1968 Rover Alvis BS Concept

When Rover took over control of Alvis in 1965 plans were made to revive Alvis car production It was decided that Rover would design a fast sports car for assembly by Alvis. The P6BS was a project by Spen King and Gordon Bashford the code P6 is because it incorporates a chassis and suspension from the Rover 2000 range while BS stands for Buick Sports from the Buick derived V8 engine. The Rover V8 engine is slightly offset to allow a single seat to be mounted in the back, there is a good boot space and all round visibility. The roof panels are removable. The project was cancelled in 1968 following the British Leyland rationalisation programme. Its roof panels are also removeable a feature regularly seen on later US sportscar. This is the only prototype, the project was killed off as part of the Ryder reports rationalisation project after the British Leyland merger in 1968

Source: flickr

Images: Alvis Archive