Rover test plans put worried Thatcher aides into overdrive

WHEN Margaret Thatcher was approached to test drive a new Rover, her aides agreed it would be a good thing for the prime minister to be seen promoting a British car.

There was just one concern – her lack of ability behind the wheel.

In fact, senior staff appeared to be so worried Thatcher might crash during the publicity stunt in 1986 that they organised for the vehicle to be smuggled to Chequers so she could practise.

They were also haunted by the memory of a red car being delivered to London’s Downing Street, matching the opposition’s colour instead of the Conservative Party’s blue, newly uncovered documents show.

The private papers, to be released today by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust at the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge, show that the British prime minister’s agreement to test drive the flagship vehicle for Rover’s 800 series caused a stir.

A number of letters were sent between staff as early as three months before the event as they discussed the best way to avoid undignified slip-ups. Their first battle was over the colour of the car. It was also decided that to ensure Thatcher’s performance for the cameras went off without a hitch, the car would be taken to her country house retreat the week before so she could practise.

Plans were put in place to ensure the press did not discover what was going on and members of the public did not see the car.

On July 4, the details were revealed in a note to Thatcher from private secretary Mark Addison.

“You are trying out the Rover 800 tomorrow at Chequers between 10.00 and 10.30 to familiarise yourself with the car before the test drive in front of the cameras in Downing Street next Thursday,” he told her.

After the test, Addison wrote to Thatcher to discuss what she was going to do in front of the cameras. One “simple” option, he said, would be to “walk down to the car at the bottom of Downing Street and drive it back to the front door”. But Thatcher insisted she wanted to drive the car from the front door, before reversing up a side street and returning.

“You would need to feel fully confident about manoeuvring the car into the side road and back out again,” Addison warned.

Margaret Thatcher Foundation historian Chris Collins said aides may have had a dark fear that it would all go horribly wrong. Part of the problem was that, not needing to drive in her position, she was no longer familiar with “the machine”.

Despite fears, the stunt went well and the prime minister later wrote to Rover group chairman Graham Day to say she had “very much enjoyed” driving such a “splendid” car.