Today’s featured Rover T3 Coupé was Rovers third gas turbine powered car.

Spencer ‘Spen’ King and Gordon Bashford are credited with the design of the Coupé which first saw the light of day in 1956.

Among the designs novelties are all wheel drive, all wheel disc brakes and de Dion rear suspension which offers some of the advantages of independent sear suspension, but with additional complexity.

The T3 was powered by a variant of Rovers 1S gas turbine which produces 60hp that was used for fire pump, auxiliary power for aircraft like the Vulcan B2 nuclear bomb delivery system, hovercraft and as the main engine for light aircraft.

The motor, mounted behind the passenger cabin, has an operating speed of 46,000 rpm, unfortunately this gave a fuel consumption of 13 – 14 miles per gallon of paraffin.

Some features of the T3 including the all wheel disc brakes, and de Dion rear suspension found their way into the Rover P6 production model but unfortunately the gas turbine did not.

The T3 is seen in these photographs at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon where it is usually to be found unless it is on loan.