New Rovers may come to N.Z.

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 8

New Rovers may come to N.Z.

MOTORING

Two new Rovers, the Rover 2300 and Rover 2600, were launched by British Leyland at the “Motorfair” at London’s Earls Court exhibition centre. They are initially for the British home market, but they might be seen in New Zealand in a vear or two.

The new models replace t ne Rover 2200. They have the same body styling as the Rover 3500 SDI, launched last year in Britain

They are both powered by a new Leyland sixcylinder engine and do not inherit either the fourcylinder motor of the Rover 2200 or the six-cyl-inder engine of the present big Triumph range.

The Rover 2300 is powered by a six-cylinder inline engine of 2350 cu. cm •.nd the Rover 2600 has a similar engine of 2597 cu. cm capacity. Features include an alu-

minium alloy cylinder bead, overhead camshaft and twin carburettors. A Leyland engineering spokesman said: “The six cylinder configuration of the engines for the new Rovers ensures smooth and refined performance motoring — a marked advantage for the Rovers over some four and five cylinder competitors.”

A spokesman for the I New Zealand Motor Cori poration said the corporat- ! ion was already evaluating I the new Rovers’ “big I brother.” the VB-engined ’ Rover 3500, for possible I assembly in New Zealand. The corporation also hope to evaluate the 2300 and 2600, but it was too early to say when Leyland's Rover/Triumph division could export the ■ first of. these models to | New Zealand. j The Rover 2600 shares i Leyland’s new five-speed ! gearbox with the 3500 ] SDI. The Rover 2300 has I a four-speed version of 1 the same gearbox.

The only externa) features that distinguish the new\Rovers from the SDI are the rear badges and the wheel trims. Many of the internal appointments of the new Rovers have been drawn from the interior design and layout of the Rover 3500, which won the 1976 European Car of the Year award and has been awarded the British A.A. Gold Medal, as well as winning safety and styling awards. The engine of the Rover 2300 develops 123 b.h.p. at 5000 r.pm. — 25 b.h.p. higher than the four-cylin-der engine of the previous generation' Rover 2200. The Rover 2600’s engine develops 136 b.h.p. 5000 r.p.m.

A Leyland engineering spokesman said that the efficiency of the engines was demonstrated by the specific fuel consumption curves. Both engines returned under half a pint per “brake horsepower hour” in the commonly used 3000-4000 r.p.m. per-

rormance band. The two new overhead camshaft. straight-six engines continue the new Rover theme of economical high performance from the simplest and most reliable possible design. The engines, rationalised

so that only the crankshafts and pistons vary between the two capacities, feature die cast aluminium cross-flow cylinder heads with inclined valves operated by a Triumph Dolomite Sprinttype cam and rocker arrangements?