Rover 12
Car : Rover 12
Year : 1912
Engine : 4 cylinders in line
Bore and stroke : 75×130 mm
Cylinder capacity : 2297 cc
Gears : 3 forward
Brake horse power :22
Maximum speed : 45 mph
Wheelbase : 9 ft 2 ins (2.79 m)
Suspension : front and back : semi-elliptic leaf- springs
The Twelve is one of the most interesting of the cars made in the early days of Rover’s long lifespan , in as much as it consolidated the good name the company had already made for itself. On the technical level, production at Rover was given a boost by the arrival of a staff of designers headed by Owen Clegg from Wolseley. It is to them that the Twelve owed its existence. It had single-block engine with L-head, and was one of the first to feature a dip-stick for measuring the level of the oil. Its success can be gauged by the fact that 1,600 cars had been produced just one year after its appearance o the market. In 1914 it was Rover’s only model, and it continued in production up until 1924, though under the name Fourteen. Later the Twelve also inspired the 16 HP–further proof of inspired the 16 HP–further proof of its soundness of design.
Known first of all as bicycle manufacturers, then for their cars with single-cylinder water-cooled 1300 cc engines, Rover is one of the few car firms founded before the turn of the century still in existence in England. In 1906 it drew public attention to itself by the London-Istanbul rally, in which R. K. Jefferson drove a single-cylinder 300 cc model; and again after the war, when it entered a turbine car at Le Mans two years running.