Charles Spencer "Spen" King (26 March 1925 – 26 June 2010) was a significant design engineer in the

Rover Company The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company originally founded in 1878, beginning car manufacturing in 1904. It primarily operated from its base in Solihull, Warwickshire. Rover also manufactured the Land Rover series from ...

(and, after their takeover, in the

British Leyland Motor Corporation British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised ...

). He is particularly associated with the Rover P6, the Rover SD1 and the

Range Rover The Land Rover Range Rover, generally shortened to Range Rover, is a Sport utility vehicle, 4x4 Luxury car, luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors. The Range Rover line was launched ...

Career

After leaving school in 1942, King was first apprenticed to

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. He joined Rover, run by his uncles Maurice and Spencer Wilks, in 1945 and worked initially on the gas-turbine powered JET1 and T3 experimental prototypes. In 1959, he became chief engineer of new vehicle projects. King is best known for his leadership of the teams that developed the advanced Rover P6 series, introduced as the 2000 in 1963, and the hugely successful Range Rover (of which a "CSK" special edition later celebrated his involvement) launched in June 1970. King was also responsible for the Rover-based

Marauder Marauder, marauders, The Marauder, or The Marauders may refer to: * A person engaged in banditry or related activity ** Piracy ** Looting ** Outlaw ** Partisan (military) ** Robbery ** Theft Entertainment * ''Marauder'', the second novel in th ...

sports car in 1950 and many Rover experimental and prototype vehicles. As Rover was taken over by the Leyland Motor Corporation which subsequently became

British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...

(BL), he also led teams responsible for the Triumph TR6, Triumph Stag and Triumph TR7 models as well as the innovative design of the 16-valve cylinder head used on the Triumph Dolomite Sprint. David Bache & King designed the Rover SD1 fastback saloon. Several other BL Group models were developed under his leadership. King's tenure coincided with a chaotic time for the British motor industry. King was frequently frustrated by the design compromises imposed by insufficient funding, and the poor quality of vehicles produced by an uncooperative workforce in the mainly outdated plants owned by the company. While chairman of BL Technology from 1979 he was responsible for developing a series of light, aerodynamic and technically advanced ECV (Energy Conservation Vehicle) experimental models (including the ECV3), features of which were incorporated into later BL Group products such as the Rover K-series engine, or adopted by other manufacturers. Spen King retired from the company in 1985. In 1992, King was appointed as a director of Coventry-based Land Rover specialist JE Engineering Ltd, where he continued until 2005. In 2004, he criticised SUV owners who drive their vehicles in urban areas, saying that vehicles like the

he created were "never intended as a status symbol but later incarnations of my design seem to be intended for that purpose". King and his former Rover colleague Arthur Goddard extensively shared many of their views on the motor industry in 2010. The transcript of their discussion was published in the book ''They Found Our Engineer'' in 2011. It was announced on 28 June 2010 that King had died on 26 June after suffering complications following a cycling accident.

References

External links

The Unofficial Austin Rover Resource - Spen King Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Spen 1925 births British automobile designers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 2010 deaths Road incident deaths in England Cycling road incident deaths

Career

References

Further reading

External links