Estates/Shooting Brakes/Station Wagons Gallery (Originals are best)

[CitroJim]

A very useful vehicle though

[NewcastleFalcon]

Sunday June 4th 2017 Borders Vintage Automobile Club show at Thirlstane Castle. Same car currently up for sale as posted by Mick.

L.Falcon own Work.


Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I think we can allow ourselves a repetition of this for the 2024 new audience of the FCF. Chris as pointed out below hasn't posted on either the FCF or Club XM for some time now, but formerly made some great contributions which were very much appreciated by myself and other forum members.

Now Chris (White Exec) hasn't been active for a while on the forum pretty much coinciding with his planned return to the UK from Spain. He did make many excellent contributions to the forum and was particularly knowledgeable about all matters Rover P6 in particular which I took advantage on on a few occasions, and he kindly sent me a DVD on the P6 when I was considering one to purchase.

So archive digging here is Chris contribution following on from my own spot of the Rover P6 Estate at Thirlstane, and perfect for today's newly started thread.

The rare P6 Estates did not come off the Solihull production line...

"It was principally the British Leyland takeover in 1967 which killed off production prospects for the Rover-commissioned 'specials', but the estate variant was built in limited numbers, albeit as an aftermarket conversion by FLM Panelcraft, not a production model by Rover. Briefly known as the Panelcraft Estoura, the car was at first marketed exclusively by Crayford Auto Development (and these cars had the Crayford badge), then by Hurst Park Automobiles of East Molesey, Surrey, and after 1970 by H.R.Owen, when it became known rather misleadingly as the 'Owen conversion'.
Conversions were available on used as well as new cars and after 1968; a 3500 version could be obtained. The 2000 and 2000TC estates remained rare because they were too expensive for a market well covered by Triumph's 2000 estate. The 3500 estate was a success, however, and before [P6] production stopped in 1976, a few 3500S estates with manual transmission had been built.
Exact figures are not available, but it seems that between 150 and 160 P6 estates were built."
- from James Taylor's The Classic Rovers 1934-1977

Visually - and practically - the elongated estate conversion was not particularly successful, principally because the designers were hooked into following the rearwardly descending roof line...


...severely limiting load height and access, not to mention ruining the standard saloon's elegant rear end.

Some conversions were more successful in this respect...


One of the best, though, was Rover's own prototype for an SD1 Estate. They made about four, of which two survived. This one was run for some time by BL CEO Sir Michael Edwards, in its eventual experimental colour of Midas Gold - not without some irony there.


I think Rover were mad not to put it into production, at a time when there was huge appetite for Volvo 244/246 estates. By this time, Triumph's own 2000/2500 estate had been killed off to make way for SD1 (initially RT1), so there was no product overlap, no excuse.

Neil

[CitroJim]

Gosh, that DS1 Estate looks very smart

[mickthemaverick]

Gosh, that DS1 Estate looks very smart

Is that a Citroeneon influence on your SD1 comment Jim?

[CitroJim]

Gosh, that DS1 Estate looks very smart

Is that a Citroeneon influence on your SD1 comment Jim?

It's the addiction Mick... It does strange things

[NewcastleFalcon]

AR online has an excellent Article with some colour pictures, and as of that time of writing the Gold SD1 Estate SHP549R could be viewed at the Haynes Museum in Sparkford, and LOE99P could be viewed at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.

If you are interested in the thread you will no doubt find this article and its pictures of interest. The link takes you directly to the section with the colour pics of the Gold SD1 Estate.

LInk to article and pics here

https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and ... 0Sparkford

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Haynes Motor Museum Sparkford SD1 Estate

British Motor Museum Gaydon SD1 Estate

Neil