Austin Rover Group

Because it's about a bit of social history there.

That Maestro is the remainder of Austin Rover.

And Austin Rover was a big company in Birmingham.

And he was telling me that out of 14 households on his street, 10 of them worked for Austin Rover.

So when that company went, it was a big, you know, had a big effect on the community.

And the Maestro was kind of a living reminder of that Austin Rover time.

Don't bring us on a downer about

the collapse.

From literally six months old, it was turned into a rally car.

It was a press development car at the beginning for Austin Rover, so it would go to car shows and stands.

Well, I was going to say, in a field of quite rare cars, I'm looking at some Porsche Carrera RSs, 911s, 928s.

This is actually probably the rarest car here, isn't it?

Bring me up to speed on this one very quickly.

This March driver, as I say, is an ex-factory car.

So it was owned by Austin Rover when it was brand new.

It was a development car for press.

Yeah.

At the end of the 1980 season, Austin Rover retired the Triumph TR7.

This was a front-engined, rear-wheel drive car that was...

What's the word I'm looking for? Let's be nice about it.

And in British Leyland's case, scrap metal that was rusting fast.

And then in December 1980, on the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, John Davenport...

Austin Rover's then director of motorsport is there testing differential settings on a Rover Vitesse.

And sharing the circuit that day is Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

Remember that picture of the car being on the pitch? And all those Villa players lined up.

It was an Austin Rover, I think it was.

And there was the likes of Atkinson, Staunton, Saunders, you know, a real Neil Cox, I think as well.

A real long list of new arrivals that summer.