Rover 16 P2 1946 - World Of Classic Cars -

Rover 16 P2 1946

The first Rover was a tricycle manufactured by Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry, England in 1883. The company developed and produced the Rover Imperial motorcycle in November 1902, it was a 3.5hp diamond-framed motorcycle with the engine in the centre and 'springer' front forks which was ahead of its time. Three years after Starley's death in 1901 and H. J. Lawson's subsequent takeover, the Rover company began producing cars with the two-seater Rover Eight engine to the designs of Edmund Lewis who came from Daimler. Lewis left the company to join Deasy in late 1905 and was eventually replaced by Owen Clegg who joined from Wolseley in 1910 and set about reforming the product range. The business was not very successful during the 1920s and did not pay a dividend from 1923 until the mid 1930s. After the Second World War, Solihull became the new factory for vehicles with production resuming in 1947 with the three pre-war models, the 12, 14 and 16 models. The Rover 16 saloon returned to production almost unchanged after the war although the cabriolet version was no longer listed. The car, with its mildly streamlined form, resembled the existing Rover 10 and the Rover 12 but was slightly longer and featured a more rounded back end. The six-cylinder ohv engine had a capacity of 2,147cc and a top speed of 77mph was claimed. The Rover 14 saloon combined the same body with the Rover 16 but used a 1,901cc six-cylinder engine from 1938.