The Rover Two-litre was a
mid-size
Mid-size—also known as intermediate—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than compact cars and smaller than full-size cars. "Large family car" is a UK term and a part of the D-segment ...
luxury
Luxury may refer to:
*Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises
* Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars
** Luxury tax (sports), surcharge p ...
open tourer,
saloon or
limousine
A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment.
A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pro ...
produced from 1927 by the
Rover Company
The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company that operated from its base in Solihull in Warwickshire. Its lasting reputation for quality and performance was such that its first postwar model reviewed by ''Road & Track'' in ...
of
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...
and available through to 1932. As usual the chassis was also available to coach builders.
The 16hp Two-litre was supplemented by then later replaced by the much more expensive better equipped 2-litre Rover Meteor 16 announced in February 1930.
Overview
Announced in September 1927
the Rover Two-litre was one of the Rover cars manufactured when
Spencer and
Maurice Wilks
Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks (19 August 19048 September 1963) was a British automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the Rover Company, a British car manufacturer. He was the founder of the ...
, who joined Rover's team in 1929 and 1930, introduced new management practices and engineering techniques to Rover.
Engine
The Two-litre was powered by a
watercooled 2 L straight-6
The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bal ...
OHV
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...
engine with an output of 45 bhp at 3600 rpm designed by
Peter Poppe, which allowed a maximum speed of 60 mph (97 km/h). The bore of 65 mm put the engine into the 16 hp taxation class.
[ Poppe's new engine became the basis for all but one of the Rover engines until the new design introduced with Rover's P3 in 1948.][
The engine clutch and gearbox assembly is mounted and supported at three points, the single one in front, the rear pair by horizontally U-shaped leaf spring attachments.]
Brakes suspension steering
The suspension was conventional for the time with half elliptic leaf springs all round mounted above the axles.[ The pedal brakes work shoes in enclosed drums on all four wheels by rods but the handbrake uses those on the back wheels and operates them by chain. There are shock absorbers fore and aft.]
Body
As with its predecessors standard bodies were very light weight rattle free fabric bodywork built by Rover under licence from Weymann. The standard 2/3-seater or 5-seater open tourer 2-litre was introduced at a price of £410. A short wheelbase two-door "Sportsman's Saloon" version became available during the last two years of production for £335. All cars became available with a 4-speed gearbox as an optional extra for £7, it was a standard fitting to the limousine.
The clutch pedal is adjustable for travel and the front seat can be adjusted over a range of six inches using wing nuts in the cushion.[
The short-wheelbase narrow track ''sportsman's saloon'' variant of this Two-litre car, the Rover Light Six won attention when it was the first successful participant in the ]Blue Train Races
The Blue Train Races were a series of record-breaking attempts between automobiles and trains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the '' Le Train Bleu'', a train that r ...
, a series of record-breaking attempts between automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded ...
s and train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often k ...
s in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the ''Le Train Bleu
The ''Calais-Mediterranée Express'' was a French luxury night express train which operated from 1886 to 2003. It gained international fame as the preferred train of wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera during the ...
'', a train that ran between Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. The p ...
and the French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation "Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from ...
.
References
External links
;Images
coachbuilt saloon, standard model
Weymann saloon
Sportsman's Coupé
(not Light Six)
T litre
Cars introduced in 1927
1920s cars
1930s cars