In keeping with mainstream automotive media, I think it appropriate to have a weekly feature that highlights a certain topic. Just about every automotive publication that I read has some sort of weekly or regularly scheduled feature. Something for folks to look forward to! Usually, said feature is centered on new or upcoming automobiles in a “review” sort of capacity.

Not being the most conventional, I’ve decided to go another direction and create a weekly feature wherein we talk about, reflect, and review weird and obscure autos – Weird Wheels. This series will be posted every Wednesday evening for your Thursday reading pleasure. I will work hard to encompass a great many makes and styles of vehicles from around the world. Some you may be familiar with, other’s not so much! If at any point I happen to cover a vehicle that you may have owned or in some way come in contact with over the years, please, chime in and tell us about your experience with the car, or share any interesting stories you may have that relate to the week’s topic! So, here we go…

The first car I will be covering was a vehicle that appeared in my premier article, and was central to my appreciation for interesting autos. The Rover P6 3500/2000TC/2200. 

Weird Wheels – The Rover P6 3500/2000TC/2200.

Manufacturer: Rover Cars                                                               

Country of Origin: United Kingdom                                                       

Platform Life Cycle: 1963-1977                                                               

Body Style: 4 Door Sedan (and Panelcraft Wagon)

Engines: 4 Cylinder SOHC engines, and a V8

Transmissions: 4 Speed Manual, and 3 Speed Automatic                     

Total Number Produced: 320,000 Give or Take 

Here in the States, when one says the name Rover when referencing an auto, the usual comment by the uninitiated is “oh, Land Rover!” Well, yes and no… Rover is a luxury car company that was based in Solihull, West Midlands, England that after 1968 was part of British Leyland, who also owned Land Rover. Rover cars had a very rich history with its start WAY back in the late 1800s (or so) building bicycles. When switching over to automobile production in the early 20th century, Rover quickly established itself as a maker of fine (traditional) English luxury sedans with a bent on performance.  

A bit of Trivia: HRH Queen Elizabeth II has in her private drives-it-herself fleet of cars 3 Rovers (2 P5s and 1 P6) in addition to her Land Rovers, Jaguars, Daimlers, Rolls’, and Bentleys.  

If you noticed, I speak of Rover in the past tense. A few years ago, much to the disgust of many Englishman, the institution of automotive excellence that was Rover was sold off to the Chinese. Despite production remaining in the UK, the Rover car brand along with MG are all but dead. The Chinese, due to trademarking issues are forced to now call their products Roewe.  The Rover Group, as it was known, which also included the veneralble MG sports car division, was once owned by BMW, who basically ran the company into the ground, and despite the best efforts of a group of private investors who bought the firm, trying to save it from self destruction, were forced into receivership, and in due time, sale to the Chinese SIAC firm. So far, they're doing their best to clean up the mess that 10 years of mismangement left behind, and are slowly regaining a foothold in the UK market.

Anyway… The P6 chassis from Rover is a fascinating enigma of a machine. It is a mid-sized luxury sports sedan that when compared to today’s cars, is about the same size as a Ford Fusion. Styling wise, the Rover is unlike anything else on the road, with a very low, thin alloy body line that extends through a gentle curve starting at the tops of the turn indicators at the front, to the tail lamps at the rear. Atop the body sits a peculiarly large expanse of glass, the greenhouse in auto-speak. The Roof is suspended on impossibly thin, but strong columns of stainless steel and aluminum. Really, a very elegant design, uncluttered, if you will. There is no chrome to speak of, rather, genuine stainless steel is used in the door character line rub strips, pillars, and lower moldings.  

