"Rulles" first startup after the long winter

April 28 2012 - warm and sunny and a perfect day to start up our Rover 75 after the long winter lay up. 

Thanks to Internet I only contacted one Swedish authority to activate both insurance and make the car legal for road use - very convenient indeed! The five months lay up has saved me big money in tax and insurance. But more important the Rover has been indoors protected from the wet and salty roads.

 After connecting the newly charged battery "Rulle" started within a second and it took another two seconds for the oil pressure light to go out - "business as ususal". Still on winter tires I took the car for a 10 km trip on our winding country roads. I had almost forgotten how comfortable and quit the Rover 75 is - it is a relief to drive a Rover! I washed of all dust and dirt and changed to the almost new summer tires on the newly bought Connesieur rims. The result is rewarding and although the car is now 12 years and has done 150000 kms it looks very good. Next step will be new oil and filter and some other service. Soon "Rulle" will be prepared for a long nice summer roving around with Anna and myself.

Rover 2000 - a real classic but also a surprisingly modern car



An early advertisment for Rover 2000 from spring 1966 - just the same time
as my own car was produced in Solihull.


If you are not familiar with the Rover 2000 (also called the P6 model) perhaps I should provide some compressed history. You can find much more information on Wikipedia and many other sites. Of course I recomend Rover Club of Sweden (some pages in english) where I have been a member since the club was founded in 1986 and the P6 Rover Owners Club.

Rover 2000 was launched on Earls Court October 1963 as a completely new saloon car that inherited almost nothing from the earlier Rover P4 and P5 models. It was and still is unique with many unusual technical solutions and very much with safety in mind. Rover 2000 was the first car in 1964 to win the european "Car of the Year" award and now, almost 50 years later, it can still be used as an everyday car for almost any purpose.

Most tests in the magazines from 1963 and on praised the Rover 2000 in almost all respects and it was very much a drivers car. Rover 2000 was an instant sales success and for a number of years the factory could not produce enough to satisfy demand. In 1966 Rover 2000 was joined by two more models - the 2000TC (Twin carburator) and 2000 Automatic. At the same time the basic model was now being renamed the 2000SC (Single carburator).

In Sweden the previous importer Gjestvangs AB gave up and the new agent was Harry Karlsson Bil AB in Gothenburg. This change is one reason why the oldest Rover 2000 in Sweden was not registered until April 1965 - there are no known cars of 1964 model year!

Rover 2000SC 1966 "rediscovered"!



Sorry about photos but there are none of the car presently!
However this picture from one of the first leaflets is lovely
or what do you think?

 I have owned this car since 1988, but during all these years I have never driven it at all. How come? Simply because it was bought with a broken engine and not much has happened since!

During my 23 years of ownership an early Rover 2000 has become quite a rare sight on swedish roads. It was not a very common car when it was new and now it is the 20th oldest 2000SC in Sweden. Of the nineteen cars that are older only four are used regularly. And more surprising is that of the remaining fifteen cars eight has been "off the road" for more than 25 years, with one not driven since 1972! I do not want to see my Rover 2000SC unused for 40 years so now it is time for me to finally bring it back to life and the open road! 

There will be a lot of work involved with engine, brakes, electrical system and other areas. If you have an interest in Rovers and some spare time - please join me on the "restoration trip" on this blog. I will try to make a regular update from now on.