L204V209

JCW press cars

Press and Publicity Cars page

This page is dedicated to the small number of Rover press & publicity cars, also known as the LOE cars (for obvious reasons if you look at the numberplates), the John Cooper Press cars, known as the PAP cars.

There are two more batches of cars that fit under this title, the 'OFC' cars that were owned by BMW for various use, and a batch of 'early-production' final edition cars known as the 'CJW' cars (both OFC and CJW refer to the consecutive UK registration numberplates assigned to these cars). More details on these cars to follow in a future update to this page.

The LOE cars were the launch cars for the final edition 'Classic range' and the PAP cars are the John Cooper Works conversions based on the classic range, it is only right that they should be celebrated along with the other 2000 models, and in fact these cars can be considered as specials in their own right.

Four of the LOE cars can be seen in the website banner photo, and the complete set consisted of 8 LOE cars and 10 PAP cars, although only 3 of the PAP cars are believed to have been used in publicity.

We now know the whereabouts of all eight LOE cars, and we plan in the future to re-unite all 8 cars, and also organise a tour to revisit the places MG Rover took the cars to take the publicity photos in London and Brighton.

We only know of the whereabouts of three of the PAP cars, and none of the three seen in the main John Cooper Garages press photo. If you know where any of them are, please get in contact.

We managed to arrange for 4 of the original 8 LOE press cars to be reunited at the BMC / Leyland show at Gaydon in July 2013. A picture of these can be seen on the 'shows' page. We also had three on display at the NEC Birmingham in November 2016. Members of this club own 6 out of the 8 LOE cars! The LOE press cars often make appearances on our club stands, so keep an eye out for us at the shows!