THE only Westminster which Sir David Steel is likely to come near this

week is the old Austin variety. Steel the parliamentarian is currently

fully absorbed in another role which he embraces with total enthusiasm.

Clad in duffel coat and cloth cap he is Steel the classic car rally

driver.

On Sunday the Borders MP and other British enthusiasts crossed the

start line in York and joined hundreds of crews converging on the French

Midi from other start points in Norway, Holland, and Portugal for this

year's Monte Carlo Classic.

It will be Sir David's third Monte but what makes 1994 different is

the car. For the first time he is driving his own, a newly acquired 1966

Rover 3-litre Mark III which headed off from the Steels' Peel Tower home

near Selkirk last weekend in something very close to showroom condition

despite its 28 years.

By tomorrow night, when the Rover and its three-man crew tackle the

hill trials in the mountains behind Monte Carlo, the car's two-tone

juniper green and pine green paintwork may show the signs of 2000 miles

of gruelling motoring over five days, but the working parts will be

reaping the benefit of a loving restoration programme at the Rover plant

in Solihull.

''The car used to belong to the former British Ambassador to Russia,

Sir Geoffrey Harrison,'' said Sir David. ''It was shipped to him in

Moscow brand new from Solihull in 1966 and he continued to run it back

in this country after he retired.''

The Rover was sold by the former ambassador's widow after his death in

the 1980s because it was too big. Sir David tracked it down last year,

laid up minus clutch and exhaust, and bought it for #1000.

Rover agreed to renovate the car as their sponsorship for the rally

and gave the job to Lou Chaffee, a former works engineer in the old

Rover rallying team, who devoted his time to the car in his last months

before retirement.

''He has restored it to prime condition. It is beautiful to drive and

as solid as a tank,'' said Sir David.

He and his co-driver, Edinburgh lighting consultant Andre Tammas, had

a one-day test rally in Wales over New Year after which the Rover went

back to Solihull and Lou Chaffee for more fine-tuning. With rally seats

in the front instead of its former deep leather ''armchairs'', plus

special tripometer for precise rally distance measuring, and an array of

special map-reading lights, the Rover is back in business.

Even with nights of broken sleep and the tension imposed by pinpoint

navigation tests, the journey through Europe will certainly be a more

comfortable experience than last year's Monte for Sir David, Tammas, and

third crew member, Dick Bowdler of Culross, Fife. Then Sir David's team

crammed into a borrowed 1967 Ford Anglia. ''The third man didn't even

have room to stretch his legs and, to add to everything, exhaust fumes

were leaking into the car. We actually ended up first in our class, but

it was a journey to remember,'' said Sir David.

Undeterred, he and Andre tackled the Paris-to-Marrakesh classic rally

last summer in a 1960s three-gear Ford Zephyr which quickly developed

clutch and brake problems. ''Either it wouldn't go or it wouldn't stop.

Apart from that it was fine,'' said Sir David. ''We limped down through

France and managed to get the Zephyr on the ferry. But we had to abandon

it in Tangier and it was eventually shipped home. I had a much easier

return journey in a plane.''

The Steel attraction for ageing cars began with a half share in a 1932

Morris when he was a George Watson's schoolboy working on a Perthshire

farm during the holidays. For #15 he and a friend acquired transport

that had lately been used as a hen coup. It had no glass and the brakes

operated on one wheel only.

At Edinburgh University he graduated to a 1938 Morris 8, followed by a

Rover, and developed a growing skill and enjoyment in DIY maintenance

spurred by a young man's shortage of cash with which to pay garage

bills.

When he married his wife Judy in 1962 he was also lavishing attention

on a Morris 10. ''I don't think Judy has ever quite forgiven me for

spending more money than I could afford on a respray. As a result we

spent our honeymoon in Skye instead of Paris,'' he said.

Since then a classic Alvis has been in and out of the Steel stable and

Judy still uses a 1961 Riley 1.5, registration DS 5121, as a runabout in

the Borders.

Between rallies the latest addition will spend most of its time as the

Steel town car in London. ''It is already much admired at the House of

Commons. Westminster has quite a few car freaks,'' said Sir David.

In Birmingham, the successors of the men who built the car that once

flew the Union Jack in Moscow may be wondering about their future in the

uncertain new world that follows the takeover by the Germans of BMW.

David Steel, inheritor of a slice of the motoring past, regrets the

passing independence of the last major UK volume manufacturer. ''For me

Rover will always seem British,'' he said. And his Rover always will be.