Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

wellsm wrote:I can see from these pictures that I need to get my 220t paintwork sorted out ASAP, then I won't be embarassed to bring it out. Trouble is I've also just bought a 216 dohc (45k miles!) so now my time is split!

Anyway it looks like it was a good day, hopefully I'll come next time.

Mark

matthewsemple wrote:Dan - those group photos with the museum and the AXA tower look superb. Do you think it would be worth sending them to a classic car magazine to publish with a few words about the 20th Anniversary and the meeting we had?

On 11th October 2009, members of the Rover 200 & 400 Owners' Club met at the Coventry Museum of Transport to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the launch of the Rover 200 and hold the club's Annual General Meeting. The second generation Rover 200 model, codenamed 'R8' along with its saloon sibling the Rover 400, was the company's most successful car, outselling rivals from Ford and Vauxhall, resulting in a 24-hour a day three-shift production pattern at Longbridge.

Members of the club brought their Rover 200s and 400s from all over the country to be displayed on the timepiece at the Millenium Square in Coventry city centre, outside the museum which displays many examples of vehicles produced in the West Midlands city.

The Rover 200 & 400 was developed in collaboration with Honda and many motoring journalists predicted at launch that models fitted with Honda's 1.6 engine would be the most popular variants. Enthusiasts on the other hand seem to have shunned the Japanese powerplant in favour of British muscle with the majority of cars at the anniversary event sporting Rover's revolutionary K-Series motor or the impressive twin-cam 16-valve fuel-injected two litre engine. This included three cars fitted with the awesome 200bhp turbo-charged version, which in Coupe form was Rover's fastest ever car with a top speed of 150mph and a 0-60 time that beats a Porsche Boxster.

All indications point to this being a much sought-after classic of the future, so if you own a Rover 200 or 400 'R8' model produced between 1989 and 1999, the Rover 200 & 400 Owners' Club would love to hear from you and can be found at http://www.rover200.org.uk