019 I wanted to work competition. You can vote for with materials car your favourite in a future makers don’t use issue of Practical anymore so there’s Classics magazine. lots of wood in this. The rear lights are from a Passat. I’m now working on a six-wheel Rover 75 flatbed with a gypsy caravan built onto the back and have just about finished making the framework for a jig. 2000 Rover 75 2.5 Connoisseur and 1971 Triumph TR6 I bought a new Triumph TR6 when I was 25 and have always loved them. I restored this example some years ago while waiting for planning permission on my house and later won Triumph International Concours awards. My standard-spec 75 V6 is immaculate – an example I’ll cherish as a future classic. I drive a diesel 75 estate as my everyday car. Dash from MG ZT. around ten inches either side. ‘It had to be a watching an Aston Martin being road-tested on old Seats, door cards compromise between Rover and BMW doors. episode of Top Gear. The car was Diavolo Red so I and other trim from I used the Rover outer skin but with BMW internal chose that for the 75.’ It was the perfect match.