Rovers Technological Advances

[lethologica]

For a university assignment I'm doing, I have to do a PEST analysis on Rover. I've done most of it, but am stuck with Technology - anyone know of anything special in regards to rover and their technological advancements (if any!?)

Confirmative references would also be useful please!

[KebabMeister]

First thing that sprang to mind was the 'worlds first gas turbine propelled car' which I remember studying when I was a mechanic/college.

Have a look at http://www.rover.org.nz/pages/models.htm

[lethologica]

Thank you for your response!

If anyone's got any more recent technological 'stuff' (like safety, comfort features of the cars or whatever) it would be greatly appreciated!

[KebabMeister]

Rover 827 was first car to have Catalytic converter fitted as standard in the UK.

Does Rover include Austin?  Mini engine with gearbox underneath engine - compact front wheel drive car.

[Steve_Luts]

The Rover SD1 was European Car of The Year when launched, and was widely regarded as a massive technical advancement. Sadly things went downhill from there, with a brief respite when they were working in partnership with Honda.

I am sad at the demise of Rover, but I can't help thinking if they hadn't stopped making cars with so much fake wood on board sooner, then people might have wanted to buy more? Maybe that's another discussion, but the T of your PEST should definitely cover the Threat of competition, and how they weren't able to compete with products in the same market segment.

[lethologica]

Thank you both for your responses :)

Steve, I've included the threat of the competition and their technological advances within the report, however it doesn't seem quite right comparing the rover with a 3 series or Audi A4, which is really the market they're attempting to aim at...

Thank you again for your help!

[Jay70]

If you assignment includes BMC what about hydrolastic suspension pionered on the BMC Mini in the early 60's.  later used on Morris/ Austin / Wolseley 1100's 1800's plus Austin Princess/ Ambassador / Metro and I think on the later Rover 100.  I think the Meastro/Mentego used to have a voice system to remind people to put on their seatbelts etc and I had not come across this before. 

[KebabMeister]

Steve

The fake wood was actually real laminated hardwood!  It consisted of between 3 - 5 layers if it was curved wood!  I actually broke a couple of wood panels when trying to remove the wood trim to get to the clock bulb on Rover 200/400s.

Jay70

Hydrolastic was indeed used on the Rover 100 and MGF (not sure if it's still used on the MGF).  It was actually a pain to work with and trying to balance it all up!  Give me shockers and springs anyday! :)

The Montego/Mastro Vanden Plas did have an onboard talking computer.  This was on the Mark One (R Series engine (Maxi engine).  It was quickly removed due to unreliability and annoying the customer!

You might be able to include Land Rover as well, which did fall under the same group at one stage.

[KebabMeister]

Oh, another thing.  The diesel engine fitted to the Rover 620 (1995) and subsequent 2 litre cars was, I think, the first in the UK to have 'drive by wire'.  This meant that the accelerator pedal wasn't attached to the engine via an accelerator cable.  The pedal provided data inputs directly to the onboard Engine Management system which then instructed the engine what to do.  It was a real break through design at the time.  (can't remember what model the diesel was, but it was the diesel version of the T Series petrol engine).

The K-Series engine fitted to Rover 100, Rover 200/400, 800, MGF and Caterham 7 cars was another technologically advanced engine.  It was built entirely of aluminium with 'damp liners' to improve quick warm up times.  It also had a very small coolant system, again to aid warm up time.  One unusual feature of the engine was that the cylinder head bolts went entirely through the engine into the crankcase.  When the engine was first introduced it was a lean burn engine of 20:1 air fuel ratio.  This was unheard of and was ultra fuel efficient.  Unfortunately with the introduction of Catalytic converters it resumed to the usual 14.7:1 air fuel (most efficient for catalyst car).

[Tim Baxter]

The Montego Turbo Diesel engine was manufactured by Perkins/Rolls Royce and was the design award winning engine of the year.  Its variant is now (or was) fitted to present day Rover diesels.

[KebabMeister]

Tim, the Perkins diesel was a great engine.  Some Taxi companies were reporting 95mpg because they had the engine running 24/7!!  I used to love driving the normally aspirated Maestro diesel van! :)  (Montego's diesels were turbo charged and Maestro's were normally aspirated, bar the end of the line models which were turbo too).

The variant you mention being now/or was fitted to present day Rover diesels is not true.  They stopped using the Perkins diesel in about 1994/95 (left over diesel engines in old Maestro's going cheap).

The modern diesel engine was based on the T-Series petrol engine, which I mentioned in my post above and definitely not the Perkins.

[Tim Baxter]

I bow to your knowledge.  I ran a turbo diesel Montego for 120 k miles but only ever got average 50 mpg which was not bad considering the motorway work.  I have just bought a Rover 25 (don't say anything) 2 litre turbo diesel because I was lead to believe that the engine was a variant on the Perkins.  It is more sluggish in 1st/2nd but that could be down to the gearing/electronic engine management but acceleration in 3rd, 4th and 5th is enormous!