THE STORY OF THE "ROVEBAKER"

Reader Stephen Harcourt had a point in the letters column (Classic American, August 2020) when he spoke about the influence of American car design on British car styling in the Forties and Fifties, especially with Studebaker’s ground-breaking 1947 design. However, rather than a Vauxhall connection, along with other readers, he might be surprised at the admittedly unofficial connection between Studebaker and Rover, with its 1949 to 1964 P4 design – yes indeed that’s the famous ‘Auntie Rover’.

However, back to 1946, when after only about three months‘ production of slightly modified pre-war models, the 1947 Studebaker models were announced as early as May 1946 –