Hi Skip,
Many thanks for bringing that photo to our attention. I know of the car, but haven't seen that photo before I must admit. I wonder if it was taken at one of the Rally Car Days at Castle Combe?
The car A379 VUK belongs to Duncan Holder and is the ex-Del Lines rally car that was crashed into a tree at Longleat in 1988 and detailed in the often quoted Rover SD1 Club articke on Del here -
http://www.roversd1club.net/features...e-ianlines.asp
This is the car after it hit the tree...
...and this is the same car after Del Lines reshelled it into an ex-Bastos shell that he acquired from Tom Walkinshaw when he bought the ex-Jeff Allam/Ahmin Hahne Bathurst car and the ex-Tony Pond Computervision car (B565 AOX)...
The Himalayan car that you said you nearly bought was the sister car A377 VUK - both cars (along with A683 NJO) were initially built for the Austin Rover Middle East Rally Team and they contested a handful of rallies 'out there' in the hands of Tony Pond / Rob Arthur (A379 VUK) and Abdullah Omar / John Daniels (A683 NJO). A377 VUK was the team's recce car.
The additional vents are visible on the above photos - necessitated due to the hot dusty conditions in Dubai and Oman.