RE: Rover 75 V8: Guilty Pleasures

RE: Rover 75 V8: Guilty Pleasures

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Discussion

Numeric

1,393 posts

150 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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rix said:
Numeric said:
So much wasted development cash!

Edited by Numeric on Tuesday 5th May 20:38


Edited by Numeric on Tuesday 5th May 20:38
Probably not THAT much wasted??!
The costs were hideous for what was a project with no volume potential and no chance of making money. Think about the complexity of switching from front to rear just for starters? (The odd thing is some people told me that the platform was designed with rear wheel ability as it was a remake of a BMW platform - even the fuel tank had a gap for a drive shaft and it was this allowed it to happen, so I've always pondered if the it was a Rover chassis argument is actually correct?)

The thing was in development for years, the first external development contractor made a complete mess of it and every bit of modelling showed it to be nothing but a vanity project for the uncouth lout in charge. Every £ spent was money diverted away from RDX60 or the use of new diesel engines like the Fiat units - that god forbid company car drivers might actually have bought. And that before we factor in the man hours spent on it that could have been better used. Oddly I've been told that at the final curtain it seemed the uncouth lout was very concerned with whether his new V8 company hack had been finished...

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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V8 TVR said:
Not sure they made a 75 V8 estate. Don't mind being corrected on this point!
They did, but very few of them. It was something like 14 cars, so a very rare sight.

londonbabe

2,044 posts

191 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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I liked the idea of these more than the reality. MG Rover's management of the brand was shocking - they really had no idea about what it stood for, so you got cost-cutting and nonsense about 'value' rather than any attempt to make it superior to its competition. Basically they thought Rover was Austin.

The V8 wasn't a bad idea. The engineering wasn't bad. But it should have been a Rover first, not an MG, to capitalise on the desire for a modern SD1 or P6. It shouldn't have been cost-cut. Plastic wood indeed, and that hideous facelift bumper which simply doesn't fit - literally: you could pass a sandwich through the gap between it and the bodywork.
Give me that drivetrain in an early Oxford-made 75 and it would be a perfect Q car.

(Sometimes I think that the management at the time should have shut Austin and Longbridge down back in the 60s, before it dragged the entire BL edifice down with it. It was the albatross round the neck of an otherwise viable company with otherwise decent products. The rest might have been saved then.)

samoht

5,633 posts

145 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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Echoing others here, given what I've heard about the cost cutting facelift, I think I'd rather have an early 2.5 V6 and put up with Fwd, on balance. Early cars were a lovely place to be and nicely wafty to drive.

fflyingdog

621 posts

238 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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I had a Trophy Blue MG ZT190+ ex demonstrator in 2003,looked very nice handled very well inspiring confidence with just a tadge of under steer when pushed, but there lay a problem, the car just didn't have the power you would have expected in a V6 2.5l. In my opnion the Mondeo ST200 that i previously chopped in for the MG was an better machine, though the MG edged it on looks and reliability my ST200 having spun the bottom end shells with less that 6k on the clock. All that being said i would have another MG as i think they have matured well.

tog

4,517 posts

227 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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V8 TVR said:
tog said:
I want one of the handful (maybe only a couple?) of Rover 75 V8 estates.
Not sure they made a 75 V8 estate. Don't mind being corrected on this point!
They certainly did. A quick google says maybe 15 or so.


simonrockman

6,843 posts

254 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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I drove one once, in an evil, bad-for-the-eyes green, and was disappointed. I wanted it to be angrier and it was too refined but not in an iron-fist-velvet-glove way like a Bentley. It was just kind of nice.

I've never tried one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volkswagen-Passat-4-0-W8... but the comparison would be interesting.

pSyCoSiS

3,581 posts

204 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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I can understand the appeal....

But, for the money they command, I would rather have an X308 or X350 XJR (or a multitude of other super saloons!).

LewG

1,357 posts

145 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
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briang9 said:
always loved these too, but did they not have even less power, 190 bhp if my memory works. There is a nice example in the Lakeland Motor Museum

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=3&a...
That's right Brian a claimed 190hp for the single plenum Vitesse, allegedly a bit more for the twin plenum. I imagine they were a reasonably quick car back then but certainly not now. Underneath the mechanicals were never what you'd call advanced, especially after the P6 yet I've always had a soft spot for them, they look and sound fantastic.
My dad was saying some executives arrived at the company where he first worked in 1976 in brand new SD1s, and everyone gathered round for a look as they were so extraordinary compared to anything else on our roads at the time.

