His Lordship invites.....

Author: Martin Blum, October 2004

Report on the occasion of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Rover cars at Ragley Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire from 09. to 12.06.2004

The weather on July 9th was actually similar to all the days and weeks before, bad. I was just on the A4 in the direction of Aachen where I had an appointment with the Jagdfeld family in Alsdorf. There I would get to know the Rzepkowski family from Rostock, who had arrived the previous evening. While there had been a rather bad summer in the last few weeks, which had little sunshine, the rain, which is now starting to rain again, did not promise much good for our forthcoming trip to England. Around 8:45 am I was standing in the drizzle, in the meantime only in the drizzle, at hunting fields that were still early in the morning, in front of the door. After a last coffee together, during which I got to know Susi and Norbert Rzepkowski, I was ready to go.

Heinz Jadgdfeld had already filled up his "aunt", a 1960 Rover P4 100, built in 1960, and quickly loaded our luggage and the jackets and the ride began. Since I was used to driving P6 myself and knew the P4 only "from a distance", apart from a small ride as a co-driver at a meeting in Austria, I was of course curious how it would be with an "auntie" to cover such a long distance. The goal was Stratford-upon-Avon, located in the county of Warwickshire, in the middle of England and world-famous as William Shakespeare's birthplace and place of influence. For a car over 40 years old, this means a quite respectable distance of over 700 kilometres in one day!

None of the "aunts" have been left behind in order to anticipate it right away. Neither our two, nor the two other P4s belonging to Tobias Wehrstedt from Wolfenbü ttel, who travelled together with his daughter Nora, nor the car of Anni and Werner Mü ller from Oldenburg, which we were supposed to meet at the harbour of Calais. Tobias' brother-in-law, Carsten, was one of the participants, who took two early 20th century Imperial-Rover motorcycles in his VW bus and accompanied the P4-Pulk.

Arrived at the port of Calais, things didn't go on for a while. The ship had announced a delay of 30 minutes, but this was extended to 90 minutes. As it quickly turned out in Dover, there were problems with the opening of the joint, which had to be opened mechanically via a chain. After we finally got off in Dover, the trip, which had been free of disturbances until then, except for the ship, continued - this time on the left. We followed the signposting from Dover to Folkstone along the white chalk cliffs and hills via the coastal road towards the M25 motorway in direction to London. Heinz and the others quickly got used to the left-hand traffic, and everyone who had ever travelled in the UK by car had already gotten used to it. The convoy of four apparently old cars aroused the interest of other road users. Four Rover P4s in one fell swoop are not to be found in "Merry old England" these days, especially not with foreign license plates. While we had already noticed in Holland and Belgium that cars passing by were waving from children's cars and coaches almost always waving, culminating in the fact that the 4 passengers of a "Seventyfive" in Belgium waved loudly and blinkingly at us on the motorway, this was now seen on the M25 in the Stop and Go around Heathrow.

While in the traffic jam on the worlds largest city motorway ring (120 mls = 193 km) we were awed by the jets taking off from Europe's largest airport, Heathrow, which thundered across us every 6 seconds. The inhabitants of Europe's largest (main) city, accustomed to permanent traffic jams and aircraft congestion, paid their tribute to the undoubtedly larger collection of foreign Rover P4s. So this is also a record!

Especially young drivers were always seen again looking at the cars very carefully. Young people who don't even know these cars anymore, glanced out of the cars and stuck to the bonnet with the type sign and, due to the closed windows, spelled the name Rover silently. With older road users, spontaneous joy and recognition could be registered again and again. Youth memories! After all, "Auntie" had been very popular in the past. Heinz took note of it calmly and grinned.

After we had passed London, which took us about 3 hours, we drove on the M40 towards Oxford, northwards. We reached our destination Stratford around 8 pm via the Warwick exit and then following the main road. After we had moved into all our accommodations - I stayed with a local friend, the others in the "Moonraker Hotel". Lateron we met for a late drink in the "Red Lion", located directly on the Avon river to toast the successful arrival and the upcoming weekend.

Saturday morning we met to visit the British Heritage Museum Of Transport in Gaydon, about 15 kilometres from Stratford. Passing the "Red Lion" on the right hand side, we crossed the medieval Avon bridge using a winding country road to Gaydon. The four old cars were slouching uphill and downhill on a winding, hilly stretch of beach that runs through the lovely hills of the Midlands passing village after village to end at the museum after 30 minutes time. Arriving in front of the main building we found some english P4 on the parking lot. Obviously also Rover riders who wanted to go to Ragley Hall on Sunday for the 100th anniversary. In the museum itself we started with a visit to the shop, which offers an extensive range of products. Beginning with copies of construction drawings of numerous cars and brands such as Austin, Riley, Wolseley and also of "foreign brands" such as Ford, Aston Martin and Jaguar, including T-shirts, videos, mugs, vacuum cleaners, repair manuals and car models in 1/43rd scale, keychains, The newest model of Vanguards in scale 1:43 was the Rover SD 1 as black Vitesse EFI and as highway patrol car. There were also jubilee celebrations of the Rover P6 series in original MG-Rover packaging and much more. Here I finally became a suitable Austin keychain for my 1973 Allegro, which I also own.

