The youngest car in the collection
Last time I talked about my 1958 Hillman Minx, which is the oldest car in my collection and which some of you may well have seen in the metal at last November’s NEC Classic Car Show. Minxy wasn’t, however, my only car there. Also in Hall 5, and just a few stands away, my Rover 827 Coupé was on the Rover 600800 Club’s stand.
K883 CSX was first registered in October 1992; so yes, when I bought the oldest car in my collection in 1991, this car – the youngest one – was still a year off being made! It’s not the oldest survivor, but it is an early Coupé; someone who knows much more about this sort of thing than me did once tell me it was about number 200 off the production line. It has, of course, got the Honda 2.7 engine. Some will undoubtedly disagree, but for me the Honda engine was a definite plus point, not least because I’ve seen first-hand what changing Rover KV6 timing belts involves, and how straightforward the Honda is by comparison.
Anyway, my car was bought new by a recently retired Edinburgh secondary school headmaster. It had one moment of fame early on; the headmaster was, apparently, one of the very first people to invest in the Channel Tunnel, and as part-payback, he and the Rover were on the very first car-carrying train through to France on 6th May 1994.
Seventeen years later in 2011, the car passed to his son, and I bought it from him a year later, via ebay. Back then Rover 800 values were at rock bottom, and despite the car being in excellent overall condition and having covered just 39,000 miles from new, I bagged it for £1041. But why did I want one? At that time I was editor of another classic car magazine, and for a few weeks a chap who worked for a sister publication as Consumer Editor lodged with me. Mark turned up with a J-registered 827 Coupé test car from Rover, and he and I then drove it extensively for a fortnight.
We both liked the car, but considered the c£33,000 retail price tag excessive, and my comment – which I believe may have gone into print – was that I would buy one after the expected rapid depreciation had made the price more realistic. And that, basically, is what I did.
Eleven years on from its arrival, the Rover 827 has still done only 48,000 miles and remains in substantially original condition. It is taxed only in the summer and isn’t used daily, but equally it isn’t a show-only car. Rather, I'd describe it as ‘semi preserved,’ and as well as a hobby car which I fully intend to keep forever, it serves as a spare family car in summer and is used if one of our dailies should ‘fail to proceed’ for some reason.
And just three weeks before November's NEC show, that’s exactly what happened. My daughter wanted to attend an open day at the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, and the plan was to drive down on the Friday and stay locally before going to the college on the Saturday. We were then going to head for Swansea and spend a couple of days with a schoolfriend of mine. However, when I came to give the normally-reliable Kia Sorento which serves as the family truck a pre-trip level check, a fairly significant snag was apparent. The coolant bottle was empty, and further investigation revealed that the radiator bottom tank had split. There was no way it could go, but it was good that I had found it now rather than 50 miles down the road.
So it was Rover to the rescue! My daily driver is a Volvo C70 convertible, and there was no way that would swallow two adults, two teenagers and luggage which had been selected and packed in anticipation of Sorento space being available. The Rover’s boot, however, swallowed the whole lot apart from one bag, which instead formed a very useful back-seat brother/ sister border fence. Meanwhile while Sarah and the kids were loading up, I checked the Rover’s levels and tyre pressures before we set off.
Over the next four days the 827 covered just over 1000 miles without missing a single beat; I’ll admit that
I was a tad nervous at first, but as the miles added, so did confidence. It really is a supremely competent and comfortable motorway milemuncher; the seats are, I think, the best on any of my cars, and I’ve got two Volvos... There were, of course, a few moans from the back seats, but these were mostly of the ‘why can’t I charge my X or play my Y in here?’ variety, and soon stopped.
Anyway, all went well, Katie loved Cardiff University, and we had a good long weekend driving around the South Wales valleys before heading for home. What’s more, the Rover feels better and more responsive for having had a blast out.
Next time, I’ll tell you about my other green Rover.