Bentley And Land Rover For Sale, Were Celebri... Uh, Wrestler-Owned!

Wrestletainer Dave Batista is clearing his garage! He's put an okay 2008 Land Rover and a very nice Bentley up on eBay, but there's only a day or so left. Loser gets hit with a folding chair! More »

The Dilemma Facing British Car Shoppers In 1951: Alvis, Bristol, or Land Rover?

The last round of print ads from old issues of Autocar was a lot of fun, so I've scanned another batch from 1951. We've got everything from the Rover 75 to the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn. More »

Jalopnik's 16 Favorite British Leyland and Rootes Group TV Commercials

Some of you observant types might notice that British Leyland and the Rootes Group were totally separate corporations, but we like to fill up tables think their ads go together quite well! More »

1978: The Best Mini Yet!

Even in the throes of its seemingly endless decline and fall, British Leyland was still able to get one car more or less right: the tough little Mini. More »

Engine Of The Day: Buick 215 aka Rover V8

If you're looking for an engine with way more than its share of weird plot twists in its story, you've come to the right place! More »

Land Rover LRX Heading To Production, Hybrid Model Possible

According to AutoCar sources, the three-door Land Rover LRX concept is heading to production. Will it make it to production as a three-door or five-door model? Also, what of hybrid rumors? More »

Hood Ornament Of The Month: 1960 Rover 100

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. After seeing the Porsche 356-O-Rama, we need more VintageRacer photos! More »

DOTS-O-Rama Sunday, San Francisco Edition: Rover 105S, With Bonus Gulf Oil Beetle

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. When was the last time you saw a Rover 105? More »

If It Runs, Sell It: More British Car Jokes!

You know what's always good to cut through the oppressive miasma of a typical Monday in The Man's salt mines? British car jokes! Sure, fish in a barrel, but the jokes wouldn't be funny if we didn't all secretly love the cars. Leylandnügen: The Joy Of Towing! You'll see that and much more when you visit Trevor Boicey's Utterly Obscure British Car Humour site. [Utterly Obscure British Car Humour]

$500,000 Range Stormer Replica For Sale, Perfect For When You Ain't Found Shit In The Desert

Range Rover Sport too dull for you? Too many doors? Not in line with your posh Dubai lifestyle? Need something to comb the desert in? Good news friend, West Coast Customs Dubai is reproducing the Range Stormer concept in street legal form. Better news is there's one on sale at Alwan's used cars for a cool $500,000. It seems a member of the Dubai royal family thought the concept was so fly he had West Coast Customs US build him one out of a regular old boring Range Rover Sport. WCC decided maybe there'd be a few more so why not task the Dubai branch to make a couple more. Head down to crazy Al's if you can't live without a two door Stormer of your own. More »

Patrick Mower Has The Antidote To British Malaise: Value For Money!

After yet another shuffling of gut-shot British Leyland brands produced the Austin Rover Group, the ARG marketers decided to get serious about moving some iron off the lots. No more Triumph TR7s or MGBs- now they'd have television actor Patrick Mower pitching the Morris Ital, Rover SD1, Mini Mayfair, and other early-80s British Machinery offering Value For Money, otherwise known by the awe-inspiring acronym VFM.

Tata Now Owns Jaguar, Land Rover, Rover, Daimler And Lanchester

Apparently, we were more prescient (or slow) than we thought when we asked "Who Should Tata Buy Next?" It turns out that, as part of the Ford-Tata deal, Tata ended up owning not only the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, but also Daimler, Rover and Lanchester. Someone is going to have to re-do that chart. The story of how the names have transfered is kind of hilarious and featured under the jump. It also may have played into the mysterious $300 million that evaporated from the big deal this week. More »

Even With 11 Tons Of Rover Parts Gone, Plenty Left In This Junkyard

After Highmile sent us the tip about the free buried mobster car, he then hipped us to this amazing tale of an Oregon-to-Arizona-and-back road trip to fetch 11 tons of Rover parts from the Lost Dutchman of desert junkyards. Audi 3-6s... Citröen Meharis... ancient Datsuns... Simcas... you name it, this yard has it. However, the bad news is that the new owners of the yard have a sacrilegious plan to scrap every one of these hyper-rare imports. The pain! Make the jump for even more photos. [Pangolin4x4] More »

PCH, Maggie Thatcher Edition: SD1 or Silver Shadow?