An obscure coachbuilder called Panelcraft briefly made a wagon conversion of the P6 that was a bit awkward, with the body lines of a German Sheppard dog, with the high, verticalish front, and an extremely sloped roof to the rear. The reason for the odd-ball proportions was due to Panelcraft wanting to keep the existing roof panel, and line, and simply graft on some rear windows, and a hatch for the wagon effect. Had they gone about it a bit differently, they would have made a heartbreakingly beautiful wagon. Instead, they created a hunch back of a wagon.  Once inside, you will notice really how low this sedan really is, and that it really isn’t very large. It’s very comfortable in a cozy sort of way, with room for 4, but it’s by no means a limousine! In the driver’s seat, your hands fall on, at least in the V8 models, an impossibly thin, yet large diameter wooden steering wheel. The steering wheel is nearly 18 inches across! (Go out and measure your own steering wheel for comparison sake). Having only 2 horizontal spokes; which themselves are very thin, the driver faces a completely unobstructed view of the instruments and dash which is a tiered affair, with a full complement of analogue gauges that would make any airline pilot feel right at home. The front bucket seats are extremely comfortable, and offer infinitely adjustable – manual adjustment to the recline function, and a nearly just as many adjustments for the fore and aft movement. Meaning: no notches. The mechanism is a sort of friction based system with a cam and follower that allow for a smooth adjustment of the seat, rather than notches every 10 degrees as is the case in most cars. The seats of this car have a bit of a stylistic icon status, so much so, that a great many of the spare seats on the market were bought up to be made into lounge chairs that can still be found and purchased for thousands of dollars! Funny thing is, in some cases, the Rover seat chairs sell for more than the used cars!

The P6 was outfitted with the usual kit one would expect in a luxury car. Air conditioning, power windows, ice alert… Wait, ice alert? Yes, something that only recently found its way back into modern cars! On the rover, there is a mysterious little box mounted on the bumper – a chrome box with a small hole. This was a rudimentary sensor that combined temperature with humidity readings to predict if the conditions could result in ice on the road. If the elements were correct, a little white light on the dash would illuminate, warning the driver of the chance of ice. Nice, eh? Now, we get to the good stuff! The mechanicals! It’s the drive-train and suspension of the Rover that make it one of the most unusual, and advanced cars of all time! It’s also one of my personal favorites!  The engines: The entry level Rover 2200 came with a standard British Leyland (BL) lump of an iron block, single, overhead cam, 4 cylinder mill. This engine was found in more cars than I care to list. It was almost agricultural in it’s rough and ready character. It wasn’t particularly powerful, but what it lacked in GO, it made up for in character, simplicity, and reliability. Next came a 2 liter/twin carbureted arrangement known as the 2000TC – the middle of the pack, and most popular/common engine. The 2 liter engine, again was a rather common engine found in some great little sports cars. The twin carburetors made for easier breathing, and in turn more power and performance for the Rover sedan. Finally, comes one of what I consider one of the great engines of the 20^th century, the Rover 3.5 Litre V8.

The Rover V8 as it came to be known was an engine that had its roots here in the US with GM. The small displacement V8 was the first attempt at a mass produced alloy engine block back in the late 1950s. Prior to the V8 appearing in Rover cars, Gm used this engine in the Buick Specials of the early 1960’s Y body derivation. The little V8 was thought to be a perfect match for GMs new lightweight unibody chassis – the 200 horsepower it produced, more than adequate.  All was not well with this new powerplant. The cost of production was extremely high, given the technology required to produce consistent castings. As a result, the engine was mothballed by GM after 1963.  Now, there are several versions on the story of how the little GM alloy V8 ended up in the hands of British Leyland and Rover. The basics of the story were that BL sent Bruce McWilliams, head of BL Operations over to Mercury Marine sometime in 1963/4 to look for a new V8 engine that BL may be able to use in their cars.  The story goes on that after spending some time in the Mercury Marine plant, discussing Mercury’s innovative use of Land Rover diesel engines in marine applications, McWilliams noticed a diminutive engine sitting  on a pallet, on it’s side. He enquired as to the engines origin, etc, and learned of its basic specifications and source from GM. The all aluminum V8 weighed less than most of BL’s 4 cylinder engines at the time. An intriguing prospect for McWilliams’ intended application.  So after a getting in contact with GM, and a great deal of convincing, McWilliams successfully won the rights to the tooling used to produce the 215 V8 in England under license at first, and then solely at a later date.  Rover was able to do what the American’s couldn’t with regard to production costs and techniques. Rover greatly improved the lower block castings and head construction allowing for a more free spinning, efficient engine that until very recently was still used by Land Rover, and MG in cars as recent as 2006 with little change. Though the V8 is no longer in large mass production use, companies like TVR, Morgan, and Bristol in the UK still manufacture and use the little V8 that GM didn’t see fit to invest in further. Over the years the alloy V8 has powered some of the world’s greatest cars and won numerous awards for performance and innovation over the years. To this day, the Rover V8 is the standard engine to be used in English hot-rods.  

