INCREDIBLE AUSTIN ROVER SUPERCARS THAT NEVER WERE - MG EX-E and Rover CCV
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- Опубліковано 23 гру 2023
- In this video we cover some of the most incredible cars that Austin Rover ever made, one a supercar capable of Lamborghini performance with an MG badge, the other a Coupe that was delayed and beaten out by Honda. Both incredibly advanced for their time and both forgotten by most of the motoring public
Credit for photos of Japan show: nostalgia1970.blog135.fc2.com/...
Credit for the photos and videos onsite to the wonderful British Motor Museum - www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/
I have credited where possible but as usual I would like to add AROnline are an incredibly valuable source of information and you should check them out here: www.aronline.co.uk/
Credit to AARG for the EXE footage: • MG EX-E Design and Eng...
Follow me on Instagram for more cool stuff: / tomisdrivingcars - Авто та транспорт
The MG EX-E was one of my favourite cars of all time! Still looks modern today.
Some of the EXE styling ended up featuring in the MGF/TF design, especially at the rear of the car.
I was thinking the same thing. And even the 91 update of the Legend coupe seems to have “stolen” that rear lamp design.
I remember the huge positive stir of both these concepts caused back in the 80s. Its a great shame the eventual 800 coupe wasnt as close to the CCV in its execution. If the EXE could had been Honda 24v powered it could have been a precursor to the Nsx.
I agree, also Byron thank you for being subscribed for 3 years. Really appreciate you.
The EX-E was just what it was - a concept car (and a quite superb one). It’s rumoured that it had an influence on the Honda NSX. The CCV of course inspired the lovely 800 coupe. Both were great showcases for Roy Axe’s design team - they really were on a roll at the time. The interiors of both were very inspiring to me, as a child - I really wanted to be a car designer, and both dashboards were copied by me for my own concept car designs! Merry Christmas Tom!
Great video. My father Dennis Pritchard, ex RAF pilot, had two beautiful rover 800 coupes. They really were great cars and extremely safe. My father was stationary on the motorway after a puncture. He was hit in the rear by a car doing 70mph. Sadly the car was a write off but my dad survived perfectly! The rear glass didn't even break. His seat was distorted but he was fine. He bought another one when the insurance paid out!
that is some smart looking car from NG Rover what an absolute shame it never came to life
Very interesting, well researched. Thank You.
What a stunning concept car !!! Great job Tom ! You've got very accurate information regarding rare & non production cars!
It’s thanks to the BMM and AROnline that all this information is documented, thank you I appreciate it!
You have my warm greetings from Greece !
Merry Christmas Tom !
Both gorgeous concepts the ccv interior with that grey longship on the steering wheel is a personal highlight for me, another excellent video Tom 👍
The CCV is gorgeous I absolutely love the design. Merry Christmas Tom
I do too she’s amazing, even more so in person. Merry Christmas to you too Simone
My initial thought on the CCV was it's a rebadged Ford Probe.
@@geoffhoward2171 No the probe is based on a mazda.
Beautiful cars both.....just amazing! Thanks for the video Tom!
Brilliant vid....again. Thank you Tom
Great video fascinating insight into two stunning concepts. Keep up the good work! 👍
I always look forward to your videos..
Thanks Martin, glad you do. I enjoy making them.
Thanks for this video. I loved both the EX-E and CCV-they felt like a brave new future. Both wear the same wheels, I do believe, and are gorgeous! 😊
Brilliant video Tom, you've done ya homework again, merry Christmas lad 👍👏🎅🇬🇧
Thanks Paul, Merry Christmas!
Remember these concept cars back in 1985 and 1986 as a youngster Tom 👍👍👍👍Merry Christmas to you
I bet they looked just as incredible then as they do now
Thanks Tom , great knowledge man
Austin Rover way ahead of the game ......i love B.L
Happy Christmas. Man
Thanks Matthew, Merry Christmas to you too
I saw the EXE at the BMM a few years ago and it's still an impressive looking vehicle.
As it happens I first saw both of these models in the pages of a car design magazine/book from the early 1990's which I still have.
Both really did show MG Rovee was still very much an engineering focused company at that time with some fantastic concepts in the pipeline.
Great looking designs, especially the EX-E.
