The Rover 800 - Rover's Comeback Story?

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It was a time of hope, a time of disaster, a time of Triumph, and a time of… whatever this is. But one team would work with… another team… to build the car of the future. A car they would call… the Rover 800… and the Sterling… and the Honda Legend… and the Acura Legend. This is… the Rover 800 story. (music) Rover’s previous big car, the SD1 was beautifully designed, but hampered by one production problem after another. By 1979 the Rover designers were looking to create its successor and pitched a new project to management – the Rover Bravo. It was to be an updated SD1, with a saloon variant and the chassis would be used for the next Triumph open top sports car and coupé. It was a wise plan that would minimise development costs but meant the new chassis would be almost 6” shorter than the current Rover SD1 – not a good thing for a spacious luxury car. But British Leyland had a new manager, Michael Edwardes, who was charged with getting finances under control. He ended Triumph TR7 production, and closed the Rover-Triumph division, rolling it into a larger “British Leyland Cars”. In 1980 this larger division decided to present a different plan for a large Rover, now codenamed "LM15". In the spirit of cost-saving this was to be based on the upcoming Montego with a stretched chassis. After evaluating the competition at the 1981 Frankfurt Motor Show, British Leyland designers decided the LM15 plan just wouldn’t cut it. Luxury cars were getting much more sophisticated both mechanically and electrically, with a low drag coefficient. The LM15 design was just too basic to compete with upcoming competitors’ cars like the Audi 100, BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-class. What they needed was a partner to share the development costs of a brand-new car. Enter Honda. British Leyland reached out to them to form a partnership on the new large Rover. Honda had yet to make a large car, and Rover’s expertise would help. They wanted to produce a large expensive car for the lucrative North American market. Quotas restricted the number of cars they could import, so it made sense to sell more expensive cars with a higher profit margin. There were also impending EU import quotas, which Honda could get around by producing their cars at British Leyland UK factories. By 1982 British Leyland was renamed Austin Rover, and the first fruits of the new partnership was the Triumph Acclaim, a rebadged Honda Ballade assembled at the Austin Rover Cowley plant and the final car to use the Triumph badge. Even before the new large Rover / Honda plan was approved, Austin Rover engineers started work on designing it. They wanted to show the design direction THEY wanted the car to take, essentially a more aerodynamic version of the SD1. But as the luxury car market was moving to saloons, it wouldn’t be a hatchback. The project was codenamed “XX” by Austin Rover, “HX” by Honda. By the summer of 1982 a clay mock-up was produced with a slippery drag coefficient of just 0.27, a massive improvement over the SD1’s 0.36. When the Honda and Rover teams first met, Honda were a little taken aback by the progress that Rover had already made, but this didn’t spoil the start of an excellent working relationship. The Rover design was adopted to begin work on the chassis, but Honda’s car would have a different look. As development continued, the Rover 800 started to take shape. However, one area which caused consternation was the front suspension. Honda was keen on a low bonnet line and expensive double wishbone suspension. This meant limited suspension travel, meaning ride on bumpy roads was compromised. Austin Rover preferred alternate suspension and the additional interior space it offered, but Honda’s system won the day. As for engines, both teams agreed to use Honda’s V6 in place of the out¬-of-fashion 3.5L V8 from the SD1. Austin Rover also wanted a 4-cylinder 2.0L which would sell well due to company car legislation, but Honda weren’t interested. The O-series engine from the SD1 was chosen, rechristened the M-series. But in that car it had been underpowered so it needed a boost. Thankfully silicon chips had allowed electronic engine management to more precisely control combustion, helping satisfy new emissions legislation. Fuel injection and 16v single and double overhead cam provided the necessary power needed in such a high-end saloon. Both engines proved a little unrefined to start with. They needed high revs to go quickly, and the M-series was also loud which added to the problem. It was easy for teams so far away to diverge or have problems, but they were kept on track and in relative harmony. For example, Honda had provided incorrect dimensions of their V6 engine to Austin Rover. This meant adding 9mm to the wheel track. The change was handled quickly and professionally by both teams, meaning development could continue apace. The car they produced was a better car than either company could have made on their own – a true collaborative effort. During the design Austin Rover management research concluded a hatchback model was needed, due to growing demand. The resulting design was relatively straightforward and showed how similar the new Rover 800 was to the old SD1. The Rover 800 broke cover in an unlikely way, as the CCV coupé concept vehicle. Even though a coupé wasn’t initially planned, Austin Rover used this concept to sign up North American dealers to distribute the new Rover 800, as the coupé variant was expected to sell well there. The Rover 800 wasn’t the first to launch. The Honda Legend launched nine-months before the Rover in October 1985. Some people in Rover thought Honda’s V6 engine 9mm dimension “mistake” gave them a head start. What also made a difference was the fact that Honda launched cars even before production has started. UK car manufacturers waited until the dealers had cars in stock before making an announcement. On July 8, 1986 Austin Rover became simply “Rover” and just two days later the Rover 800 was given an extravagant launch. 