Say WHAT.......???

[slim_boy_fat]

they all rusted away. cant remember the last time i saw one

I used to have one, a 2.3 petrol auto. Hugely comfy in its day and capable but it went to the big scrap-yard in the sky after a 'yoof' pulled out of a farm road-end right in front of me.....
His first words? "I didn't see you". No kidding . They were nearly his last words.....

 

[rikrobson]

There is an Estate version of the SD1 in the Haynes Museum. I wonder if the rover 75 will ever make it there?

 

[the snooper]

There is an Estate version of the SD1 in the Haynes Museum. I wonder if the rover 75 will ever make it there?

on the back of a truck maybe

 

[Spark plug]

If rover had just dinned the horrible k series engine they may have survived.

 

[blenkie1]

If rover had just dinned the horrible k series engine they may have survived.

If they had been sold to Honda instead of BMW they might have had a chance. The only reliable rover was one with a Honda engine.

 

[Wedg1e]

If they had been sold to Honda instead of BMW they might have had a chance. The only reliable rover was one with a Honda engine.

Oh I dunno, the V8 isn't a bad old lump. Very expensive to make as it was mostly sand-cast till the end and used huge amounts of alloy but that gives it a lot of heat cycle tolerance... and plenty of metal for the tuning buffs to grind away

 

[normspanners]

they all rusted away. cant remember the last time i saw one

I last saw one today,-------- in my back garden !!

 

[PhillipM]

... and plenty of metal for the tuning buffs to grind away

...so they can make the same power as a hopped up K-series?

 

[Robotstar5]

If rover had just dinned the horrible k series engine they may have survived.

If they hadn't been greedy by overboring it, it was only designed as 1.1 & 1.4

 

[arceyered]

I had a rover 420 SDI clocked up 190,000 miles, Pulled like a train and never loosed me down once .
Due to cosmetics change it for a Streetwise with rubbish power and poor build Quality.

 

[Wedg1e]

...so they can make the same power as a hopped up K-series?

Is that the K-series that gets through a head gasket every year?
Out of interest I just did a Google for 'K Series Power' and discovered that if you throw thousands of pounds at a K Series you might get 166bhp from it. Cor.

 

[Wedg1e]

and still less than a stock LS series....

I was once challenged to a drag race in my then-20-year-old TVR, by some blud in the latest model supercharged VW Golf. I pointed out that the engine in my car had a design dating back 50 years, so either he could f-off and come back with a 50 year old VW or I could go and borrow my mate's TVR Cerbera

50-year-old Chevvy and Ford engines weren't noted for making huge power as standard from their 5, 6 and 7 litres, as I recall, yet they still get fondled by enthusiasts.

 

[colnerov]

I was once challenged to a drag race in my then-20-year-old TVR, by some blud in the latest model supercharged VW Golf. I pointed out that the engine in my car had a design dating back 50 years, so either he could f-off and come back with a 50 year old VW or I could go and borrow my mate's TVR Cerbera

50-year-old Chevvy and Ford engines weren't noted for making huge power as standard from their 5, 6 and 7 litres, as I recall, yet they still get fondled by enthusiasts.

Hi, the age of the engine type doesn't preclude serious power. Or beating newer cars. -

youtube J4zjIbdQ0RQ

Colin

 

[PhillipM]

Is that the K-series that gets through a head gasket every year?
Out of interest I just did a Google for 'K Series Power' and discovered that if you throw thousands of pounds at a K Series you might get 166bhp from it. Cor.

Yep, it's a toss up between a heat gasket every year, or 8 leads, plugs and a dizzy every two weeks. And still having a random misfire so occasionally you might get more than 166bhp from it...

 

[Wedg1e]

Yep, it's a toss up between a heat gasket every year, or 8 leads, plugs and a dizzy every two weeks. And still having a random misfire so occasionally you might get more than 166bhp from it...

Maybe so but if my (256bhp ) TVR cuts out on half its cylinders it'll still get me home. I'd like to see an MGF do that - assuming the cambelt hasn't let go first

Incidentally when Peter Wheeler owned TVR he did experiment with dropping a Holden V8 into a Wedge; that would have been a good bit more grunty than the Rover but the cost went up exponentially and he was concerned nobody would pay the price. To be fair the chassis and brakes would have struggled as well

 

[Wedg1e]

Hi, the age of the engine type doesn't preclude serious power. Or beating newer cars. -

youtube J4zjIbdQ0RQ

Colin

Of course not. Throw enough time and money at anything and it'll beat something else. The point I was making is that the Rover V8 was around for a very long time and wasn't an inherently bad piece of engineering, it was originally a budget solution for an ailing British motor industry - and hindsight (and the Heritage Motor Museum ) shows us that there were a lot of far worse decisions made.
Modern engines supposedly have the benefits of CAD and CAM which ought to mean 100% reliability and a million horsepower but that isn't the case - everything's still built down to a price rather than up to a standard.