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.

Beauty Contest

The French have a name for it: concours d'elegance. Loosely translated it means beauty contest, a competition of elegance. This contrasts with most old car shows,which are concours e'tat, contests of condition or state. In true concours d'elegance judging, cars are judged on their overall appearance, condition being one of several contributing factors. And so it is with Connecticut's Greenwich Concours d'Elegance.

Last weekend was the fourteenth annual concours at Greenwich, founded and run by Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom. It's a two-day event, Saturday devoted to American antique and classic cars, Sunday designated Concours International, featuring sports, touring and competition cars from Europe and beyond.

Saturday's field included such notables as a 1912 Speedwell formerly owned by the late renowned tenor and car collector James Melton; two Detroit Electric cars, 1914 and 1918; a gorgeous 1934 Packard LeBaron phaeton owned by Greenwich collector Malcolm Pray; a 1930 L29 Cord with Murphy body designed by Frank Hershey and a rare Marmon Roosevelt, named after our 26th President. Less exotic but equally as interesting were Model T and Model A Fords, a 1939 Ford Standard station wagon, and a 1939 "Spirit of Motion" supercharged Graham in the seldom-seen coupe body style. These gents won Best Combination of Car and Costume, along with Michael Krieger's Pierce-Arrow coupe, and Mr. Wennerstrom gave his Chairman's Award to this 1931 Duesenberg J convertible victoria. At the other end of the time scale were a mint 1973 AMC Matador and a newly-collectible 1984 Cadillac Seville. Selected Best of Show was a 1932 Auburn V-12 boat-tail speedster owned by Joseph and Margie Cassini; Malcolm Pray's 1954 Kaiser Darrin was voted People's Choice.

The international auction house Bonhams held a sale of motor cars and memorabilia on Sunday, offering such treasures as the 1922 GN racer "Akela" once owned by Ron Godfrey, a rare Allard K3, and a 1913 Hudson Mile-a-Minute speedster.

Centerpiece of the concours both days was the innovative Terrafugia flying car (actually a "roadable airplane"), a revival of a concept that many inventors tested after World War II. A notable Concours sponsor was Tesla Motors, makers of the high performance Tesla sports car.

Sunday's show included such European thoroughbreds as a Rolls-Royce Phantom II drophead coupe by Barker, MG J1, Triumph Gloria Southern Cross, Sunbeam Alpine and a circle full of Ferraris. An unusual entrant was the 1937 Volvo PV52 owned by Bob and Linda Pellerin; nearly as remarkable was the Israeli-built 1962 Sabra sports car. Michael Schudroff's 1962 Dual-Ghia is an Italian-American grand tourer; Lance and Melissa Levethan's Fiat 500 Jolly was judged "Most Fun." A portent of the future was a Fiat Cinquecento, soon to come to these shores but perhaps not as an Abarth version.

This year is the centenary of the Morgan Motor Company, so Morgan was featured marque, with entrants as varied as 1928 Aero and 1948 F4 trikes, and four-wheelers of "flat radiator," cowled-radiator Triumph-engined Plus Four and Rover-engined Plus Eight models.

Sunday also saw a rich complement of European motorcycles on show. The weather for both days was excellent, just warm enough that ice cream from an authentic Good Humor truck was a real treat.

Grand Marshal Don Peterson, Chief Judge David E. Davis, Jr., and Deputy Chief Judge Jed Rapoport delivered drive-by commentary as the awards were announced. The Competition Class was won by Brock Yates' 1956 Novi Indy roadster. People's Choice went to John Rich's 1914 Renault EF Victoria, while Best of Show was awarded to Ed and Carroll Windfelder for their 1948 Delahaye M135.

The Greenwich Concours d'Elegance benefits Americares, the international relief organization. Next year's Concours will be held June 5th and 6th, 2010.

General Decline

General Motors declared bankruptcy this week, and with the filing came news of all the franchise terminations. This was the other shoe dropping, for we'd already seen the list of ex-Chrysler dealers. As I expected, our closest Chrysler-Jeep store, a fairly small operation, was on the hit list - it wasn't all that long ago that they moved up to Chrysler from Peugeot. The Falvey family, who own the dealership, are not terribly bothered since they own another all-line Mopar operation in Norwich, about 15 miles away. But New London, Connecticut's M.J. Sullivan, a full-line GM dealer selling all makes but GMC and Hummer, seemed a incredible hedge against the dreaded "Dear Dealer" letter.

Yesterday we learned that M.J. Sullivan had indeed dodged a bullet, but took two others - Pontiac, as we all know, faces euthansia so all Pocho dealers stand to lose a brand. As it turns out, GM is pulling the Cadillac and Buick brands out of Sullivan's store, leaving just Chevy and Chevy trucks. If you want a Buick you'll have to go to Brustolon's over in Mystic, and for a Caddy it'll have to be Don Mallon up in Norwich, each the same 15 miles distant.

It could have been worse. At least Chevy is the volume brand. Brustolon's Buick and GMC sales will probably not keep pace. It's a bit ironic that the Sullivan dealership, begun as a used car operation and grown through purchase of a Chevy store, reverts to its roots. By careful entrepreneurship, Martin Sullivan and his son had bought up Pontiac, Olds, Buick and Cadillac franchises. Olds suffered a slow death, while Pontiac's will be much quicker. So the Sullivan dealership is, in a way, right back where it started.

What if GM doesn't survive, you ask? Well the Sullivans have an ace up their sleeve. Some years back they took on a Hyundai franchise.