Project "South America"

A Rover 2600 found on the other side of the World …

A few months ago the webmaster received a e-mail from a person in Argentina. Hector Rosales claimed to have a very special and probably the only Rover SD1 in Argentina! Maybe even in South America. A very strange story because there is no information that Rover sold cars in Argentina. And even more strange because England was in War in the 80’s with Argentina because of the Falkland Islands. To us it is a bit doubtful that BL would supply cars to a country in war!

Over the past few months Hector and I had a very special contact. At first Hector was a bit afraid to buy the car. He needed to drive 1000 km or more to see it, and decide what to do. With the information I received from him and answers to his question Hector decided to buy the car eventualy. He really liked the car, and with the knowledge he had that he could find parts (OK on the other side of the World) and that there people able to help him, he made his decision.

Now lets have a closer look to the car. The car is a 2600 van den Plas model in Vitesse Targa red. Its history goes back to the 80's when a British diplomat at the French embassy in France drove the car. His name, P. J. Phelan, of which we are very keen to get in contact with to get further information on the cars history. If anyone knows Mr. Phelan let us know.

According to the papers in 1984 the car drove in France. Some of the papers showed also that the car was allowed to drive in France until 1990. After that it is a bit unclear. There is a paper written in Russian language that might tell us a Russian diplomat drove the car afterwards. In 1994 the owner (Russian?) left Europe and moved to Argentina, papers telling us the car leaves the European continent in 1994 in a container from Hamburg. A very special car indeed, with a very interested history file included.

Hector bought the car, the engine was running very good, it is very dry as you can see on the pictures, no spots of leaking oil. So a very well maintained car. Hector is very keen on his car, he is proud to be the owner of such a good-looking vehicle. Despite there are some parts missing, and it is not 100% rust free, this is “his” car!

As you can see on the pictures of the quality this 2.6 is really in a good condition. Hector wants to upgrade his car a bit, he needs new parts like a front spoiler and underbelly, which are totally gone. His headlights are missing the glasses and one of the indicators is missing on the front. Roversd1.info is helping Hector out with his car, but if anyone in South America is able to help him as well, please let us know. Shipment to this country is a bit expensive, but we want to keep his car on the road of course! People who travel a lot between Europe and South America are asked if they might be able to take parts with them to help Hector out.

We will follow Hector in the next months to see if he can complete his car, and maybe if we can find more about his historical background.

Good luck Hector, keep the 2.6 going!

Ehh, Yes Hector, indeed you are missing some parts, we are working on that!

Do I see fuel prices of $0.75 cents... I want to live in your country!

Even from behind it is good looking...

Very dry engine, no oil leaking at all...

Is it been to the Sahara? All the dust...