All you need to know about Rover
Date of birth: 1885 or 1904.
Nationality: British.
A bicycle company set up in 1885, Rover marketed its first car in 1904. In 1907 Rover won the Isle of Man Rally with its 16/20.
During the first World War, it built military motorcycles, lorries and ambulances. The Viking emblem was introduced during the 1920s on a car of the same name.
During steel rationing after the second World War, Rover developed the aluminium-bodied Land Rover. The 1948 Rover 75 had a central lamp which earned it the nickname Cyclops. A Rover-powered gas turbine BRM completed the Le Mans in 1963 and 1965, driven by Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill. The bulbous P5, first launched in 1958, was from 1967 fitted with a new 3.5 litre V8 engine based on a Buick design.
Rover's biggest success, the 2000, was introduced in 1963 and continued in various versions, including a V8, until 1977. The world's first luxury off-roader, Range Rover, was built in the mid-1970s. In 1979 co-operation began with Honda on platform sharing. Later British Aerospace (BAe) developed the company and in 1994 BMW bought it, only to sell it six
years later to the Phoenix consortium for £10, giving with it £500 million. Today the company is developing relationships with carmakers in India and China.
Best car: The Rover 2000TC of the 1960s, because this writer had two of them.
Worst car: The SD1 successor to the 2000, because it looked gorgeous but had British Leyland build quality.
Weirdest car: The 7mpg 1950 Jet 1 gas turbine road car prototype, which in 1952 set a world road car record at 244 km/h