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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 07/15/2016 at 18:21 • Filed to: Rover, Roverdrive

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Tonight sees us exploring the last unusual means of changing gear from Britain that I can think of just now, the Roverdrive. No, not the current !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which is from Canada. The Roverdrive.

We can just see the lever here, behind the wheel and to the left.

We also notice the large brake pedal complete with moulded R and the absence of a clutch (the button roughly where a clutch would go dips the lights).

We further note the huge radio speaker, showing that this was a Posh Car with a wireless set, heater controls, by no means a given then, and the umbrella shaped handbrake to the right.

Roverdrive was only fitted to one model, the 105R, of which about 3,500 were made from 1956 to 1958. It consisted of a torque converter, two speed manually operated gearbox, electrically operated clutch (by a button on the gear knob) and an automatic overdrive unit acting on second gear only. Usually you kept it in second gear, marked Drive, and relied on the overdrive to provide a two speed automatic. In case of necessity you could use Emergency Low, or first as I’d call it. Not the most efficient unit as you might imagine: the manual 105S would do just over 100 mph with its 2.6l, 108 bhp engine whereas the 105R managed only 94 and dragged itself to 60 in 23 seconds. It managed about 24 mpg (20 mpUSg) which I suppose isn’t as dire as one might have expected.

Subsequent Rovers used the Borg Warner 35 and 65 because after BW opened a factory in the UK in 1963 the box could be bought without import duty (this was before Brentry, let alone Brexit) and was competitive with locally designed alternatives.

Jonee > Cé hé sin 07/15/2016 at 20:18

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Interesting. I can imagine how sluggish it must have been. I had a Mazda R360 with a semi-automatic two speed with the same button on the shifter, but no automatic overdrive. It really took its time, that car. Cute as a button, though.