Rover

I agree entirely with Mr Stenning (March 1985) that by now Rover is just one of the formerly illustrious names available for selection in BL’s now long established badge engineering tradition. However, he misleads when he writes that “The last vehicle designed by Rovers when part of BL was the Range Rover”.

This vehicle was, in all its essentials, designed before the 1967 take-over by BL. I have a photograph of the prototype that I took before I left the company that year and indeed recall that the Range Rover narrowly escaped the fate of that other potential world beater, the mid-engined Rover P6Bs, which was also in prototype at that time.

The position is probably worse than Mr Stenning implies: not one of the companies absorbed into the BL conglomerate ever produced a really successful and innovative product that wasn’t designed before it became part of that Group. Perhaps Jaguar, now it is independent again, will turn this sad process upside-down by launching a memorable new car that was largely designed while it was part of BL!

Graham Bannock

Blandford, Dorset