Good car, the Rover 75. Always has been. In fact, when the 75 was launched, Rover - then owned by BMW - reckoned that it was the best front-wheel drive car around, and it was probably right. Certainly, a sign above the production line assured line workers that that was the case, proudly proclaiming: 'You are building the best front-wheel drive car in the world.'
I'm not sure whether that sign's still there. I'm not convinced it should be. Although it's still comfortably in the top 15, perhaps top 10, the 75 is not the best front-driver any more. Furthermore, I was never quite convinced about the sign's tone, either. Did the phrasing come from Bavaria? 'Rover,
you are making the best front-drive car. Because we at BMW only make, of course, rear-wheel drive cars.'
But if it was an attempt to keep Rover in its place, it didn't work out like that. MG Rover is bubbling with bulldog spirit, of the sort that encouraged it to re-launch the MG range including an
£80,000 range-topper, and has now seen the company shove a stonking great engine into its biggest saloon and estate, thus providing the final reason why the sign should come down: the 75 isn't just a front-wheel drive car any more, because the rear-wheel drive, V8-powered Rover is back.
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| MG Rover needs a V8 range-topper like a fish needs a bicycle |
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Now, it might be argued that MG Rover needs a V8 range-topper like a fish needs a bicycle, and that what the company could really do with is a decent replacement for the
45, following that with another for the
25, and sharpish. But you've got to merit the company's audacity, all the same.
It can't have been easy, finding enough room in the engine bay and through the middle of a neatly packaged compact executive saloon to install a big V8 motor, a beefy gearbox, the exhausts and a central prop-shaft through to the back end, where sits a differential (limited-slip as an option) and driveshafts for the rear wheels. But the company, presumably on the sort of budget that would barely keep GM in sandwiches for a few weeks, has managed it. Has it been successful?