Love them both, I wish they’d made them. The CCV especially
merry xmas tom ,roll on next years vids
Merry Christmas to you too! And yes got some exciting stuff planned next year
The sad thing with this video is how the entire BMC / Rover / Triumph marques were destroyed by British working man, and I say that as one who is now long since retired. Yes we had some superb brains and designers in the UK who rarely had the full support of the production personnel and the pricing was often way off beam. Regards the EX-E, would probably have beed better served with the Triumph badge, more upmarket.
Sadly, you are quite right. If there’s one thing us Brits are great at, it’s the self destruct!
Yet here we are in a spiral of descent based on cheap labour from immigrants which forces down wages but the big companies make obscene profits so the working man can't pay his bills unlike immigrants living ten to a house. The working man wants a wage to pay his bills that's all.
the British worker didn't help, but it was also down to poor quality and the lack of investment by the Government. This allowed foreign manufacturers to come into the country and the powers that be in Westminster welcomed them with open arms with promises of government grants and tax relief.
Fair comment regarding Government support, but on the other hand that cannot be done unless the company as a whole has a proper working plan, unfortunately that was very difficult without the support of the shop floor, which went down hill as the individual manufacturers slowly went under and amalgamated creating a single company which the produces cars competing with each other, how many different Minis were there, 1100s the same, Marina Allegro were competing to an extent with the Marina slightly bigger. MG, competing with Austin Healy and Triumph, the list goes on. The best way to have kept those names going would have been to use the in some way as the different models of the newly created Brand, perhaps Leyland Cars, then individual models the Executive model could have been the Leyland Rover, Family cars Leyland Morris, small car Leyland Austin, sports Leyland MG but not competing with Triumph which could have been the GT range.@@Ken_Dodds_Tickling_Stick
@geoffhoward2171 you've forgotten about the commercial side.
My father was one of the bosses at BL in Bathgate and I always remember him being stressed to the hilt because their hands were tied. The unions were held to ransom and the government had turned their back on the company.
Even going back to the early 70s when they wanted the workforce to work 2 days for nothing so their earnings could be sent to the starving in Africa.
The unions approached the men and they agreed as long as the government covered their earnings long term and were told a straight no.
This was the start of the decline of the workforce
Always understood the 6R4 engine to be a derivative of the Rover V8. Had the privilege of being driven in one on a rally stage- absolutely bonkers fast and handling unbelievable! (You mention in an early part of the piece it was unique but later refer to the rover connection 😊)
Could make them now. They wouldn't look out of place today.
The 6R4 engine still seems to have some mystery surrounding it: who proposed it, designed it and produced it etc. The 800 coupe was a real bit of kit with huge doors and the better engine. I came close to buying one but got a Rover 75 instead.
Amazing how Land Rover is gone from strength to strength and a gold standard for the entire industry,such a tragic end to the car division.
I remember these cars in CAR magazine at the time, but they were just great concept cars.
That was in the days of the last chance for Leyland/Austin Rover/MG et al, to become a serious car company, through an offered partnership with Honda to get the joint economies of scale. The 400, 600 and 800 series of cars at the time were some of the best out there but a mixture of negative British media, poor senior management, poor finance/development budget, appalling unions, killed that off. The later Phoenix resurrection was always destined to fail as those characters did it purely for their own greed and asset stripping.
Gud vid 😊
Rather than the XJ220, I saw the EX-E as a Honda NSX competitor. Infact the similarities between the two are uncanny and Honda was in Bed with Austin Rover at the time also. I think that the NSX became what the EX-E could've been...
I think one of the big missed opportunities of the British car industry was the XJ 40 estate version.
I saw it in the flesh if they had given the Queen one to use they would have sold thousands.
The boxy shape low shspe of the XJ40 made for a very elegant upmarket estate car.
A great looking pair of cars. Makes me wonder, does the Honda NSX owe anything to the EXE? There's some obvious similarities and of course a close relationship between the two companies.
There are some clear similarities with the front of the Honda HP-X concept which has the same front lights joined by a line graphic - same rising belt line too. I always thought it odd that the EXE has number plate spaces for Japanese style plates rather than UK
Yes, there are various accounts from the time claiming that the EX-E paid a part in the inspiration for the NSX’s styling.