In one of the most one-sided matchups ever, the Isuzu Impulse RS Turbo whomped the Bagged Shaved P'Up by nearly 80/20 in Friday's Choose Your Eternity poll. Now let's edge away from the moldering corpse of Isuzu America and head over to one of the top- if not the top- Project Car Hell superpowers: the homeland of Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness! More »

Another Google Street View Crash

It's darn near an epidemic. As unlikely as it may seem, we have captured pictures of another Google Street View accident. Not only is this one more dramatic, it features a much healthier dollop of schadenfreude. Where before we had a random car crash, here we have a double luxo-SUV smash-up featuring the fancy pants Audi Q7 and Landie's Range Rover outside of the Phoenix Country Club. Feel that? That's stereotype humor rocking your socks off. Take solice in that there is still an element of 'WTF?'. Somehow that Range Rover finished the action upside down, and considering the extent of the damage we're surprised to see the occupant dutifully taking down insurance info. This is making us wonder how many Street View accidents there are out there.[Google Maps] More »

James May: Malaise Era Unrest Made Cars Look Good

Sure, we all laughed at the shoddy rattletraps made by British Leyland, and the British Malaise Era background of boarded-up factories and long dole lines made it a bitter sort of laughter. Still, James May wants to point out that British Leyland managed to send some original-looking designs limping off the assembly lines. For example, the Triumph TR7; as Mr. May puts it: "But the 7 came from nowhere, and looked completely new in every way." Perhaps we on this side of the Atlantic should reevaluate the Chevy Monza? [Telegraph.co.uk]

PCH, Island Nation Edition: Honda Rover or Lotus Isuzu?

So yesterday we pitted a couple of classic Motown wagons against each other in the Choose Your Eternity poll, and the result was so close to a tie as to make no difference (with the Dodge photo-finishing past the Ford). Today we're going to look at a couple of cooperative efforts between the island of the Rising Sun and the island whose empire's sun never set. Yes, Japanese style and British reliability, together at last! Fasten your seat belts, everyone! More »

The Fall and, er, Fall of Rover

Admittedly, the Northern Irish mum of der Jalop des San Pedro fell from the Roman Catholic side of the Ulster apple tree. As such, most of our relatives haven't had much taste for English cars out of sheer loyalty. When we were young, it was Peugeots, Mercs, Starlets and Micras. As we got older, Bimmers and Audis entered the equation. One uncle had an MG, but that was largely a project car, and only in his retirement has said uncle returned to buying British — in the form of German and American-owned examples of bits of British Leyland. Our only first cousin (out of around 30 on the Emerald Isle) who likes British cars happens to be an aircraft mechanic. Essentially, British cars have been crap since the end of the war. Sure, some were beautiful and innovative. Some performed marvelously. But did they suck? Oh hells yes; they were the provence of tinkerers, masochists and proud Britons. The Beeb tells the story of Rover; it feels a tad sugarcoated, as if Michiganders were spinning the tale of Chrysler. That said, it's a good watch. But we would like former Top Gear presenter Quentin Wilson to extrapolate on the exact moment that Buick put a V8 in a pickup truck. (Parts 2-4 after the jump.) More »

Project Car Hell: Rover 2000 or Biscayne Hearse?

The 20R-powered Sprite won last Friday's Project Car Hell poll, so now let's take a look at two more fine project cars available on Craigslist today... More »

MG ZR: The Car That Exposes Spanish Panties!

We're not quite sure why MG's adsters figured a Ram Jam soundtrack belongs in a Spanish-market ad for the early-00s MG ZR, but the message is clear: If you see some attractive laydeez, stand on the gas and the car will lift up their skirts (no doubt due to the incredible "suck factor" of the ZR lowering air pressure in the vicinity). And they'll like it! Of course, when you entice said laydeez into your MG for some gazpacho-flavoured action back at your groovy casa, you'll find that the Curse of Joe Lucas has garbooned the starter, fuel-injection system and- hell, everything- and you'll be left alone with a dead car. – Murilee Martin More »

Bayrische Volvowerke? BMW Considered Purchasing Swedish Ford Division

The last time the Quandt family's minions from München went on a purchasing spree, well, it didn't work out so well. And apparently with Mini sales down and development costs out, BMW looked into buying Volvo from Ford, to whom, of course, they'd sold Land Rover after their Rover Group finanical debacle. The idea would have eventually moved larger Volvos onto BMW-drived RWD and AWD platforms, while the Mini's architecture would have been used for the smaller models. Would it have worked? Would FoMoCo have parted with the brand? Will BMW buy another marque? Will Gordon Shumway ever play bouillabaisseballl again? Stay tuned. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Roewe, Roewe, Roewe Your Boat, Old Chap!

