Rover 3500S Sedan Racer

[jj.mac]

Hi, The Orange Rover in the 'groundsky' picture belongs to Mall Clark of Auckland New Zealand and is currently having a bit of a rebuild after falling off the black stuff and climbing a barrier.

Sorry, could not insert the picture I have of his car.

John.

[Camaroz]

One of the ex-Works Rovers came to Australia (1972?) and was campaigned by Jim Smith. It ran with Camel Cigarettes sponsorship in its later years and was dubbed "Clarrie the Wonder Camel". It later went to Vimy Ridge Racing (Jarrett's) in SA and I beleive is currently under restoration by its current owner. If anyone knows Ivan Partinase (spelling?) please let him know of this thread.

Or if anyone knows how to contact Jim Smith, he is the Lambo importer for Australia.

Cheers

[johnh875]

Camaroz there was an article about that car in the Aust Muscle Car magazine a couple of years ago if you haven't seen it

[terence]

Good to see that the Rover look,s the same as when I,d finnished the restoration!.Every body panel came off,including the roof which was standard ally.Engine size ,in fact is 4.2,and there were 2 cars built,the one in the photo ,plus a two door version,now in Oz .The car has sat[untill it was sold] in my ex-boss,es collection since the early 80s,never turned a wheel after i,d road tested it ! The MGC on the Right of the picture is an Ex-works Replica,originally owned by Collin Pearcy,It was originally finnished in TartanRed,but we decided to repaint it the way the work,s did,just an outside paint job basically ,left the engine bay,doorshuts etc in Red to replicate what the work,s did after they were told that the various cars had to be in thier respective countrys colours!The Healey [top right] in the picture is the Ex-works car of Donald Grimshaw,the subject of a full resto job before it went into the collection.The Landcrab,Ex-works and bought from Phillip Young ,who Started Sporting Car,s Magazine ,and was to become a good friend after countless visits to the collection.The Red Wheel next to the Crab is from one of the BASTOS SD1,s.[The subject of another thread] Yes ,it would be good to see these cars out again,makes you wonder how many Special Saloons are left doe,snt it ?Both Rovers were Nicholson built

[Al Weyman]

Interesting post Terrence but where is the pictures to go with it Incidently have you spoke with David Tetley or advised him any way on his P6 project?

[terence]

Hi Al,I have posted on his thread and given the info he required but he seem ,s to have dissapeared!!

No point in posting pictures,the car has not changed since I finnished it.

[terence]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Viva GT, I have the relevant Sporting Cars issue (Vol 2, No.4 - Feb 1984) in front of me. The article is about 'Wild Rare Rovers' and doesn't devote much (and certainly not enough!) to these cars. It says one of them (but doesn't tell us which one) was indeed built at Solihull, although that could have been simply a standard car that was sent out to Shaw and Pierpoint to develop. Hardcastle is not clear on that (see my earlier post). Pierpoint was indeed the driver but there is no mention of Parkes, who, if memory serves, had left Rootes (and therefore no BL connection) for Ferrari some years before.

Philip Young wanted to drive it,but it was decided it was best that he did,nt!

[RoveringP6]

For those of you who are interested in Rover P6 - visit my website http://www.RoverP6.info

Regards to all from Germany,
Rudiger

[ian.stewart]

Have a look at this post I started last year, it may help.
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...5&highlight=p6

Ian

[KA]

Originally Posted by 275 GTB-4

He was after the Chassis number of JXC806D which was imported by Leyland Australia and raced by James Smith in 1971 and later became the Camel Rover. The log book has been lost.

Huw on Atlas said.....The ex press car (JXC808D) was the one used for rallycross before becoming the first prototype racer built by Morgan and Rose, fitted with a 4.3 Traco Olds. this was sold to Alec Poole who raced it in Ireland. This car was red.

A pic of JXC808D in rallycross guise has just turned up in a thread on the rally/rallycross forum
http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....6&postcount=21

[VIVA GT]

Hmm, well, it's the same registration, but obviously looking nothing like the racing car turned out.
Now I do know that manufacturers have a habit of using the same identity for a number of different competiton vehicles, and my guess is that the only connection between both cars is the registration number.

[RoveringP6]

See my sites http://www.roverp6.info/Fotos/exWork...ksRacerAUS.htm and http://www.roverp6.info/JXC808D.htm

[terence]

Good to see the Old Girl looks just as good as day I finished the Restoration!

[KA]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

Hmm, well, it's the same registration, but obviously looking nothing like the racing car turned out.
Now I do know that manufacturers have a habit of using the same identity for a number of different competiton vehicles, and my guess is that the only connection between both cars is the registration number.

Everything I've read about JXC806D says that the rallycross car (a pretty standard ex-Rover press fleet car from Solihull) became the racer- of course, how much of the original chassis actually remained in the finished article is another matter.....

Description from Peter Browning, quoted on Rudiger's site:

My trip to Solihull was not entirely wasted as I came home the proud „owner“ of JXC 808D, a somewhat secondhand 2000 from the Rover press fleet.
Without doing too much to the car we whisked it off to a rallycross meeting where it was driven with great verve by Geoff Mabbs who could not resist placing a bowler hat, furled umbrella and a copy of the Financial Times on the rear parcel shelf! In virtually standard 2000 form the Rover, thank God, did not disgrace herself and one Rover Director actually phoned me on the Monday morning expressing mild pleasure! Before Mabbs could get too enthusiastic, we started on Stage 2.
Time was vitally important and we realised that trying to build JXC 808D into a club racer at Abingdon at that particular time would be fraught with problems. Rover engineers would probably have a heart attack had they seen what we were doing and, in any case, we did not exactly want the world and his wife to know about our plans.....

JXC 808D moved to Pierpoint´s garage in Walton-on-Thames where it was set upon by two ex-Alan Mann mechanics, Jim Morgan and Jim Rose.
The car was gutted and upon the standard chassis was built a new lightweight racing body with flaved wings and wheel arches. The weight was reduced to around 950kg. Front suspension was modified with fabricated lower wishbones and PFTE bushes were used throughout. Ventilated disc brakes were fitted front and rear and 10ins Minilite rims carried Dunlop racing tyres.

http://www.roverp6.info/TestGB/P6RacerII.htm

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by ian.stewart

Have a look at this post I started last year, it may help.
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...5&highlight=p6

Ian

I have now merged the two threads; in fact I might take some of these posts to add the subject to the chassis archive, at some stage!

[ian.stewart]

found this today,
http://www.teamwillpower.org/

485bhp from a 5ltr Rover sounds a bit optomistic unless its a Wildcat

[Al Weyman]

Pay attention Ian , I think I posted that about 200 posts ago, thats Dave Tetley's project.

[ian.stewart]

Ooops, Thats the trouble with working nights, I am about 200 posts behind everybody else
Ian

[Al Weyman]

We'll forgive you, it was worth a bump anyhow, fasinating project I wonder how its going?

[275 GTB-4]

The Camel Rover is now for sale in NSW Australia...

[JAFA851]

Wow, been wondering where this car has been for a number of years. With the number of iterations it's been through, which one would you rebuild it to??