Rover P6 Activa

[CitroJim]

Yes indeed

Read all about it here..

Link borrowed from an original post on Club-XM

Enjoy!

[myglaren]

Sounds like a failed bodge compared to the proper Citroen application and whingeing about the cost of the pump seems petty.
Crap spelling in that article too.

[davoxx]

a hoax?

[CitroJim]

a hoax?

It's on the internet so who knows without independent verification...

Based on the fact the the original designs for the P6 included a fully hydraulic DS-like version then I tend to think this article is more than likely genuine. The suspension I believe was originally designed to be hydraulic on the P6 and hence the rather odd location of the front springs. Hydraulic rams there would have made far more sense.

Rover were always very innovative too... The P6 was way ahead of it's rivals in terms of design. Truly a British DS...

[wurlycorner]

Interesting.
It's not entirely inconceivable, Rover did use Hydragas on the Allegro and Metro, after all.

:think: Various components in this cutaway sketch though;

look to be exactly the same as a citroen cutaway sketch though, so perhaps some sort of collaboration?

[CitroJim]

so perhaps some sort of collaboration?

Almost certain I'd have thought as Rover would have had to license the technology from Citroen. Also, Alec Issigonis (The famous designer of the Minor and Mini amongst many others) was a well-known fan of Citroen and ran a Traction as his daily driver for some while and he would certainly still have been working at BMC when this car was designed.

There are stories that Issigonis looked very closely at the Traction when designing the Morris Minor and took rather a lot of cues from it such as torsion bar front suspension and rack and pinion steering. The things he really wanted such as front wheel drive and a flat four engine never saw the light of day sadly but the Minor did act as the test mule for the Moulton rubber suspension as used in the first and later Minis.

[ACTIVE8]

Interesting thread.