If buying Rover in all but name (thanks to those crafty bastiches in M nchen-Stadt) and slapping a weird melange of 300C and Audi schnoz on the front gives one mad Brit cred, SAIC may as well change its name to Pete Townshend, Carnaby Street or the Earl of March. The Roewe booth at the Shanghai show had the models all dolled up in riding gear, standing prim, proper and vaguely Stepford-esque. To be fair, the Roewes were likely the most well-realized seeming of the Chinese automakers' non-joint-venture products, and they do look a helluva lot better than Rovers past. That said, we'll wait for the JD Power numbers on these puppies. (Insert Five Deadly Venoms fighting the ghost of Joe Lucas joke here. Thanks.) – Davey G. Johnson More »

Getting Britain Out of the Red: 1966 London Motor Show

As the narrator of this Pathe newsreel tells it, the 1967 models were to be The Big Drive for the British auto manufacturing industry, because "exports must increase if the country is to pay its way." We see such hot-selling British success stories as the Singer Chamois Sport and the Hillman Hunter (which features booth babes dressed in fox-hunting gear), plus a nice assortment of non-British stuff. How about a '67 Ferrari 365P, with that bizarre 3-seater setup? Or a Saab Sonnet? Too bad about the country not paying its way, of course, but some nice cars nonetheless. – Murilee Martin More »

British Steel: The 1962 London Motor Show

Back in 1962, when it seemed the sun would never set on the British auto industry, the new '63 models were proudly displayed at the Earl's Court London Motor Show. All the usual suspects are here in this newsreel, from the Hillman Super Minx to the Lotus Elan, with plenty of science-fair-style cutaway vehicles showing their innards and car-show babes galore. – Murilee Martin More »

What's Next? Nanjing MG-Rover Brochure

What's Nanjing's plan to revive MG-Rover? According to an online brochure, it may entail a new version of the erstwhile Rover RDX60 crossover concept. It may also entail one of the scariest looking designs (above) since the sand worms in "Dune." Anyone have a cure for goosebumps? Oh yeah, looking at old British roadsters should do the trick. – Mike Spinelli More »

Things To Do In Your Living Room With A Rover 3.5-Liter V8

Who knew the things you could do with a Rover 3.5-liter V8 engine when you've got it sitting in your living room? With a displacement of 3528 cc, there's all sorts of enough room for wine bottles, or you can use it as a coffee table, or even a coffee table holding wine bottles (we here tend to have alcohol on the brain, in hand, and down gullet, at all times). In fact, because this engine appeared not only in Rover cars, but was widely sold by Rover to small car builders — becoming the virtual de-facto standard British engine for hot rod use (much as has the Chevrolet small-block V8 for American builders) — there's a lot of them around. So grab a burbler that's quite burbling and be like these enterprising young urban autonistas, turning your love of the automobile into a love of furniture. Gallery of tables below. – Ray Wert More »

The Lost Rover: Project RDX60 Uncovered

Meanwhile, back at the former Rover plant in Longbridge, which had been idle since the former company's meltdown last year, Car magazine has uncovered the project formerly known as RDX60, a five-seat hatchback that would have squared off against the Euro Ford Focus and VW Golf. The once top-secret project is now just another artifact of the venerable, once non-Chinese British brand. It was based on the Rover 75 platform, but its not clear if the new owners of the company's intellectual property rights to that architecture plan to add the model to its Rowe line. What do you think? – Mike Spinelli More »

Chinese Rover Hybrid? Shanghai Auto's Roewe 750 to Get "Integrated Loop" Drivetrain

Shanghai Auto, the Chinese automaker that's refashioning the Rover 75 as the Roewe 750, says it's building a version that uses an "integrated loop" to garner a 20% increase in fuel efficiency. The boys at China Car Times say that's likely code for a hybrid system. But if our lack of an electrical engineering degree has taught us anything, its that an integrated loop could mean a variety of technologies at work, from some manner of digital controller to a box of animal crackers made into a bong. We'll just have to watch this one carefully. – Mike Spinelli More »

Red Rover: New Roewe 750E

China's Shanghai Auto released photos of its newly re-released Rover 75, which it's calling the Roewe 750E. Created for the increasingly status-conscious Chinese market, the Roewe features a 2.5-liter V6 and a plush, leather-filled interior of questionable build quality, according to the marketing imagery. [Gallery] – Mike Spinelli More »

Roewe, Roewe, Roewe, Your Rover in China

Having lost the rights to use the Rover name via some deft trademark swappery between BMW and Land Rover, Shanghai Auto is changing its brand strategy. The new owners of rights to build the erstwhile Rover 25 and 75 in China will do so under a new name and logo: Rowr! Roewe or, in Chinese, Rong Wei (I kid you not). The company made the announcement ahead of the Bejing auto show next month, where it will unveil a car derived from the 75, dubbed 750E, which it plans to export to Europe and the US. Sure, it's sutiably British sounding, but will buyers outside China consider a near decade-old luxury platform sporting a weird, faux olde English name? And is Nanjing Automobile, the new owner of MG Rover, which has possession of the car's tooling, ready to make a deal? So many questions, so little interest. – Mike Spinelli More »