New Engine Included! 1968 Rover 2000tc
In the 1960s, most of the products sold as Rovers in the U.S. were off-road vehicles. But British Leyland also built automobiles, including the Rover 2000tc. Several variations of the 2000 were produced between 1963 and 1973, with the designation coming from the engine size (2.0 liters). This 1968 example looks to have been stored for years and has been waiting for a new engine to be installed (included). The auto was listed here on Facebook Marketplace from Housatonic, Massachusetts, but that was a year ago, so it may have already sold, and the seller forgot to take down the listing. The car and its parts were offered then at $3,200. Thanks for the cool tip, Bill Cawley.
The all-new Rover P6 Series was marketed as the 2000, 2200, or 3500 depending on engine displacement with the latter being the only one as a V8. It was sold only as a 4-door sedan and was the first winner of the European Car of the Year Award. Key advancements that the cars included were a tube suspension and disc brakes on all four wheels. While more than 200,000 of the vehicles were assembled, only a small number made it to the U.S. In an attempt to rectify that, BC came up with the Rover 2000tc which was built to the standards applied to U.S.-built cars at the time.
This Rover is presented as a “nice project car” that has a minimal amount of rust. Corrosion would exclude the hood, top, and trunk lid as they were all made out of aluminum. What we can see of the body and yellow paint look okay, but closer inspection would be required to validate. The brown interior may be okay, but the same scrutiny would apply there, as well.
The engine is said to be brand new and is waiting to be installed in the Rover. In addition, the seller is including several bins of spare parts, some of which may be NOS. The car even comes with an ice alert system, which wouldn’t be of interest to buyers from the Southern states. If this project car is still available, would you take the plunge?
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Comments
To quote that 80’s band, A Flock of Seagulls: “And I ran. I ran so far away…”
But that’s just me.
scary non of the openings in the new engine are plugged, what is to keep garbage from getting inside it? I’m with Big C I want to run.
I had one of these – same model and year in BRG with a brown leather interior. I bought it new from Palotti & Poole in Hartford, CT and put just under 60K miles on it during the 18 months that I owned it (lots of Hartford to UCONN and Boston trips). Near the end I was beginning to have a transmission issue with it, wouldn’t go into gear, and Rover had actually issued a recall to correct the issue – but, other than that, it was a great car. Handled well, very comfortable and quite quick for the time.
Late one summer night I hit a right hander on a back road in Glastonbury, CT going much faster than I should have been going and the car ended up on it’s roof in the middle of the road. I was unhurt and the only real damage to the car was the top and the front of the hood, but the insurance company (Liberty Mutual) didn’t want to mess with it, so they totaled the car. They rented me a VW bug and spent about 6 weeks trying to determine what to pay me for the car. It wasn’t in their book and they finally took the value from a used one that Pallotti had in stock (I had gotten to know the owner and I knew that the car was one that he had ordered for his wife – it had an automatic, A/C and every other option that it was possible to put on one of those). Bottom line – I paid $5200 for the car and they paid me $4800 – so I got 60K miles for about $400 – best automotive value I ever got!
Poor old British Leyland can’t get any respect despite having on occassion produced some fairly okay cars. I lived in England in the British Leyland days, and we enjoyed their cars. They had a lot of personality.