Rover Reunion

Dirk Burrowes has been involved with Rovers for some 30 years, and he has about that many cars to show for it. Since 2003, he's been seriously into collecting and restoring, and reaching out to other enthusiasts of the the "Poor Man's Rolls" in order to share knowledge and build camaraderie. Each year he holds a RoveAmerica event at his business in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, attracting some 25 Rovers from within driving distance. I learned about his year's gathering, held June 12th-14th, from Rover owner Dave LaChance, and as a lapsed Roverist myself I thought I'd look in.

It wasn't hard to find. Dirk had a Rover P4 "Cyclops" model acting as a beacon for incoming Rovers. There were about 15 cars on hand when I arrived at 9:00 AM, and more kept arriving throughout the morning. Many were from Dirk's own collection, including a freshly restored 1949 P3 saloon (Rover styles are known by their "P-numbers": P is for postwar, and P3 is the third postwar design). Dirk's other cars include a V8-powered 1970 P5B coupe (Mercedes did not invent the four-door coupe, regardless of what the ads say), and a 1968 P6 2000TC. Very rare is his P6B estate wagon, a conversion by FLM Panelcraft. "B" stands for "Buick" since Rover's aluminum V8 began life as a Buick engine. Dirk's more recent Rovers include a Sterling 827, the latter a Honda design built in Japan as the Acura Legend and in England as the Rover 827.

Dirk's prewar Rovers are a jaunty little 1926 Rover 9, a 1079 cc four rated at nine RAC horsepower, a 1929 six-cylinder Rover 16 with Weymann fabric body, and a 1933 Meteor, another six-cylinder car with steel body. He has just a single Land Rover.

Visiting Rovers included a P4-90, a 2.6 liter six, several SD-1s, this one driven from Virginia, and Lloyd LeGrow with his P5 from southern Ontario. Andre Shay's P6B is a daily-driven test bed, currently running a Holley four-barrel carb in place of the original twin SUs. I've known Andre for ten years, since he took some of my Rover remnants during our clear-out. Only one car arrived on a trailer, Dave Champion's SD-1 Vitesse, a gray-market import from Holland with the twin-plenum fuel injected engine never sold here. Most cars, though, were P6 2000TCs, the twin carb version, although there was one 2000SC single carburetor car, also from Dirk's collection.

This was no car show, no prizes, no trophies. Tools were in evidence as some owners took advantage of Dirk's enormous stockpile to install some missing parts. Others gathered round for a demo on rebuilding Lockheed remote brake boosters, and all admired Dirk's Rover storage system, which makes them easy to service and preserves them better than the surrounding woods.

Non-Rovers were given exhibit space, as long as they were English. This Lotus Elite attended and Dirk's wife Donna showed off her nifty frog-eye Sprite.

Dave LaChance was the last to arrive, the shakedown for his car's maiden voyage having taken longer than expected. The day was scheduled to end with a lakeside barbeque, but Dave had experienced generator trouble, so all the menfolk gathered around. Sick cars are more important than barbeques, so out came the tools and instruments, which quickly determined the generator itself was at fault. A spare was found, mounted and wired and soon Dave was on the road again. It was my pleasure to present Dave with a can of correct OEM April Yellow touch-up paint, an artifact that's been on my shelf for 30 years.

Check out Dirk's RoverAmerica website for more information on RoveAmerica and his awesome collection.