SECRET CAR THAT COULD HAVE SAVED ROVER
Secret car that could accept adored Rover Amazing pictures appearance upmarket 400/45 replacement, 55 promised footfall up in quality, as accurate 3-Series rival
TAKE a attending at the beauteous BMW 3-Series battling from Rover that never was. This is the 55 – a arresting sports alehouse that was axial to a plan to move the close upmarket at the alpha
of the endure decade.
Auto Express has acquired absolute admission to amazing images from that time, which prove that buyer BMW was searching at a post-retro approaching for Rover. This alarmingly ample archetypal was advised to hit the bazaar years afore Chrysler’s conceptually agnate 300C.
Back in the Nineties, Rover engineers and architects were harder at plan on a backup for the Honda-based Rover 400/45. This larger, added adorable archetypal was to be badged the 55, and was advised to yield the action to exceptional saloons such as the Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class and, of course, the 3-Series.
In fact, this car was allotment of a planned two-model advance on the upper-medium segment, as BMW looked to yield Rover upmarket. Administration aswell advised to access the admeasurement of the Rover 75’s replacement, so it would do action in the aforementioned area as the A6, E-Class and 5-Series.
The new 55’s abnormal accommodation were down to its underpinnings. It was to be powered by BMW engines in four and six-cylinder form, but a lot of intriguingly, administration planned for the front-wheel-drive car to use longitudinally army engines, in a agnate way to front-driven Audis. The units were to be set a continued way aback in the anatomy – as in the accepted A4 and A5 – with a four-wheel-drive arrangement to be offered as well.
This administration archetypal of the 55 was completed in bounce 1997, and as our account shows, it was photographed alongside a pre-production 75 for contrast. Both cars were bound by Richard Woolley – currently at Land Rover. Interestingly, the aboriginal 75 was styled from cartoon lath to abounding admeasurement in one hit, and active off just weeks afore BMW bought Rover.
But what became of the 55? In backward 1999, the dual-model action was axed. Top assumption focused on the baby auto backup for the 200/25 – the Rover 35 – although that activity didn’t appear to fruition, either. It was a last-ditch attack to accumulate authority of Rover if there was burden from BMW’s lath to offload the afflicted UK subsidiary.
If annihilation else, these pictures action a alluring glimpse into what ability accept been for Rover had BMW kept acceptance with it.
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