Then we went to the car collection itself, which is located in the basement of the museum. When you walked clockwise, you first saw the cars from the beginnings of motorization and then slowly worked your way through to the present day. There were a number of rare cars like the Rover HP8 from 1904, which is still very carriage-like, over various Rover of the 20's, 30's like Rover 16/50 Coupe from 1927, 1929's Light Six Sportsman Saloon, 1912's Rover 12 HP Landaulette up to the cars of today like Rover 100 (Metro), Rover 600, 800 etc. But there are also other brands like Albion, Morris, Triumph, Wolseley, MG, Rolls Royce and since the museum is owned by the Ford-Motorcompany, of course there are also exhibits by Ford itself, like Anglia, Zephyr, Capri I and III, Zodiac as well as the "Ford" brands Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover.

Special highlights were Rover P6BS Sportcoupe, SD 1 Station Wagon, Queen's P5B Saloon, another P5B Saloon that served as a transport vehicle for various prime ministers, from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher, a special exhibition of MG high speed record vehicles and a Land Rover exhibition. All in all, there were cars from 100 years old to the "Seventyfive" and Jaguar XK8 that were built at the moment, and it took almost two hours to see the approximately 100 cars on display without spending a particularly long time at one of them, so that the visit was really worthwhile, especially as the exhibition changes regularly and with its 300 exhibits On the return trip along the same route as on the outward journey, the auntie could show what she was made of. The 100 hp from 2.6 litre displacement was required on the country road. Heinz shifted back into 3rd gear and used a sufficiently large gap to overtake two trucks directly behind each other. I was amazed, especially since P4 was inexperienced, how nimble this old, but so strenuously looking car moved past the trucks! Who would have thought? Auntie picked up her skirts and rushed!!!! Especially since I had experienced the P4 as a comfy travel companion up to this point of the journey, with whom it was possible to travel in great dignity and tranquillity with a handle. Heinz grinned happily in front of himself. I was beginning to understand why. His wife Inge Saes was also satisfied with the voluminous backdrop bank and supplied us with biscuits, tips and information about the route while the convoy once again slept in Stratford to take advantage of a free afternoon to visit the city and do some shopping. The weather had proved to be quite stable until then, and in between it was even very sunny. If this had been the hope for the next day, this hope would have been lost when the continental rain of Friday caught up with us in the early evening. We had arranged to meet at the market place at about 5:30 pm to have dinner in "The Old Thatch Tavern", a pub that has been present in the square for ages. After dinner we moved on to a small, cosy pub crawl at the "Beafeater", where we stayed until the last order. My friend Bill, who was also present and had joined us, then invited us to join him for a sparkling wine and music from his 70's Jukebox to his house, where we went to celebrate the 21st birthday of Florian, the son of Rzepkowskis. So the evening ended with a toast to the birthday child and "Happy Birthday" singing.

The next morning, Sunday, at 10 a. m. we finally reached the Hö hepunkt. The RSR (Rover Sports Register) had invited to celebrate 100 years of Rover automobiles on Sunday. The site of the event was to be Ragley Hall, an 18th-century manor house, with 7000 hectares of land and parkland, rose garden, maze and stables at the gates of Alcester, picturesquely embedded in a meadow-field landscape. It is inhabited by Lord and Lady Hertford together with their 3 children and lots of staff. This was undoubtedly a place worthy of the occasion. Upon arrival at the gate, members of the RSR welcomed the cars and classified them according to their model series and years of construction into the appropriate ranks. The cars slowly struggled their way up the huge driveway, through the sheep grazing in the park landscape on the left and right, uphill, to be greeted by the impressive manor house on the right-hand side, which sits enthroned above us, after approx. 2 kilometres. No less impressive were the already existing vehicles built in rows. The cars from all years of construction, starting with carriage-like vehicles such as the HP8 Two Seater from 1907, 1922 Rover Eight Flat Twin Coupe and numerous other vehicles, some of which were also made especially from Gaydon, continued to line up on the floor of the house, along with a large number of models from the 30s and 40s. We continued with a huge group of P4s, which were by far the largest group in the approximately 400 vehicles on show, a series of P5s in saloon and coupe form, both 6-cylinders and V8s, an armada of P6s in all variations, including the very rare V8-estates.

