Remember the car in this photo, first seen in Autocar? It was published not long after the formation of the newly independent MG Rover and was claimed to be a ‘scoop’ of a prototype for the forthcoming 45 replacement. The truth is, the photo was taken at the MIRA test track by someone from MG Rover and ‘accidentally’ given to Autocar by an company insider, presumably in an attempt to show the world that post-BMW Longbridge wasn’t just twiddling its thumbs and was working at full speed on a new medium car.
My question is, what happened to the car in this photo? Did any of the ex-MG Rover people here work on it and know of its fate?
More intriguingly, did the car even exist? The front end seems to be pure Rover 75, cunningly lathered with disguising bin bags to make it seem more mysterious. But when you look again at that sloping rear end – one rumour said it was cut down to test packaging on the new medium car, though surely you’d do that on a buck not a full car? – there seems to be some slight weirdness to the pic that might suggest digital image manipulation skulduggery.
Anyone know if this was a real car or simply a normal 75 wrapped in black plastic and carefully Photoshopped to look like an early prototype of the 45 replacement, thus giving the impression that work was progressing well on that car?
