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Rover 2000
24.000 miles user report
Over the years
I have - like most others, I suppose - scribbled on envelope backs designs for
the ideal car for me; no interest in anyone else, just plain selfish me.
It was to be a squat car with a fairly wide track, rather like a scuttling duck
in the rear view, with seats for four people, light steering, a two-litre,
four-cylinder engine and a good aerodynamic shape. When Rover announced the 2000
I blinked furiously, got out one of my scribbled-on envelopes and checked: this
was it! An industrial spy had been at work in my inside jacket pocket......
Later, when I got a chance to drive one, I found that the charge of spying was
unfounded because theyīd done everything just that bit better than I had
visualized so, for once, a Motor test report is, in a way, written by
someone who is biased. I love the Rover 2000 dearly and cannot see any reason
for ever driving anything else during the next 10 years.
The car which
forms the subject of this 24.000-mile report has had a rather chequered history.
It started off by being very nearly "pre-production" with a chassis number 609
and it covered the first 18.000 miles of its life in the hands of Charles
Bulmer, Motorīs Technical Editor. Bulmerīs 12.000-mile report on the car
- 45 HLB - was published in our issue of December 19, 1964 and when he became
due for a new car he gave up the Rover with what, in a less charming person,
would have been very close to ill grace.
It then
changed hands very swiftly, being used to report, among other things, a Tulip
Rally, and generally took a good tousing largely because we all knew that it was
tough and reliable so that when a car was needed for hastening off to faraway
places at minus five minutesī notice, the 2000 always drew the short straw.
During this period, which lasted for just over 1.500 miles, such servicing as
was necessary was carried out but nothing even remotely resembling loving care
was lavished. The car was kept clean most of the time but I doubt if it ever
stood still long enough to be polished. A fully detailed report covering the
period from 12.000 to 19.500 miles would read: "Oil leak at diff., four tyres
fitted, nothing else?". It had just kept on keeping on.
Finally, the
car came to the owner for whom the makers surely intended it in the first place.
I immediately pointed out to the editor that there was just one snag in this
arrangement. He would find it out if he tried to take the car away from me
again...
At this
stage, 45 HLB was rather like Shakespearseīs isle - full of noises. If it was
left standing in the sun, the steering creaked loudly towards full lock; both
front seats made creaking sounds during changes of speed; and warping of the
cold air intake shutters caused wind-in-the-chimney noises when they were
closed. The clutch had changed from being moderately light to inordinately heavy
(a new-type release mechanism is fitted nowadays).and wasnīt freeing too well -
consequently, the gear-change was a bit notchy - and there was evidence of
slight engine surging at very high revs (the red line is at 6.000) in first,
slightly lower in second, lower still in third and about 3.800 rpm in top.
Since the
20.000-mile service was a matter of a few hundred miles away I decided to let
well alone until then but the car knew better and nudged me into action. The
extra load which the dragging clutch was putting on the gear-change mechanism
suddenly became too much for the selectors, with the result that moving the
stick forward could select either of two gears and hauling it back gave one of
three; just which one was almost outside my control and the results were highly
unusual, as anyone who has made a quick change up from third to second
can confirm.
So Broadway
Motors, of Cricklewood, were given the car and a longish list of jobs to do.
They were kindly pointed out that the majority of these came under the
20.000-mile service heading anyhow and, accordingly, charged much less than I
had expected. They also told me when they handed it back, dead on time, that the
clutch master cylinder and the de Dion axle were both leaking very, very
slightly, but both were jobs which could wait.
At this stage
of the story I must emphasize that the car is an early one and tell you that I
have recently done quite a lot of motoring in two other Rover 2000s - one late
1965 and the other, going by its colour, early 1966. These have improvements not
fitted to my model and it is only fair that I should mention these in the
appropriate places. Thus, creaking steering is no longer possible because a
newer type of damper is fitted to current cars. The air intake shutters cannot
warp, because metal edges have replaced plastic. Door veneer cannot become
rain-sodden (mine did because of a small leak in the front passenger door
sealing) since Formica is now used instead of wood but itīs almost impossible to
tell the difference.
The matter of
the engine surging was rather odd. A new set of plugs cured it initially but it
came back. This time I fixed it by topping up the oil damper on the SU
carburetter although it was half empty. The third time it returned, none of the
earlier cures worked so in a fit of wild abandon I fitted a sports coil which I
had left over from some earlier activities and the surging went. There had also
been trouble with running-on, especially after short runs and, by happy
coincidence, a set of Japanese NGK plugs arrived for test, the right grade for
the Rover, so in they went and the running-on was cured.
But after
about 3.500 miles the surging came back; consulted about this, Rovers held their
hands up in horror over the use of plugs which they hadnīt tested and
consequently couldnīt recommend (a very fit and proper attitude although in my
experience these NGKs are first-class) and a new set of the ordained type was
fitted. Again, the surging vanished but the running-on returned. Neither of the
newer cars I tried had the same trouble and the mystery remains. Much earlier in
this carīs life, the distributor had been changed for a type with a different
vacuum advance curve to cure similar troubles at lower revolutions: a clue here,
perhaps?