The modern cars had formed a double row, so that unfortunately only very few SD1 joined the group of 800s 1st and 2nd series, limousines and coupé s, various 200s 2nd and 3rd series as well as a row of 200 coupé s, mostly 220 turbos. Occasionally, "rarities"were to be admired, such as 400 tourers, a car that was strangely rarely available on the market in England, Rover 216 Vitesse (1st series) or Rover 820 Turbo and 620 Turbo. The 100s of the Metro series, neither sedan nor convertible nor GTIs, were not present at all. However, a few "survivors" from the British Leyland family, such as Morris Marina GT Coupe in dark blue/silver, or a Triumph Stag in brown, a Triumph Dolomite in green and others were present. A small collection of individual pieces, such as P4 Cabriolet or the also very rare Marauder Sport-Cabriolet, increased the exclusivity of the event considerably, so that you can sit on the blankets with even more fun between the cars to have a picnic. Very British, indeed!

The top of the exhibition field was formed by a series of MG-Rover new cars presented at a stand of the manufacturer. So one finally came to the sight in person and also to test seats in the new city car, the Cityrover, which is built in India. Also the latest versions of "Twentyfive", "Fortyfive" and "Seventyfive", just recently renovated, were present. The Streetwise, which is based on the "Twentyfive" and is supposed to be a kind of "survival car" for big cities with ambitions for excursions along forest and field paths. The loss of Land Rover with its 4x4 vehicles after the destruction of Rover Group plc by BMW in 2000 is not so easy to make up for. MG-Rover had consciously refrained from presenting MG Sport-Versions of the limousines (ZR, ZS, ZT) and the sports car MG TF. Finally, all attention should be on Rover himself, which was good. The future strength of the Rover fleet could not escape the undivided attention of the visitors. The new Rover ("Seventyfive"??) V8! You read right. In the near future, after a break of more than 18 years, there will be another 8-cylinder sedan under the name of Rover. This is based on the "Seventyfive", but underneath the sheet metal the 4.6 litre Ford V8, already known from the announced MG ZT, is used. In addition, the V8 version is equipped with a rear-wheel-designed base platform, so that the 260 hp can also be driven on the road.

The objective should therefore be clear. Back to the powerful, fast touring saloon with classic rear-wheel drive a la Rover P5B, P6B or SD1, the huge air intake in the bumper was striking, reminiscent of the latest generation Audi with the revamped grill. It will have to be measured with exactly this, the A6 as well as with the 5-series or large Volvo, Alfa and the S-Type from Jaguar. Whether the only V8 "bathed" car without the name "Seventyfive" will be launched on the market, however, was not known. Logically conceivable and logical, albeit purely speculative, would be the revival of the traditional name Vitesse, since the Vanden Plas also, at least in the UK, celebrated a funny resurrection already in 2002 when the chauffeur lime extended by 40 cm. Also here the type designation was omitted! It is unclear whether, as already announced for the MG ZT V8, a 360 hp Rover version will be released later.

Hope that Rover’ s plans to return to the market of "large" limousines will be successful and fuel prices in the next few years won’ t thwart this. The car certainly has great potential and could push the "Seventyfive" as well as push the brand as a whole. Let's wait and have tea! Exactly this was exactly what we had after the visit of the manor house in our own garden café with a view into the park, before the celebration reached its peak.

A Concours d' Elegance was held, where the cars to be awarded were selected beforehand and then presented with the award. This was, of course, not to be taken by the landlord himself, Lord Hertford, and he held the awards ceremony and presentation of the prizes himself, before he moved away from the golf-caddy after having done his work with his hunting dogs and the hunting warden.

After the event, at which Harald Brombas from Kö ln, with his wife, joined us in the arms of his club mate Harald Brombas, who finally found the appropriate contacts and connections there to push ahead with the restoration of his 1936 Rover P2, came to an end at around 6 p. m., we let the evening end after a joint photo session of the P4 group with a champagne reception in front of Bill's house and a last dinner at the "Red Lion".

Monday morning around 6 o' clock we went to Dover again and after a brisk canal crossing with the same technical problems of the ship as on the way there was one last coffee at a Belgian resting place, to which Heinz Jagdfeld had invited us. It was his birthday. After that, the now only three "aunts"separated, Mü llers had stayed in England, as they wanted to go further to Ireland to visit friends, and then head west (Aachen) we, north (Wolfenbüü ttel) Wehrstedts and east (Rostock) Rzepkowskis.

When I climbed my Rover 214 SEI in Aachen at about 7 pm to continue my journey to Kö ln, I caught myself looking into the mirror. I grinned!