Iron Lady’s rusty day at helm of Midland engine
WHEN Margaret Thatcher hopped behind the steering wheel of a new Rover 800, panicking Downing Street officials held their breath and muttered a few prayers.
It was the summer of 1986 and the test drive involving the plush new Birmingham-built Rover was taking place out No 10. The reason for their concern? Mrs Thatcher hadn’t driven for years.
Negotiations over her test drive have been revealed in private papers released by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation at the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge.
Government mandarins were determined the launch would be a success.
As such they had insisted on a blue car – for previously Thatcher had been supplied with an Austin Metro in the very politically incorrect shade of red.
But much depended now on the Prime Minister’s rusty driving skills.
Chris Collins, of the Thatcher Foundation, said: “She hadn’t driven for years. I wouldn’t have thought since 1975.
“Cars had become a policy issue. There was this dark fear that she would crash into something, that it would all go horribly wrong.”
Downing Street duly arranged a private practice session for her with the new Rover at Chequers a few days earlier, and also gave her a number of options for her public test drive.
One was to drive from No 10 with husband Denis in the front and Rover Group chairman Graham Day in the back, proceed towards Whitehall, reverse, turn and drive back to the front door.
The other was simply to drive from one end of Downing Street to the other. In the event, she did neither.
As officials watched with bated breath, she drove up to the end of Downing Street and then reversed all the way back to No 10 – without mishap.
It is unclear whether Rover officials were aware of the anxiety of No 10 staff, but either way it won the company worldwide publicity.