3500 press and dealers were flown to Switzerland to drive the new car, and 60 MPs and hundreds of journalists drove the car in the Northumberland countryside. At the launch Rover was keen to show that this was not just a new car, but a new company. Gone were the bad old days of industrial action, and with Honda’s help Rover were moving to a bright new future. They were fighting off criticism that sales of Rover cars were nose diving, in particular the new Austin Maestro and Montego. But it’s true to say that the relationship between management and workers had greatly improved in Rover, and this was paying dividends. Reaction to the new car was mixed. The interior was praised, but the suspension and engines were called out for criticism. If you’ve seen my Rover SD1 video you’ll know that the SD1 was hobbled by short supply at launch, problems ramping up supply and poor build quality. Well Rover chairman Harold Musgrove should have taken note during this time because exactly the same issues cropped up for the Rover 800. Was this just another case of Rover shooting themselves in the foot again? Harold Musgrove wasn’t to be chairman for much longer. Despite these problems, the Rover 800 was popular in the UK and started to sell well. The same couldn’t be said for North America where the Rover 800 was badged as the Sterling. It had the disadvantage of being an also-ran to Honda’s already released Acura Legend, and Honda also had the much sought-after coupé model. Sales started well for the Sterling but those quality issues appeared in the JD Power survey (for example, the leather seats were turning green in sunlight), and sales tanked. Rover exited the market in 1991, again echoing the SD1, never to return. To add insult to injury, the Acura won Motor Trend’s Import Car of the Year in 1987. It went on to great success and is still sold today as the Acura RLX. The Rover hatchback, dubbed the “Fastback”, debuted in 1988 along with a new, more refined Honda V6 engine. The original plan was to sell the Fastback as the Rover 600 and make it a cheaper model, but market research showed the public valued the hatchback just as much if not more than a saloon, so it was made a Rover 800 model with a price to match. By 1989 Rover started a facelift project, codenamed R17. The designers produced striking drawings showing the way they wanted to go, but the funds weren’t there for a complete reskin. The bean counters announced that any new design needed to use the existing doors to save on the cost of new door moulds. It was pointed out that the door moulds were at the end of their life and new ones would have to be produced anyway, but this did little to change management’s mind. The most obvious change was the addition of chrome and a new front grille to move the car upmarket. The grille was added after positive reaction to it from a Rover 600 market study and this had the advantage of producing a family look for both cars. Other subtle cues were added as a nod to Rover’s venerable P5. The car’s bulk was increased to give it more presence on the road. The interior stayed the same, although with more walnut trim it did look like someone had thrown a tree at the dashboard! The M-series 2.0L engine was worked over again to give it more torque at low revs, now rebadged as the T-series. This turned an unrefined engine into something more befitting a luxury car, and with a turbo it made the 800 a seriously fast car with a 0-60 time of just 7.3 seconds. The new engine started to make the Honda V6 look superfluous. The new model arrived in November 1991 and was well received by the press. A diesel followed the following year. But the 800 had one more trick up its sleeve. The long-promised coupé model finally arrived in March 1992, being a top of the range prestige model. However, it was too late for the North American market where Rover had exited the year earlier. The updated 800 sold well, but not spectacularly throughout the rest of its life, ending production in 1998 after selling over 317,000 cars. In 1994 BMW purchased Rover, and they designed a replacement –- the Rover 75 – which would go on sale in 1999. Rover did an amazing job giving the Rover 800 a thirteen-year lifespan with relatively few updates, and partnering with Honda was the right move to get the funds to develop a car that could compete with tough competition. If you want to hear more car histories, then hit the subscribe button and don’t forget the bell icon to get notifications when they’re published. And let me know your experiences of the Rover 800 in the comments below. Thanks for watching and see you in the next video!
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Channel: Big Car
Views: 192,513
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: rover 800, rover sterling, honda legend, acura legend, rover 800 story, rover sterling story, honda legend story, acura legend story
Id: yUAbIcIBG3I
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 15sec (795 seconds)
Published: Fri Jun 14 2019
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