Was there anything else?
12/26/2022
Rover took over the Alvis brand in 1965 and this actually sealed the end of this once famous British manufacturer. Not quite, however, because it could well have been that another sports car would have been launched under the Alvis brand at the end of the 1960s. The car was actually almost finished.
The car was developed by Rover man Spencer King together with Gordon Bashford and a whole series of Alvis developers. They had had some experience with the Rover-BRM gas turbine vehicle and in the meantime also had their own V8 engine (ex Buick) in-house.
So the sports car enthusiasts began developing the Rover-Alvis BS in 1967. The V8 engine was installed longitudinally in front of the rear axle, with the gearbox in front. Thanks to the special installation method of the engine-transmission unit, an emergency seat could even be placed to the left of the engine.
The 2+1-seater weighed just over 1060 kg and had independent suspension with wishbones at the front and a DeDion axle at the rear.
As the Rover designers did not have time for designs, these were created in the engineering department under the leadership of Spencer King.
The first test drives were not without their problems: the handling proved to be quite lively, and the perfect suspension setting in terms of comfort had not yet been found. But the concept had potential, at that time there were not too many production sports cars with a mid-engine and the price of the mid-engine coupé would not have been much more expensive than the Rover 2000 TC. And we know that the engine still had a lot of potential for increasing performance, at least since it was good for well over 300 hp as a five-liter in the TVR Griffith.
But things did not turn out as hoped. With the integration of Rover into the British Leyland Group, the project died. There were other problems.
Nevertheless, the one-off was shown again as the Rover P6 BS Coupé Sport at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1978 as part of a special prototype show(AR issue 9/1978).
