Miguel Sánchez
By the early 1958s the Rover range was well established. Not surprisingly, since 5 the P1963 saloon had been consolidating thanks to its three-liter six-cylinder engine. In fact, both by design and performance it occupied a stable market niche just below that occupied by the Jaguar MkII. In addition, since 6 the PXNUMX covered the segment of the three volumes with aspirations of massive sale. An upward gap due to the increase in young professionals. Eager to acquire a more powerful family car than the popular 1.5-litre models but, at the same time, unable to reach what is represented by the sedans with six cylinders and around 3 liters of displacement.
Likewise, the manufacture of the successful Land Rover generated a constant and secure source of income. Even more if we take into account the licensing system. Thanks to which this SUV could be assembled in the Spanish Santana. With all that, the financial situation at Rover was really comfortable. Moreover, during 1960 and 1961 it spent a significant budget on researching how to bring the gas turbine to series production. An experiment from which the T4 prototype emerged. Finally abandoned although, two years later, a competition model developed together with British Racing Motors returned to work with the turbine system to compete at Le Mans from 1963 to 1965.
With all this, Rover was not only thinking of creating new models. But also in offering more performance variants of those already present. Of course, for this a new engine was needed. Something he found around 1965. When his management in the United States reached an agreement with General Motors to achieve a manufacturing license on the Buick V8 block. Forged from aluminum, this compact and lightweight design was not only capable of great horsepower, but also generous low-end torque.
Thus, the arrival of that V8 with 3.5 liters at the Rover workshops in the United Kingdom unleashed a true creative avalanche. On the one hand, in terms of series, it was applied in 1967 to both the P5 and the P6. Thanks to that, the new versions P5B and P6B stood as the top of the range in both models with high powers up to 160CV. Also, this V8 already arrived in the seventies to the SD1, Range Rover, Triumph TR8 or MG MGB. Just a few samples to understand the importance of the Buick engine in the history of Rover.
In addition, on the other hand, the acquisition of that mechanics was the necessary foundation for the creation of two prototypes with which the English house planned to project itself into the following decade. First of all, the P8 saloon designed by David Bache left behind the classicism of three volumes to embrace lines with five doors. This way, Rover intended to launch a high-end model endowed with an obvious sporty touch together with a rupturist aesthetic. Likewise, in 1966 the first steps were taken for the creation of the P6BS. An innovative design with a central-rear engine called to be the first sports car manufactured by the brand.
ROVER P6BS, THE INNOVATION THAT COULD NOT BE
In the mid-1s, developing a mid-rear-engined sports car was still a display of innovation. In fact, what happened in FXNUMX was still very close in time. When Cooper demonstrated at the end of the fifties the benefits of placing the engine behind the pilot, thus significantly improving the distribution of weights and, therefore, the inertia when cornering. What's more, despite initial jeers, when Jack Brabham won the 1959 season with a Cooper T51 even Ferrari had to accept where the future lay.
In this way, in 1963 there was not a car left on the starting grid of F1 with the traditional architecture based on the front engine and rear propulsion. In addition, since 1961, models with a central-rear engine also became commonplace among the Sport Prototypes of the World Cup of Makes. A process in which the Ferrari 246P stood out although, in a more concise performance area, the Cooper T49 Monaco had already been showing the way for years. That being the case, little by little all that was permeating to serial production. Yes, very slowly.
In fact, beyond specific examples such as the Djet, the truth is that we had to wait until the 914 VW/Porsche 1969 to see a mid-rear-engined two-seater sports car within the reach of the general public. With all this, it is obvious to verify how the Rover P6BS proposal had a clear disruptive character. And it is that, if the brand was going to start in sports, it was good that it did so with a revolutionary model capable of attracting the media spotlight along with the desire to buy. At this point, the engineer Spen King -who came from collaborating with BRM at Le Mans- devised the new model using many elements of the P6 as a base.
In fact, the name of the prototype already gives us enough clues about its design. P6 for the model from which it was based. B for the Buick engine. And finally, S for being a Sport model. What's more, although in a prototype like this there are more gaps than certainties, according to most of the sources Rover could have tuned the V8 here up to 185PS. Twenty-six more than those offered by the P5B 3.5. In addition, its position was really interesting, leaning towards the right side to be mounted transversally next to the gearbox. A solution very similar to the one adopted, almost two decades later, by the Peugeot 205 T16 of Group B.
In addition, the weight was about 1270 kilos. With all this, the Rover P6BS had many ballots to reach series. In fact, at the end of 1968 David Bache was tasked with polishing up its rugged test car appearance in what, with a nod to the market, already took the commercial name of P9. However, during that same year Rover had been merged into the British Leyland conglomerate. And boy, although in 1969 this mid-engined sports car even had a clay model to represent its final lines, the truth is that that business operation was his death sentence.
Not in vain, within that group was Jaguar. A brand that, logically, was not willing to allow any Rover upstart to overshadow its E-Type. In this way, the director of Jaguar William Lyons asserted his power in British Leyland forcing the demise of the future P9. A pity because, in truth, this one could have represented modernity with its central-rear engine. Meanwhile, the E-Type and its successor the XJS would have championed classicism. In short, a missed opportunity that left us without enjoying a British sports car with an American engine and a more than original design.
Photographs: Rover
