Final Parking Space: 1967 Rover 2000 TC
Every so often, a collection of single-model project or parts cars must leave its abode and ends up by default in a nearby car graveyard. I’ve seen this many times over my decades of junkyard crawling, and the latest is an unexpected grouping of Rover P6s in Colorado.
Yes, the U-Pull-&-Pay in Aurora, Colorado has five vintage Rover sedans in stock, four P6s and a lone SD1. Three of the P6s are V-8-powered 3500S models from the 1970 model year, all built in a three-month period at the end of 1969, with this four-cylinder 2000 TC mixed in for good measure.
The P6 was a radical departure for The Rover Company, which had spent the previous decades building stolid machinery for conservative people shopping for older cars. The P6 boasted cutting-edge styling and engineering innovations seemingly borrowed from the Citroën playbook, including a unibody structure with unstressed, removable body panels, four-wheel disc brakes (with the rear ones inboard), a wild front suspension design with bellcranks actuating coil springs mounted mounted horizontally, and body lines that looked nothing like those seen on your aged aunty’s Rover.
The first P6s were 1963 models, and they featured a 2.0-liter SOHC four-cylinder engine with a Heron cylinder head design (in which the combustion chambers are located in the tops of the pistons). The 2000 TC version got a dual-carburetor setup and was rated at 124 horsepower and 132 lb-ft of torque in U.S.-spec versions.
The head is long gone from this engine, but the funky exhaust manifold is still present.
The compression ratio in this engine was a somewhat hairy 10:1, so premium gasoline was mandatory.
UP&P placed a 1988 Subaru GL wagon between the ’67 2000 TC and one of the ’70 3500s. Another of the ’70s is in a nearby row, while the third can be found in the Domestics section.
The Rover P6 was available in the United States for the 1966 through 1971 model years. Its successor, the SD1, showed up for the 1980 and 1981 model years; other than that car, all the Rovers sold here since 1972 have been trucks.
This discovery of five rare vehicles from what must have been the same collection comes on the heels of other similar junkyard discoveries in recent years. There were eight Chevrolet Corvairs in a Colorado Springs yard earlier this year, three Renault Dauphines in Northern California about a year ago, and six Chevrolet Vegas (including a Millionth Edition Vega GT) earlier in 2023.
It’s possible that this car is a 1968 model, but I can’t be sure due to the lack of a build tag.
Like the other four Rover sedans now residing in the same facility, this one shows signs of having been parked outdoors for many years and has spare parts inside.
The MSRP for a 1967 2000 TC was $4198, or about $40,232 in 2024 dollars. That was cheaper than a new Citroën DS21 Pallas Grande Route sedan, which listed at $3884 ($37,223 after inflation). However, the DS didn’t come with an Icelert freeze-warning system as standard equipment.
