The Rover 10/25, built between 1929 -32, is these days somewhat of a rare animal. And, there's a good reason for that. They were unpopular when they were built and as such failed to capture the hearts of anyone to the extent few people thought they were worth saving.
This harsh treatment came as a result of the car being grossly underpowered. The 10 in the car's name refers to the model line and the 25 to the number of brake horse power put out by the engine. In Australian colloquial terms, they `couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.'
The in-line four cylinder engine was just 1185 cc or 72.9 cubic inches in capacity. With such a large body the poor old 10/25 laboured under the load of it's own weight and lack of horses under the bonnet and was only able to manage an average speed of 33 mph, or around 50 km/h. On the upside, it could return economy figures of 28 miles per gallon. Acceleration – or lack thereof - must have been frustrating.
So why did Rover produce such a slug? There were a couple of reasons. Firstly, the period in which the car was built was during the Great Depression, which is 1930s speak for the Global Financial Crisis. Secondly, there was a horsepower tax in England, and the Rover 10/25 was deliberately underpowered to come in under the tax.
Our featured Rover 10/25 resides in the Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum, near Wanaka on New Zealand's South Island. There are only three of these cars left on the road in NZ, none in Australia and about 10 in the UK. This car was owned by Mr Bill Cross of Balclutha, halfway between Dunedin and Invercargil on the South Island, and was purchased by the museum in 2006.
The car was apparently put together in fairly quick time and as a result the fit is not too flash: the doors do not always connect properly. The 10/25 was also built in Rover's Petone assembly plant in New Zealand, although this car is a British made example. Petone is close to Wellington, near the southern tip of the north island.
The New Zealand-built cars had spoke wire wheels while the British cars featured solid spoke wheels as in this car. The car has two mudguards, one connected to the door so that women's dresses would not get dirty as they got into the car or alighted from it.
This car – built in England, but assembled in NZ – has had it's rotted running boards replaced by Kauri timber recycled from the old counters from the Import Stores in Balclutha. The NZ-built cars also used Southern Beech timber for the wooden framework and dash boards fascias.
The year 1932 was also significant for Rover in NZ with the company officially opening it's Petone assembly plant. This was the second car assembly plant in NZ and the first anywhere in the British Empire for a British car. That was the good news. The bad news was the plant closed on February 1,1933, just 17 days short of it's first birthday.
Rover, like so many automobile companies, started life as a bike manufacturer then moving into motorcycles and eventually automobiles. The Rover 10 replaced the Rover Nine. The 10/25 used three and four speed gearboxes. In 1933 the Wilks Brothers – Spencer and Maurice – took charge of the Rover Company Ltd., and led the manufacturer out of the doldrums up until the start of WW2.
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