Alicatt1

805 posts

194 months

Thursday 7th May 2015
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It all started when I got a Rover 75 1.8 as a company car, the only other one in the company was the marketing director's, everyone else either had an Astra or Vectra. I liked the 75 so much I bought a new ZT 260 for myself, still got it but it is in storage just now as I'm out the country. I would love the Rover 75 V8 front on the ZT I think it looks much better than the facelifted ZT, even the pre-facelift front is better smile Dreadnought Garage worked their magic on my ZT and took the bhp up to 400, she will red line in top gear which is about 178mph according to the GPS, not too bad smile

Our local undertaker bought a custom built R75 V8 limo (long wheelbase) and he got it out the factory gates just before they closed for good, beautiful looking car it is too.

Petemate

1,674 posts

190 months

Thursday 7th May 2015
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I'm getting ready to duck here. I did a stretch at Rover when the 75 was in production (also years before at BL...) and was on rigs n' rollers the day the first estate came through. Liked it. In our area can often be seen an immaculate V8 estate. Lovely.

PS edited to add.
Having read over the remainder of this thread (didn't realise it was so big, as I initially commented on my mobile) I will, in view of the rarity, have a really good look at that one in our area next time I see it (the few times it has been in the Health Centre car park). I know I spotted the twin rear exhausts but I will look very closely next time and even try to have a word with the owner. I have also spotted it up at Sainsbury's at Heyford Hill.
Pete

Edited by Petemate on Thursday 7th May 16:37

KiwiBMW

17 posts

125 months

Thursday 7th May 2015
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Sadly, a mere 4 came to New Zealand so, talk about RARE! Aaron Sleight, a Kiwi who achieved 87 podium finishes in the Superbike World Champs in the 1990s and then went racing Porches, loves these cars. He tested one for a TV car programme over here (NZ) and got a real surprise - 'Fit for purpose'. It got to him. In think I could be tempted even in my £50k garage.

RoverP6B

4,338 posts

127 months

Sunday 10th May 2015
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As a former P6 3500S owner, I rather understand the appeal of a moderately quick, refined, compact Rover barge that just hints at sportiness. Could never understand why they used the Ford Modular lump rather than the vastly more compact Chev LS series (or even a proper Rover V8, like the 5-litre lump Bowler were using in the Wildcat at the time), though - limited gearbox choice and physically enormous for not much displacement or power...

seech

146 posts

211 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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vomit

TEKNOPUG

18,844 posts

204 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Once you add in the cost of a supercharger conversion to the price of the car, they make very little sense, when compared to the price of an XJR, STR, M5, AMG Merc, Alpina etc. I mean you'd have to really, REALLY want one. Or have more money than sense.

odl21

15 posts

136 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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i have one of the MG estate versions of the '260' (along with a host of more exotic stuff, so i can't blame you). some day i will rebuild the engine to put out some decent power. its seriously under powered as is. sounds wonderful and handles fantastically. that engine can easily put out 400hp without a supercharger if built carefully with new heads, pistons and cams. i never really drive it (it has about 50k on the clock) but I won't part with it.

Ginge R

4,761 posts

218 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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J4SON88 said:
Don't blame you. Everyone likes an oddball. Add in an emotional attachment and there you go.

I shouldn't like the Proton Satria GTI, but i do for quite similar reasons.
Oddballs.. without going through the thread, has anyone mentioned a V8 Passat?

odl21

15 posts

136 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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myhandle said:

can anyone explain why people blank out number plates on their car pics? how is it any different to seeing it on the street?

odl21

15 posts

136 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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Usget said:
How cheaply could one be brought to 350-400bhp, do we think?
never understood why supercharging them was so popular. the 2v modular will easily make 370hp+ for about $3000 investment in heads, cams and pistons. and still look and drive totally standard. this engine begs to be blueprinted properly - the factory tolerances are atrocious. absolutely no need to supercharge it unless you want 5-600hp - at which point you'd better do something about that T5 box too.

PoleDriver

28,616 posts

193 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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odl21 said:
i have one of the MG estate versions of the '260' (along with a host of more exotic stuff, so i can't blame you). some day i will rebuild the engine to put out some decent power. its seriously under powered as is. sounds wonderful and handles fantastically. that engine can easily put out 400hp without a supercharger if built carefully with new heads, pistons and cams. i never really drive it (it has about 50k on the clock) but I won't part with it.
The only problem with that is that better heads (more valves) are higher than the standard ones and will not fit under the bulkhead area! That Ford engine really was shoe-horned in to the available space!