RE: SOTW: Rover 216 Vitesse EFI

[carinaman]

mcford, you could have a point, the 216SE I drove wasn't brand new, but was hardly that worn.

Balmoral_Green, Thank you for the 1984 LJKS reference. I may dig that issue out in future and have a read.

[robsco]

I think these are a cracking looking car to be honest, I'd love to have a go in one out of morbid curiosity.

[Petrolhead_Rich]

red_rover said:

Petrolhead_Rich said:

Seems I'm alone in liking this then?

Good car in it's day, from when Rover was still barely profitable and NOT copying honda's (it was the later 214's that were Honda Accords in disguise with K-Series units!

There are many fans of this little Rover car on here! I've previously owned two and fancy another when money/space allows.

But I have to point out a few mistakes in your post. The Rover 200 SD3 was the first 'Rhonda' and initially was just a wee bit cosmectically different to the Honda Ballade, initially using the Honda 1.3 engine. In 1986, it was revised with a few proper Rover treats internally and externally.

The Second generation 200, R8, was a Rover Honda collaboration. The Rover 600 was the model that was based on the Honda Accord - and that didn't use any form of K-series (It has the Honda 1.8, 2.0 NASP and 2.3 and Rover 2.0 L-series diesel and Rover 2.0 T-series Turbo).

The First generation 200 stole sales away from the Montego, Maestro but not really from rivals. But the second generation made Rover a mildly profitable company again, selling around 1 million units by the time production stopped - making the second generation Rover 200 the best selling Rover of all time.

I humbly stand corrected, I had one of the later K-series powered "Rhonda's" and thought it was better than the Honda anyway, Didn't realise the early ones were also Anglo-Japanese Hybrids too!

Cracking car and I loved it even though the alternator pulled the threads out of the block on a monthly basis and it ate 3 gearboxes, having an engine I can pickup with my own hands and being able to pull the engine out in under an hour meant it wasn't such a massive issue anyway!

[Liquid Knight]

Not forgetting the hard cornering Acme smoke screen fitted as standard with the "S" series engines.

http://youtu.be/iM6trhD6avU

[molineux1980]

I crashed into the back of a Rover 213 like this 2 weeks after passing my test, in my brown Nova saloon. My mate was driving the Rover, the day he passed his test.

Whoops.

[Liquid Knight]

Well if you missed the VDP here's an SE


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...


In white so if I win it I'll use it as a Police car prop'.

[richardgrant]

I had three of these albeit poverty spec models
great memories as the 213 was a 12valve so had a bit of poke to it and central locking which was quite posh back then

[Simon says]

Petrolhead_Rich said:

Seems I'm alone in liking this then?

Good car in it's day, from when Rover was still barely profitable and NOT copying honda's (it was the later 214's that were Honda Accords in disguise with K-Series units!

£101 for insurance, will turn heads and able to enter classic car shows, zero depreciation as long as you look after it, and actually quite nice to drive

Not Shed of the week? True, it's no shed, it's perfect

(runs away to a fireproof bunker and awaits the flaming....)

It is a Honda copy torsion bar front suspension and beam rear suspension all ripped off from the 84>87 Civic along with the same single cam 12 valve motor on the Rover 213/213S nice try remember the Honda Ballade the only Honda we had lots of recalls and build quality issues good old blighty

Edited by Simon says on Sunday 8th May 19:07

[shouldbworking]

Martin 480 Turbo said:

Gosh, only 173 being left and almost no one missing them?
That's one for the Guiness book then.

I genuinly hope someone who likes it takes posession of
that car and cares for it through the years to come. It would
be very dull to see only Mx5-s, GTi-s and 911 in the car
museums documenting the 80ies.

Current museums are hardly representative of everymans motorings past to be honest and I still enjoy those

[Emeye]

Liquid Knight said:

Not forgetting the hard cornering Acme smoke screen fitted as standard with the "S" series engines.

http://youtu.be/iM6trhD6avU

And some people say an ex-police car is a good purchase!?!

IIRC these Rover 200s had a reasonable rep for handling back in the day.

[davido140]

Has shed done a Rover 220 turbo coupe before?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-Rover-220-Coupe-Turbo-G...

I had one in '97-ish "interesting" dynamics, epic torque steer, should have been called the Rover 220 Understeer coupe, but still great fun.

[red_rover]

Simon says said:

the only Honda we had lots of recalls and build quality issues good old blighty

None of these problems to do with the Honda quality controlled SD3 production line or the Honda components?


Lovely little anecdote from austin-rover regarding some Honda arrogance and incompetence

"Rover used the opportunity to also make some further reaching changes to the suspension set-up: Honda managers had originally stated flatly that this was their system and Rover did not need to tamper with it, but they had not figured on its sheer incompetence in its initial form. What Rover found was not so much a problem with the ride quality – that was always going to be compromised by the fact that the suspension had limited travel, but what they – and road testers – found was, disconcertingly, the car would suffer from excessive pitching under acceleration and corkscrewing when cornering.

