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Rover has won a contract to supply the British government with Rover 75s for
cabinet ministers’ official use.
The first car, a black 2.5-litre Connoisseur model, is already being used by
Stephen Byers, the secretary of state at the department of trade and industry.
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The order followed the placement of a 75 with the government’s car and
despatch agency. In just over a year the vehicle covered 30,000 trouble free
miles, mostly in central London.
Of the 11 manufacturers that bid for the cabinet ministers’ business,
only Rover and Jaguar – suppliers of prime minister Tony Blair’s armoured
XJ8 – were successful.
Rovers have long been the choice of British politicians and royalty.
Two famous older examples – prime minister Harold Wilson’s P5 saloon,
with specially enlarged pipe smoker’s ashtray, and a similar car owned
by the Queen – are in the Heritage Motor Centre car museum at Gaydon in Warwickshire.
