Rusty But Trusty

Here’s a car that’s never been featured before on this site – Rover. While they have a long history in England, they’ve never been particularly successful in the US – maybe not sporty enough for the Triumph/MG crowd, and not beautiful enough for the Jaguar crowd. That said, this car is pretty interesting for having incorporated many design cues from the Ferrari Daytona, and for running a V8 when most European cars in its class were running sixes and sometimes even fours. It’s also Rover’s last gasp in terms of doing an independently designed car – the 800-series (aka Sterling for the US market) that followed was done in cooperation with Honda.

Here you can see how well the lines of this car work. It’s not stunningly beautiful, but it’s quite handsome for the time. My somewhat-contemporary Lancia Beta sedan, which has a similar 4-door fastback shape, is not anywhere near as attractive. Orange foglights are kind of cool in period way, and this car seems to have had Euro headlights retrofitted, which brings it nearer the designer’s original intentions than the usual US-mandated round sealed beams. Externally, it looks pretty straight and undented, but for that weird part of dull paint on the driver’s side doors. Seller says the car has a clean NY title, which would make me want to look for rust in all the usual places, just in case. Find it listed on eBay for $3250 OBO in Portland, OR (the seller also has a Sterling listed under his other items).

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