The suspension of the Rover P6 is the most unusual aspect of the car. Traditionally, the springs, shocks, and other front suspension components are set up vertically, like a column which compresses vertically, in line with the range of motion. There are some disadvantages with this system, chiefly, the unsprung weight, or the weight of the components “under” the suspension system (wheels, linkage, supports, etc). Rover came up with an bizarre and innovative system wherein the front springs and shocks were mounted horizontally! If you can imagine the shock absorber, mounted to the bulkhead/firewall of the car, then connecting to an “L” shaped arm with a pivot at the crook of the “L”, the shock at the top, extending horizontally, and the wheel to the horizontal bit of the “L”, you’ve got the rough idea of the geometry. The only unsprung weight in this layout is the weight of the linkage from the pivot to the hub of the wheel, about 1/5 the weight of a standard mcphearson arrangement, as is found in 90% of today’s cars. Also, this system uses about ½ as many parts! Good stuff!  

At the rear, the surprises continue. When thinking of rear wheel drive cars, we tend to think of pickup trucks, as you can see that big ‘ole rear axle, with the lump in the middle, and the beams extending out to the wheels. This was the case for a great many rear wheel drive cars for years and years. There are independent rear suspension arrangements which affix that lump in the middle of the axle, the differential, to the frame of the car, stationary, to save weight. In this system, axle halfshafts, or CV joints extend out from the differential to the wheels, supplying the rotational force, etc.

 This is a pretty good system, but there are disadvantages. Usually, the number of components it takes to keep all that force in check require a great many control arms, and shafts connecting the wheel hub to the suspension so that the car literally doesn’t rip itself to shreds when you stomp on the happy pedal when the light turns green. More complexly, such an arrangement can result in some goofy handling characteristics when accelerating down a bumpy road. Wheel hop, camber (tilt) issues, etc.  The traditional solid axle also has the issue of unsprung weight working against it. Axles are heavy! If you’ve ever tried to move something very heavy very fast, you know, it’s not easy. Try and yank an upright piano back and forth a couple times in a second or so. That is about the same weight of a rear axel in a large truck. Sure, they’re strong, but in terms of performance and smooth ride, solid axles are just a bad idea! So, again, Rover came up with an ingenious solution, the use of a DeDion geometry rear axle.

The DeDion combines the rigidity of a solid axle with the weight savings of an independent setup. If you will, imagine the fixed differential of an independent setup, with the differential hard bolted to the frame – stationary. Next, imagine a (for simplicity sake) a large aluminum beam bent into the shape of a “U” with the two ends mounted on pivots, and the curved bit floating out just behind the differential. Put two hubs about ¾ of the way down the two legs of the “U” with halfshafts extending to the differential, sending power to the wheels. That’s the jist of the DeDion setup.  In this setup, the wheels are mechanically locked together on the same plane, allowing for even torque delivery with the aluminum connecting beam allowing for a very strong low weight connection. Low unsprung weight. To further cut down on the weight, the brake rotors and calipers are mounted on each side of the differential, which as you recall, is bolted to the frame, not moving up and down with the wheels over bumps and irregularities. Genius I tells ya! 

The Rover’s unique suspension isn’t really unique to Rover, rather, it is somewhat common on some great exotic sports cars. It’s unusual that such a performance oriented, thoughtful setup is found on a lowly sedan!

So, there you have it, an intro to the Rover P6. I can probably go on for another 400-500 pages on this car! As you can see, it is indeed a great Weird Wheels candidate! The combination of unique, elegant styling, historic engine, and unique suspension make for a VERY interesting auto indeed! Now, if anyone happens to come across one of these magnificent machines in your domestic US travels, PLEASE, let me know, as they are exceedingly rare in the US, and I want one!

(If you have a vehicle in mind that you think would be a good candidate for weird wheels coverage, shoot me a note!)