After a lot
of careful twiddling, I got a perfect tick-over at what I guess to be 600 rpm
(please, someone, tell me how to fit a rev counter neatly to this car)
and after the car has been serviced I have to twiddle some more because the
setting always seems to alter fractionally after new plugs have been fitted and
then settles down indefinitely with a thoroughly reliable tick-over.
The fuel
consumption has been something to wonder at, although when you remember that
this is a heavy car (24 3/4 cwt.), with a good aerodynamic shape, the figures
make sense enough. I have taken three sets of figures: (1) Home to office
through London only; (2) Long distance touring only; (3) Mixed going (say,
through London to Goodwood and back). The first produces 19 mpg because I tend
to use high revs in low gears a lot in traffic - itīs that sort of car.
Moderating my acceleration and contenting myself with being second away from the
lights, I can make this figure 24 mpg. The long distance figure was taken over
1.700 miles from London to Fraserburgh, Inverness, Bonar Bridge and a few other
places and south again - this came out at 34.2 mpg despite cruising at 80/85 mph
(ah, happy carefree days). The mixed running gives 26 mpg which is what Charles
Bulmer found in similar conditions. Oil consumption is still so low as to be
considered negligible but why do service stations always overfill the sump of
this car - is there a discrepancy between handbook and dip-stick, or doesnīt it
drain fully?
Squeaking
brakes when running on wet roads were a nuisance, now cured by the factory, and
the new cars didnīt behave thus. The brakes also have fits of making "scrooping"
noises when applied at low speeds but here again the new cars were blameless.
Another difference in noise concerns the suspension. Mine is fairly noisy at
times, making sounds like the wheels of a Caravelle (the aircraft, not Renault)
coming up, while the new cars are relatively silent.
Talking of
noises: while on holiday there were two bouts of strange sounds. The first was a
hollow scraping which suddenly stopped, just as it had begun, with no apparent
reason. The second was a violent crashing and banging which followed a fast
drive along a rock-strewn path at New Aberdour beach, in Aberdeenshire. I drove
the front of the car on to a little hillock, crawled below to investigate and
found two answers to the noises.
The first had
been caused by a piece of red sandstone which must have been thrown up by a
front wheel and lodged between propshaft and tunnel - scrapes on the shaft and
pieces of the now fractured stone lodged in the undercoating gave the game away.
The second was more technical - a pivot of the handbrake system had been
severely smitten by a boulder on the path and twisted a mere fraction to one
side. This caused the little lever which works on the pivot to foul the bolts of
a propshaft joint and, as you can imagine, the noise was considerable. I had
already suspected something like this when I discovered that half-applying the
handbrake stopped the racket and some brutal levering work with a tyre lever
quickly cured that one.
A puncture
and purchase of a new tyre (to replace the original spare which was on a rear
wheel) have rather militated against taking long-distance tyre-wear figures for
each wheel but spot checks reveal that Cook gets much the same life out of tyres
as does Bulmer though probably for quite different reasons - just over 15.000
miles. Rover 2000 plus Pirelli Cinturatos equals one of the few cars I want to
drive as fast in the wet as I do on dry roads and itīs about the only car I know
of which it is true to say that the faster you go on a really rough road, the
more comfortable it is. The only other Iīve driven which met this was a Phase I
Vanguard estate - big wheels. Brake pads seem to last for about 10.000 miles.
Which isnīt bad when you consider the ease of replacement.
The great
thing about the Rover 2000 is its feeling of sheer solidity and one-ness with
the driver, to which the seats contribute in no small measure (after Iīd
experimented with tilt and settled, like Charles, for an extra inch of distance
piece at the front); stretch-nylon covers stop them from putting a shine on my
suit. Incidentally, the seat creaking mentioned earlier was cured very simply,
by putting a spot of oil on the little pegs which engage in the fore-and-aft
adjustment ratchet - it is astonishing that such a minor thing could make so
very much noise. Steering and brake response are immediate (there is no feeling
at all of brake servo cut-in) and the width of the car is easy to judge so that,
all these things considered, the main-road fast cruiser can be driven through
traffic in sparrow-like fashion, with quick gear changes and smooth, singing
revs while the driver lolls back and takes an appreciative and approving
interest.
The heating
and ventilation system is really first class, with one proviso - the cool air
openings, used at full aperture, blast straight into my eyes and make them
water: since I breathe with my nose, a few degrees lower would be the thing and
I contemplate a modification here. The gear lever is a little too far forward
and having the light flasher and horns on identical stalks on either side of the
steering column sometimes causes me to give a rude blast when I intend a polite
flash - others I have spoken to find the same. And I donīt know if itīs a good
idea to have the horn lever combined with the flashers as it should surely be in
the same, predictable place at all times. But I am 100% converted to a hand
dip-switch. I "lowered the pedals" by packing about an inch of handboard under
the carpets at the driverīs side.
The finish is
still good, if dull through lack of polishing, and unmarked except where it has
been subjected to the slings and arrows of a communal car park. The chrome is
all good except on the rear number plate surround and back bumper, where rust
has shown up but here, too, evidence of another carīs bumper having overriden
the Roverīs shows that the plating may have been strained and minutely
fractured. The whole body and the mechanical parts seem determined to last for
ever - editor willing, Iīm prepared to have a go at finding out.
Motor / UK
February 1966
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