I managed to acquire this car, an absolute favourite of mine (it was !), back in 1971 for $1300.00. I spotted the car, initially in all white livery, somewhere at Artarmon from a carpenter by the name of J. K. Culpan. I still have the original agreement of sale. I just had to have the car - it was one of seven Rover Coupes imported to this country by Grenville Motors Ltd., with beautiful showrooms in William Street, whilst the Service Department was located in Rushcutters Bay.
The car was not in particularly brilliant condition, with a slightly tappetty engine probably due to worn valve trains that weren't easily replaced, particularly the exhaust units located at the side of the engine - note famous Rover overhead inlet and side exhaust engines. Quite unique. I have spoken about this car, or should we say written about, in times gone by. Despit its less than brilliant mechanical condition, I could still pull an average of sixty miles an hour, I said average, on a midnight trip, on rain affected roads, and achieve twenty five miles per gallon. In those days, no Mooney Mooney bridge, most travel on the old Pacific Highway, still going through Telegraph Point and its Railway Crossing, and many forest sections with curves at 45km/h, 55 km/h and so on. Anyway, eventually I decided to retire the car, and parked in my paddock not far from the house when I had seven acres at Glenorie.
Sadly, as can be seen, the car deteriorated over time, but the body stood up well. Most of the time it was under Army Tarpaulins, but the wind often would blow just clean them straight off. As can be seen, I already had a penchant for two tone paint work even in those days and nothing has changed since then. That car, after extensive restoration work (not yet finished !) is now in my shed at Glenorie, having been painted in Rover Admiralty Blue (dark blue), with a light blue coloured roof adorned by a Webasto sliding sunroof. That alone cost two thousand dollars probably in 1996 or thereabouts. Anyway, here are some pics that I dug up.
Regards Styria
The car was not in particularly brilliant condition, with a slightly tappetty engine probably due to worn valve trains that weren't easily replaced, particularly the exhaust units located at the side of the engine - note famous Rover overhead inlet and side exhaust engines. Quite unique. I have spoken about this car, or should we say written about, in times gone by. Despit its less than brilliant mechanical condition, I could still pull an average of sixty miles an hour, I said average, on a midnight trip, on rain affected roads, and achieve twenty five miles per gallon. In those days, no Mooney Mooney bridge, most travel on the old Pacific Highway, still going through Telegraph Point and its Railway Crossing, and many forest sections with curves at 45km/h, 55 km/h and so on. Anyway, eventually I decided to retire the car, and parked in my paddock not far from the house when I had seven acres at Glenorie.
Sadly, as can be seen, the car deteriorated over time, but the body stood up well. Most of the time it was under Army Tarpaulins, but the wind often would blow just clean them straight off. As can be seen, I already had a penchant for two tone paint work even in those days and nothing has changed since then. That car, after extensive restoration work (not yet finished !) is now in my shed at Glenorie, having been painted in Rover Admiralty Blue (dark blue), with a light blue coloured roof adorned by a Webasto sliding sunroof. That alone cost two thousand dollars probably in 1996 or thereabouts. Anyway, here are some pics that I dug up.
Regards Styria
