Jaba wrote:This reminds me that Roverman's first passion was not the BX. The SD1 was a great car at the time I thought although I could only afford a Maxi which I thought was a pretty good car apart from very poor gearbox reliability.
My Maxi was Ziebart treated when new but it still rusted away. I put a twin carb conversion on it to get a bit more performance from a rather gutless 1750 engine.
I thought the Maxi concept and some of the execution fairly good for the time. Unfortunately classic British underinvestment and not enough prototype testing let it down. The only thing like it was the Renault 16. I think in many ways the BX was/is a sucessor to that design concept. Regrettably there are few moderns quite there as the crash regs seem to have forced all manufacturers to narrow significantly the rear hatch opening in particular. Perhaps fully composite bodies will get more strength and collision absorbtion and allow a return to these eminently practical types of vehicle.
Note the Maxi had massive boot space wit seats folded, and Hydrogas suspension. It was even fairly comfortable...a good friend of mine had one and used it for transporting loads of plants and garden stuff. Fortunately it was the 1750, but of course the planned new engines(s) had been binned by the accountants....
Now just imagine dropping a couple of bulbs into that dash Tim! needle and haystack come to mind...
feeling rather deflated about the Athena, one reason why I bought it was that the interior was complete and in good order, which now isn't, so with that in mind if I cant find the correct seats I will break it for parts before Barry starts any major work as an Athena with TX seats isn't an Athena.
Those Rovers were/are good looking cars especially for the day. Pity BL management never put enough investment into the model to really make it world class...
My Cars: 1999 Xsara LX 2.0HDI (90) Hatch - Fern 2002 C5 2.0 HDI (110) Estate - Jasmine - SORN 2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD 2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement 1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - SORN 1992 TZD Turbo Estate - SORN 1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired - SORN 1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped 2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car 1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014 1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN 1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN
Did you ever manage to get your dad's xantia to run properly?
2002 C5 2.0 HDI Estate - Jasmine - Now SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - My daily
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired.
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN