Project 827 – How Did That Happen?

At the last count, over 160,000 people have watched our video of us digging a knackered old Rover 827 out of a hedge. It was a risky purchase for a number of reasons, but my primary concern was whether or not people would care? Rovers are unfairly mocked, or at least the cars of the ’80s and ’90s are. And I’d know, given that I have owned a lot of them. In fact, my main automotive squeeze is a 1999 820 Vitesse that I have completely restored. But I still get ill-informed head gasket jokes and general mockery, despite the fact it’s a turbocharged freight train of a luxury saloon. But I digress. The point is, I wanted our first official project car to be something people would enjoy. A Rover 827 made me worry. My worries, however, had no place. You lot seem to love it, by and large.

So how did it come about? Well, it’s a story as old as time, and one a great many of you will resonate with. I’m not a ‘Rover guy’, let’s get that out there now. I like them, of course, but I have had just as many Fords, BMWs, Vauxhalls and Mercedes-Benzeses as I have old Rovers. I generally like cars for my own reasons, not based on any real world shared passion or interest in them. I just like old cars. However, at the moment, I have Rovers. And as well you know, when you own ‘car x’ other people come out of the woodwork to tell you about examples of ‘car x’ they have seen in the wild, thinking that because you have one already, you’ll want more. Like some sort of oily Battersea Dogs Home for knackered old cars. That’s how the 827 came about.

A friend of mine who is far more intelligent than me by virtue of being an architect was taking on a project down by the south coast. It was a house he was tasked with remodelling, and on the grounds of this house lay a sad-looking Rover 827. British Racing Green, on an ’89 F so a very early one, and in the initial pictures, it looked good. Or as good as a car in a bush can look. Sensibly, I initially decided to myself that it was a silly idea. My Vitesse is needy enough. Another would be a sure-fire first class ticket to bankruptcy. No, I’ll pass. So then I asked for the details of the owner. Oh.

This is when things got interesting. It turns out the house had been inherited. The son, while not at all into cars, gave me some basic information. His dearly departed father had owned it from 1994, it had only been in the hedge for about four years, he didn’t ever recall it being out of the garage prior to that and, oh yeah, it had 19,000 miles. Excuse me? 19k on a 33 year-old car? My interest was suddenly whipped into stiff piques. Fate then favoured me in the form of an auction car that needed photographing just a few miles away. Cool, I could go and check out the 827 on the company dollar – result.

And what did I find when I got there on a slightly damp Tuesday morning? Well, a knackered old Rover funnily enough. However, being the eternal optimist, I sensed it had potential. The body seemed arrow straight, there was no visible rust, the paint even looked like it would come back to life. The interior, while mustier than a gentleman’s club, was mint and the engine bay was tidy – each nut and bolt still wearing the ‘torqued’ paint marks. Remarkable. It was covered in twigs and leaves, but still. Potential.

And that, for me at least, is what it’s all about. I like taking a gamble on cars that others would simply ignore. I know people will scoff and chuckle at this car, but more fool them. I think this has the bones to make for an incredible restoration. And it would have been criminal to scrap it, at least without giving it a chance. If it does indeed turn out to be solid, which I suspect it is, this car is going to be a remarkable, and incredibly rare survivor from a period in Rover’s history that is unfairly overlooked. Rover’s cars were good, it was the management that let things down. In 1989, the cracks were only just showing – the cars were still great.

Having seen it in the metal, I decided to take a gamble and make an offer (remember, at this point I had no idea if it even had any floors or sills left). He who dares, Rodders. He who dares. The offer was accepted, and with that a date was penned in to go and extract it with my cameraman in tow to capture all the action. Did it have floors? Did it start? Did we manage to get it back to the workshop without it snapping in half? I’m not going to tell you here – we didn’t go to all that effort of filming to spoil the fun with some text – you’ll have to join the hundreds of thousands of people who have watched the video already. Enjoy, comment, subscribe and watch this space – there will be more project progress both on YouTube and here on Car & Classic Magazine…

Spoiler: the car has sold now, but if you are a fellow seeker of Rover-shaped potential, here’s where you can find a Rover 827 for sale.