What is an F.D.H Coupe?
It's a Rover Coupe turbo registered on an 'N' plate, and with 'F.D.H' as the plate suffix. It's not a specific model or special edition.
What's different about them?
Stories differ slightly, but the gist is that they were intended for a foreign market (possibly Japan, but i'm sceptical because they don't meet some of Japan's criteria - see later), but were not shipped for some reason. Rover kept them somewhere near Longbridge, and they were then sold in this country in 1998. I believe Rover employees were given first dibs!
Like most exports, they included all of the options - so you got aircon and full leather etc. The only tangible diffence to any other Coupe turbo is the addition of a third centre brakelight. So it's like a CD model if you like.
So any Rover with F.D.H on the end of the plate is one of these?
Not necessarily - the three letters on the end refer to the place of registration. Look here for details
http://ukcar.co.uk/dvla/car_reg.html
You can see that the letters FD indicate the car was registered in either Dudley (near Longbridge) or Guildford. It goes without saying that they must have sold a few Rovers in these places in 1996 - theres nothing special about an F.D.H 416!
What's it worth?
An F.D.H coupe shouldn't be worth any more than a fully specced turbo of similar mileage and condition. Because they were registered in 1998 they tend to have less mileage, but this doesn't always apply.
If you want to pay more for the F.D.H letters then thats fine , but remember you are buying what is essentially a factory second if you're being cynical - and nobody else other than a Rover enthusiast will see anything different.
Note: These coupes are not any more powerful than a normal coupe turbo! Don't let anyone tell (or sell) you different!
Japan Spec Coupes
These coupes were exported to Japan and then imported back, others were intended for Japan and never made it. I think both types exist.
They have some features that make them desirable to some - small arch extensions to meet the Japan wheel-arch distance legislation, and a plinth to hold the Japanese square numberplates. They also have Japanese stickers and some other small additions like Cat temperature warning sensor and flare holder etc. These cars are no more powerful either!
The cars were DEFINATELY due to go out to Japan and DEFINATELY made it on to a cargo ship. This has been confirmed by an ex employee who was directly involved in the shipment and the conversion back to UK spec. It is unknown so far if the cars made it to Japan. They kind of vanished for 3 years. They were being shipped to Japan when Japan changed it's laws on emmisions and the cars would no longer be eligable to bo sold in Japan new. Therefore Rover were left with little option to bring them back.
Now, with Rover were in trouble. They had, at the same time, launched the new generation 200 and 400 cars and the Coupe had been deleted from the range so the options available to them were as follows:
A: Get the cars back to the UK, convert the engines to comply with Japan law which would mean spending Hundreds of thousands of pounds in associated costs. This was ruled out as the batch of cars was just over 300. The man hours to change engines, subframes etc and then ship back to Japan was simply not worth it.
B: Bring the cars back to the UK, change to UK spec and sell off cheap. This is what they decided to do, rather than spend any more money of an old stock of outdated cars.
The cars arrived back on Uk soil and were immediately sent back to Longbridge and a team of two worked on converting the cars back to UK standards. The clocks were changed from KPH to MPH, the arch kits were removed. Wiring was changed back to UK spec rear plynth and front plynth chaged to UK for the UK registration laws and various other things. All parts removed were thrown in a skip and trashed.
Due to UK and EU importation laws, the cars were being brought in by Rover and they were not allowed to sell them on for 6 months. Rover had to register all the cars as new and keep them in storage. It's beleived by my source that this was infact at Longbridge. This is also backed up by the fact the 'FD' is the loacl DVLA office for Longbride. The cars were all registered at the same time and registered as new on 03/08/1998. There are a two cars from the batch registered on 20th August, but this is believed a DVLA error.
With the 6 months up, Rover could now sell the cars but as mentioned earlier, they were out of production so all they could do was ovver them to employees and special affiliated car sales companies at a significant loss.
Now in 2007, some 50% of the original batch are untaxed but in existance on the DVLA books. 33% have been SORN'd and certainly 7 have been scrapped, though this may be higher. 6 are known to be on personalised plates, through research, it has been proved than at the time of checking, it was not more than this.
The batch of cars consisted of four options:
Tahiti Blue with beige leather
Tahiti Blue with ash grey leather
Nightfire red with ash grey leather
Charcoal with ash grey leather.
Any difference to this and it is either not part of the batch of cars or it has been modified.
As I say, this is all verified with reliable sources within the old MG/Rover company, Customs and Excise and the DVLA.
Hopefully that will shed a few myths.
They certainly did not have anything left on them by the time MG sport and Racing had finished with them, and the certainly did not have any more power, and that flyer is mine..I ordered mine in nov or dec 98 via colliers via Land Rover, it went to MG sport and racing along with at least 180 others, Some bits were took off and skipped, deffo front and rear plith( still got the old plinth holder marks on my front bumper)they even took the flare holders out, got the holes lol, this was confrimed by MG sport and racing just after rover went bust, but no arches.. (work that one out)a few of the guys who worked on the MG-SV's etc kept the VIN records of all the coupes they worked on, ( also the Cup cars as well ) I viewed my coupe mid feb and I collected it in March from colliers as new.. it was a case of pick your reg mate, they had more or less every F D H plate from 101 to about 306..,
either way I waited about3-4 months to collect it having paid 1250 deposit on it for an early christmas present..
hope this is of use
