Auntie Rover

After yesterday's "Auntie Ju" Junkers Blip, today one of a Rover - well part of one - a 3,5L V8 which was built into a Morgan +8 which our local garage are restoring. Apart from the wheels (on the left) and the motor, the chassis is elsewhere. Would have loved to have seen how the wooden chassis parts are looking - I forgot to ask the age but from the engine would say from the 70's or '80s. Coincidentally the garage is the one from which I rented the minibus for our Tour where we saw a Morgan Le Mans 62 at Neuschwanstein castle. Identical body shape but a different engine.

In fact, the V8 Motor was not built in to the so-called Auntie Rover which was the term used for the Rover P4 Series (1949-1964: 60, 75, 90 etc) which at the time were even considered fit for royalty and termed at least in Germany as the "Burger (Citizens) Bentley".

The V8 is actually a USA designed Buick small block which Rover bought the rights for. Explains the very small size for a V8. The engine was built into the successor of the Auntie Rover, the P5 Series (1958-1973) and which were the jaw-dropping cars of my youth. Prime Ministers such as Harald Wilson and Ted Heath were to be seen in these cars chauffeured to Buckingham Palace to resign and accept office and I guess to tell Her Majesty how negotiations were going on to join the EU.

Rover as we all know eventually disappeared but the Land/Range Rover name continues to this day. Just like Mini, Rolls Royce, Bentley ........... great British names of the past now in foreign hands. Morgan Motors also continues as a company in private UK family hands. A look at their sales brochure does make me wonder how on earth they survive, even though they now use a BMW motor. However, I hope for them that it continues, especially as many of their customers are continental Europeans. If anyone was to drive up to my front door and hand me the keys, I would not refuse - whether I would be able to get down low enough to get in, is another matter.