Charles Spencer King

Charles Spencer "Spen" King CBE (26 March 1925 – 26 June 2010) was a significant design engineer in the Rover Company (and, after their takeover, in the British Leyland Motor Corporation).

He joined Rover, run by his uncles Maurice and Spencer Wilks, in 1945 and worked initially on the gas-turbine powered JET1 and T3 experimental prototypes.

King was frequently frustrated by the design compromises imposed by insufficient funding, and the poor quality of vehicles produced by an uncooperative workforce in the mainly outdated plants owned by the company.

While chairman of BL Technology from 1979 he was responsible for developing a series of light, aerodynamic and technically advanced ECV (Energy Conservation Vehicle) experimental models (including the ECV3), features of which were incorporated into later BL Group products such as the Rover K-series engine, or adopted by other manufacturers.

[1] King and his former Rover colleague Arthur Goddard extensively shared many of their views on the motor industry in 2010.