Interim Model - Rover 75 P3

In 1878 the Rover Company was founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry which by 1885 had developed the template for the modern bicycle in the form of the Rover Safety Bicycle.



From 1904 still using the Rover Marque brand the company started building motor cars and motorcycles.



After World War 2 Rover moved to it's Solihull factory where it had engaged in building aircraft for the war effort, since it's car plant in Coventry had been wiped out by bombing during the hostilities. The interim P3, launched in 1948, was Rovers first post war model.



The Rover 75 version of the P3 was powered by a novel new six cylinder motor that featured overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves that had been developed prior to the commencement of hostilities in 1939.



The styling combined elements of the pre war Rover 12 and 16 but only the Rover 12 wings and bonnet were carried over from the narrower earlier designs.



The unitary monocoque design, requiring no independent chassis, featured independent front suspension and hybrid hydraulic / mechanical brakes.



This the 75 body style seen here was known as a light six saloon and cost a relatively expensive £1106, £ 26 more than the similar 4 cylinder 'Sports Saloon' known as the Rover 60.



From 1948 - 1949 7,837 Rover 75's were produced before the all new P4 vehicle was introduced.



The engine and gearbox of the P3 formed the basis of the very first agricultural all terrain 'Land Rover' conceived in 1947. Note the vehicle above built in times of material austerity features a cyclops third head light but only one wing mirror.

This particular P3 can be seen at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum in Calne.

Thanks for joining me on this 'overhead and side valve' edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Don't get mad get even - Replica Revenge Mini.

Today's featured vehicle is a replica of 'The Revenge Mini' which won the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally in the hands of Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon. Unusually the car is probably most famous because of the events that took place on the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally.



There has always been a bit of an edgy competition between France and Britain in just about every field of endeavour, I guess no one wants to be first loser against their immediate neighbour. Evidence of this can be seen in the Monte Carlo Rally of 1966. The Mini Cooper S had been the winning car on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 in the hands of Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon and again in 1965 with Timo M aekinen and Paul Easter at the wheel. Timo and Paul crossed the line in first place in 1966 with Roger Clark in a Lotus Cortina second followed by Aaltonen and Hopkirk both driving Mini's in third and forth.



However much to the surprise of everybody the top four and two other British cars were disqualified for cheating. Their crime was running non standard (performance enhancing ?) single filament headlight bulbs. It transpires that when teams had entered they had done so on the understanding that these bulbs would be legal as they had been over the previous two years but then the rules were changed after entries had closed making these bulbs illegal because the models of the disqualified cars did not have single filament bulbs fitted as standard.

Curiously the car declared as the winner Pauli Toivonens Citroen was allowed to and did run with these bulbs because some ID19's were fitted with the single filament bulbs on the normal production lines. Naturally the result upset everyone Prince Rainer snubbed his own prize giving ceremony , Pauli Toivonen, declared the winner, swore he would never drive a Citroen again, and kept his word, and the British Motor Corporation protested the result which 10 months later was declared final and stood.



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Of course better than getting mad is to get even so in 1967 BMC came back and Rauno Aaltonen with Henry Liddon co driving the #177 took the Mini's third and final Monte Carlo Victory. Observant fans of Michael Caine and the original 1969 film 'The Italian Job' will remember Crocker making reference to the '66 Monte disqualification in the workshop where the Minis are being prepared and some one is checking the head lights Crocker says 'I hope their dual filament bulbs, we wouldn't want to be caught doing anything illegal now, would we ?'

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend. 'Don't forget to come back now. Hear ?'