Rover 8 - Rover 8 1904-1912

Rover 8 1904-1912

The car, designed by Edmund W. Lewis who had joined Rover from Daimler, had an unusual design. Instead of the conventional chassis, the car used a backbone formed by the engine crankcase, the gearbox housing, the propshaft housing and the rear axle. This backbone frame had no suspension at the rear apart from the tyres, but the body was mounted onto the rear axle using semi-elliptic springs. The front axle was suspended from the frame by a transverse leaf spring.

The single-cylinder engine displaced 1327 cc with a bore of 114 mm (4.5 in) and stroke of 130 mm (5.1 in). It had an unusual pedal control that changed over the valve operating cams to provide extra engine braking.

By 1907, Rover had discontinued the backbone frame and was using an ash chassis with steel flitch plates. Robert Jefferson and Robert Weallas drove a Rover 8 from Coventry to Istanbul, becoming the first people to cross Europe in an automobile.

Most of this series of Rover 8 cars seem to have had a very basic open two seat body with no windscreen or other weather protection.

At launch the Rover 8 cost £200 on the home market.