An exciting concept car that IMO would not have saved MG or Austin Rover If it hadentered production as iit would have had to been outsourced and built by an outfit like Lotus in Norwich who were experienced in constructing low volume exotic cars , possibly sharing a platform with the Esprit (see the Lotus SID 6R4 powered AWD demonstrator) It would have generated little to no profit after tooling costs and would have had tto have been subsidised by thesales of the bread and butter Austin Rover MG models whiich were old tech and desperately needed money spending on them to revamp andmakedesirableto customers . TBH I was impressed that Austin Rover MG had even managed to fund the build of the concept which was actually built at thethen Concepts International in Coventry If I remember correctly.
I would've loved to see Rover compete against the BMW M5 back in the day.
It's a shame they didn't, the investment wasn't there and by the time it was they simply were too far behind.
Could have built the EXE in limited numbers and sold it for a lot of money a bit like the Renault Alpine GTA turbo.Does the EXE in gaydon have an engine?
The Rover CCV idea would have been better applied on a Rover AR16/AR17 base, as that supposedly used a 800-derived platform yet was Cavalier-sized and that in turn sired the Calibra.
Once the MG name was put on the Metro, Maestro and Montego it was game over for trying to sell a car that would compete on price with Porsche and others. Unfortunately, image is everything no matter how good they are.
I desperately want to build a MG EXE replica...
Jag 220 looks very similar
both cars should have been made , once again the management had no balls and take the risk
Balls and/or money?
My mums cousin worked as a pattern maker At cowley so I have heard a lot of these wonderful cars British leyland fucked up I think if they brought these beauties into production there is a very high chance rover would still be here and not in china greetings from Scotland 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Ah, I can see the problem.
They must have started out with the intention to design a family car, BUT somehow designed a supercar by mistake. Surely someone would have noticed the missing doors and said "Hold on" before the prototype was made.
If MG didn't want a supercar or feel it was right for the brand; Who asked the designers to deliver one? Who paid their wages?? What did they expect the project to be???
My point: What a waste of development costs and wages when those efforts and resources could have been better used elsewhere in the company.
What could have been eh. Now the brands are all owned by German and Chinese companies, so no chance of a UK comeback. Maybe one day.
Hopefully so- there was so much brilliant design, stifled by jealous outsiders and absolutely no support from the government of the day. Saddening beyond measure.
Both are a case of 'nice try'. I think history has judged Roy Axe's work over-generously.
Typical, Rover banging the first nail in there coffin not making either of those brilliant cars. If they had built those, who knows if they were great sellers over in America as well as here in Britain maybe Rover would definitely still be here!
Bla Bla . The EX- E. Why didn't Rover simply rebadge the Honda NSX ?
To many missed chances as usual with British industry.
Would these cars have been successful? No. Let's be mature about it! The supercar market is very brand orientated i.e. Ferrari, Lamborghini. MG however wonderful could not have competed there. A Rover 800 coupe would not have been successful either. At this time the coupe market was diminishing. Why didn't Ford make a coupe version of the Mk2 and Mk3 Granadas? Why were they slow to replace the Capri?
These videos are extremely interesting.
The British motor industry may have been trying to present itself as “forward thinking”…..but it was also hell bent on its own destruction.
I was a teenager in the mid-70. I started driving at the very beginning of the ‘80s. You have to remember what kind of British cars were around and ‘genuinely’ available to a youngster at the time. Yes! That’s right….they were all SHIT! Totally uninspiring.
One may look back with rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia now at films and photos of those cars brand new and pristine in seductive press shots. But that was very far from the reality!
They very quickly looked shabby (they were good at that), had a dowdy and timid image, lack-lustre performance and even worse reliability.
When it came to buying my very first car with £825 to spend, I bought a BMW 2002tii and my mate across the street bought an Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior. If anyone had suggested a TR7 to us, we would have just laughed in their faces.
Looks like a ford thunderbird
Another pos
To surmise the British independent car industry; Lost opportunities due to incompetence and complacency by management. Militant, communist unions who were constantly misbehaving and striking. Deliberately putting together shoddy made cars. And a breakdown of communication between unions and management. And failure to invest in new models and keep ahead of the competition.
Design brilliant !!! build quality SHITE