This basic flaw obviously resulted in inconsistent handling and the company did not want such a compromise present on their car – Honda derived or not. So, the chassis engineers went about trying to solve the problem, which they did fairly quickly. It was found that there was a seventeen per cent difference in spring rate between the left and right rear wheels, which once eliminated by Austin Rover, left the Rover 200 with consistent and class-average ride and handling. Significantly, Honda also took up these modifications in their Ballade model – and not just those built Longbridge."

[morgrp]

This is the car to blame for the montego not getting the injected s-series - think it would of really benefitted it but guess it would have undercut this rover by a considerable margin - shame really

Nice motor that rover - got a bit of a thing about BL motors

[TOENHEEL]

An interesting sotw but come on they are bloody ugly and let's face it pretty ste!

[Simon says]

red_rover said:

Simon says said:

the only Honda we had lots of recalls and build quality issues good old blighty

None of these problems to do with the Honda quality controlled SD3 production line or the Honda components?


Lovely little anecdote from austin-rover regarding some Honda arrogance and incompetence

"Rover used the opportunity to also make some further reaching changes to the suspension set-up: Honda managers had originally stated flatly that this was their system and Rover did not need to tamper with it, but they had not figured on its sheer incompetence in its initial form. What Rover found was not so much a problem with the ride quality – that was always going to be compromised by the fact that the suspension had limited travel, but what they – and road testers – found was, disconcertingly, the car would suffer from excessive pitching under acceleration and corkscrewing when cornering.

This basic flaw obviously resulted in inconsistent handling and the company did not want such a compromise present on their car – Honda derived or not. So, the chassis engineers went about trying to solve the problem, which they did fairly quickly. It was found that there was a seventeen per cent difference in spring rate between the left and right rear wheels, which once eliminated by Austin Rover, left the Rover 200 with consistent and class-average ride and handling. Significantly, Honda also took up these modifications in their Ballade model – and not just those built Longbridge."

No,you misunderstand I am not knocking Honda just the fact that the Ballade had the H badge,if I had Honda's rep I would not have bothered with this inferior offering,you won't meet a bigger Honda fan here I worked on for long enough although I will say reliability wise they will never beat the eighties for this

[mrpenks]

Okay everyone, time for some facts. Please read the following link which is a road test from when this car was new.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/sets...

Amazingly, the Ford Orion came out on top, the Rover 216 second and (amazingly) the BMW 316 last. Just shows how time can really skew the reality of a car's performance when new.

No more Ford or Rover bashing then???

[Martin 480 Turbo]

Whow, that's admittedly a rather strong first post.
Thanks for the upload and links.

But in conclusion I'd say this test tells more about
the twisted view angle of the motoring press at the
time than the cars on hand.

"what car" somehow manages to use the first page solely
to establish, that the Rover is a "domestic" product.
Is that "local content" measured in pounds weight or pounds
worth?

Furthermore the comparison to the weakest offering in the
BMW range of the time and an Escort with a boot doesn't
tell the reader much, as both were no class leading offerings.

I'd bet, that at the time there were run many tests of simular
cars throughout Europe with very different results.

In France the Citroen BX would have won, in Italy the Giulietta
or Fiat Regatta (remember it) and in Spain the SEAT Malaga (even
more obscure.)

In Germany of coursse the VW Jetta would have taken the trophy,
but somehow that one was not on the radar of "what car" at the time.

Nevertheless interesting reading, to see how far flung some paid writer
reached to place the Orion Ghia on top of its class.

Martin 480 Turbo

[Balmoral Green]

Pretty close run thing. Good find & post. Looking at it in detail, the Orion earned a few more points on trivia, rather than real meat. Like a bit more rear leg room. I'm disappointed that the 'S' series was found to be unrefined, it must have been a very well fettled Ford press car, and a dog rough Rover press car. Rover were still a tad inconsistent at the time, which was quite noticeable when regularly replacing our demo cars. One would be a cracker, whilst another one wouldn't.

[MGJohn]

davy9449 said:

I can't believe this is averaging 5.5 on the PH meter. I gave it a flat 0, just like my heart rate when I saw the pics

Right ... O yee of little ... I'm orf to give it a twelve! Hold on to your blood pump... it may go off the clock now ...
..

Now showing 5.57 ... so there.

Edited by MGJohn on Tuesday 10th May 15:09

[nottyash]

MGJohn said:

Right ... O yee of little ... I'm orf to give it a twelve! Hold on to your blood pump... it may go off the clock now ...
..

Now showing 5.57 ... so there.

Edited by MGJohn on Tuesday 10th May 15:09

Haha, MG john I knew you would defend it.
I tried really hard to like mine, and i did, but mine was only 3 years old, clutch cables snapping and revving erratically when it felt like it put me off. I tied a lot of money in it you see.
It was in compatition with cars like the Orion Ghia I, and I prefered it at the time, loved the styling, it drove well, comfy and well specced but its faults put me off, it just wasnt that reliable.