Rovers return ‘The first car jointly built from scratch with Honda’
R8 anniversary marked in high style
The 30th anniversary of one of the most important British cars ever made was celebrated in style with a re-run of the original press launch, exactly three decades from the day it was driven by international media for the first time.
In an event organised by the Rover 200 and 400 Owners Club, former Rover Group Product Communications Director Denis Chick and former Press Officer Kevin Jones played hosts at Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa near Chippenham, where the original R8 press launch took place in October 1989.
To recreate the original launch, the 200/400 Club arranged the four launch derivatives of the R8 – 214Si, 214SLI, 214GSI and 216GSI – on the hotel drive, just as they were in 1989. Among them was G79 XKV, the very first R8 off the line, now owned by club committee member Jeremy Howson. The car was fully restored last year after Jeremy saved it from being scrapped.
Speaking at the event, Denis Chick said: ‘I remember this launch like it was yesterday, so this was an amazing trip down memory lane. The R8 was such an important car for Rover – it was the first jointly developed from scratch with Honda, unlike the 800, which was more of a compromise. It was a model that needed to take us in an entirely new direction and its significance was huge.
‘It was the best car we’d made for years, probably since the P6, and the media reception was excellent. We were here for four weeks, with journalists from all over the world, including the Italians on the last day as they had a reputation for smashing up the cars!’
After watching the original R8 TV advert to the soundtrack of
Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, the guests sat through the original Rover product presentation, before heading out on the very same test route through the Cotswolds as the media did in 1989. Several national journalists attended the re-run, including the Daily Telegraph and – of course – Practical Classics.