Developed within an innovative programme, this is Rover’s most exciting gas turbine car. Made in partnership with Owen Organisation’s BRM, it was to be Rover’s last.

Owen supplied a widened BRM Grand Prix chassis (from Richie Ginther’s car which crashed at Monaco) and two drivers, Ginther and Graham Hill. Hill described driving the car as: “You’re sitting in this thing that you might call a motor car and the next minute it sounds as if you’ve got a [Boeing] 707 behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster.”

Entered for the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1963, it required special permission to take part, racing unofficially as number ‘00’. It came 8th and gained a prize for the first gas turbine to finish the race.

For 1964 it was fitted with a new coupé body designed by William Towns and the engine was modified to incorporate heat exchangers with cutting-edge ceramic discs made by Corning of America. In 1965 it ran in the 2-litre class with drivers Hill and Jackie Stewart. In spite of overheating and damage to the turbine blades, the Rover-BRM survived at an average speed of 98.8 mph (159 km/h), achieving 10th place; the highest placed British car.