1983 Rover 2600 SE (SD1)

[V8forweekends]

Fabulous car. Is the engine smooth though? I found the description a little ambiguous.

[anonymous-user]

I will check later by resting my standard driving-Martini on the rocker cover to see if there are any ripples on the surface. This will mean that I have to drive with the bonnet up, but this is no biggy as I am usually too frightened/too busy drive-facebooking to look out of the windscreen anyway.

[carinaman]

dme123 said:

That irritated me too. It also goes to show that even back then the V8 was outdated and overrated. I always love that this six was being developed at the same time as the larger AJ6 down the road at Jaguar but they all hated each other far too much to perhaps collaborate a little.

I slowly came to that conclusion about the Rover V8 this morning, and thought that as an old 50s design from Buick why hamstring a newer straight six as not to tread on its toes.

Did CAR write that Jaguar deliberately engineered the XJ40 with a narrow engine bay so the Rover V8 would not fit that resulted in problems when they wanted to put the V12 in it.

TooMany2cvs said:

That was the old P4 inlet-over-exhaust lump.

Thank you.

[LordGrover]

Them's was the days.

I remember first seeing one when Steed (out of the New Avengers) had one. Looked like something from the future! My boss at the time had one too - brown draylon seats IIRC. Loved them then, and ever since.

Nearest I got was a P6 3500. It died.

[V8forweekends]

carinaman said:

Did CAR write that Jaguar deliberately engineered the XJ40 with a narrow engine bay so the Rover V8 would not fit that resulted in problems when they wanted to put the V12 in it.

I have a vague recollection of a similar story about the Stag so Triumph could have a go at doing their own V8.
Who knows?

[MarshPhantom]

Where you on the M1 sarf yesterday BV?

[anonymous-user]

Nar.

[MoggieMinor]

Very nice. Ive had a few P6s but no SD yet. There is time...

Fair play for having the 2600. There is a lot of bias towards the V8.

[MarshPhantom]

Nice motor anyway, what's inspired the recent jingoism?

There was a chap with V8-S lived near me a while back, very cool with met green paint and gold alloys.

[bigfella70]

Cracking line up of BL vehicles BV. Massive amount of enjoyment and nostalgia there. I actually ditched a 2006 Jag XK 150 as a hobby car to make garage space for my SD1 and don't regret it for a minute. Bulk of funds back in the bank and a great hobby car to enjoy and tinker with :-)

[Trevor450]

Lovely. My dad used to have a SD1 2600SE with the same interior colour. His had a matching gold exterior.

[anonymous-user]

As for the jingoism, I have always liked British cars, and my dad spent many years working for BL. I also like Italian cars and sometimes French cars, and old Saabs. German and Japanese cars generally don't press my buttons. Nowt to do with WW2, by the way.

[dbdb]

Breadvan72 said:

As for the jingoism, I have always liked British cars, and my dad spent many years working for BL. I also like Italian cars and sometimes French cars, and old Saabs. German and Japanese cars generally don't press my buttons. Nowt to do with WW2, by the way.

I don't think it is in any way a jingoistic thing to like British cars. I find German and Japanese cars too passionless and that makes them dull for me, no matter how competent they may be.

I like many French and Italian cars for the same reason. They may be less competent than their German or Japanese equivalents, but like British cars they engage me emotionally. I can say that for very few German cars - and no Japanese made cars I can think of. I admire some of them but don't desire them.

[anonymous-user]

That sums up my views very neatly, thanks!

[anonymous-user]

carinaman said:

dme123 said:

That irritated me too. It also goes to show that even back then the V8 was outdated and overrated. I always love that this six was being developed at the same time as the larger AJ6 down the road at Jaguar but they all hated each other far too much to perhaps collaborate a little.

I slowly came to that conclusion about the Rover V8 this morning, and thought that as an old 50s design from Buick why hamstring a newer straight six as not to tread on its toes.

Did CAR write that Jaguar deliberately engineered the XJ40 with a narrow engine bay so the Rover V8 would not fit that resulted in problems when they wanted to put the V12 in it.

I have one of Jeff Daniels books about the history of Jaguar, I'll see if that makes reference to that legend and confirms it when I can find it. If it is true it was a good idea, I seem to be one of the few people that think the Rover V8 was a really underwhelming engine. I've said on here before that maybe in the 50s and 60s in comparison to the wheezy old donkeys in mainstream cars we were used to it was great, but compared to a proper engine it wasn't so impressive and certainly by the 70s it was getting very outdated. It's not particularly refined, not very efficient, not very robust and not very powerful.

Rover had a chance to get ahead of the game a bit by developing a more powerful range topping version of the I6 in the SD1 and downsizing from the donkey V8, while still having higher power and torque figures. They wouldn't have had to engineer the car to take I and V engines then which would probably have saved development time if nothing else.

Edited by dme123 on Tuesday 21st July 08:19

[Usget]

dme123 said:

carinaman said:

dme123 said:

That irritated me too. It also goes to show that even back then the V8 was outdated and overrated. I always love that this six was being developed at the same time as the larger AJ6 down the road at Jaguar but they all hated each other far too much to perhaps collaborate a little.

I slowly came to that conclusion about the Rover V8 this morning, and thought that as an old 50s design from Buick why hamstring a newer straight six as not to tread on its toes.

Did CAR write that Jaguar deliberately engineered the XJ40 with a narrow engine bay so the Rover V8 would not fit that resulted in problems when they wanted to put the V12 in it.

I have one of Jeff Daniels books about the history of Jaguar, I'll see if that makes reference to that legend and confirms it when I can find it. If it is true it was a good idea, I seem to be one of the few people that think the Rover V8 was a really underwhelming engine. I've said on here before that maybe in the 50s and 60s in comparison to the wheezy old donkeys in mainstream cars we were used to it was great, but compared to a proper engine it wasn't so impressive and certainly by the 70s it was getting very outdated. It's not particularly refined, not very efficient, not very robust and not very powerful.

Rover had a chance to get ahead of the game a bit by developing a more powerful range topping version of the I6 in the SD1 and downsizing from the donkey V8, while still having higher power and torque figures. They wouldn't have had to engineer the car to take I and V engines then which would probably have saved development time if nothing else.

Edited by dme123 on Tuesday 21st July 08:19

The ever-authoritative AROnline reckons that it's kind-of-true

Richard Porter said:

It was a good story, and one never denied by the management… However, during 2003 Jim Randle admitted that he did tell BL management that the V8 wouldn’t fit, but as far as he knew, it probably did! The truth is that he only told this to BL for the reasons stated above, but no-one at BL bothered to check this for themselves…

[dbdb]

Usget's reply is similar to my understanding/belief as to what happened at BL with the XJ40 engine bay.

I also suspect the Rover V8 does fit. There is a small cottage industry fitting small block V8s to the XJ40 in the USA. This isn't to replace broken engines (the AJ6 is one of the most durable engines made) but for increased power, since earlier XJ40s used a low compression version of the AJ6 engine in the USA.

The small block Chevy V8 fits easily, without any modification.

http://www.jaguarspecialties.com/XJ40-V8.asp


Does anyone know if the AJ6 will fit in the Rover's engine bay? I quite like the idea of a Rover 4000!

The Jaguar AJ6 has the right heritage!

[Kitchski]

Plot twist: Breadvan aka SOTW!

Cracking write-up, enjoyed that. Like the SD1 too!

[spitfire4v8]

I feel I should go out and buy a 2600 just to see how much power I can get out of it having read this thread ..

[anonymous-user]

The car had not been used much in the months before I bought it, and after a day or two in my ownership it seemed a bit lumpy and down on power, but I have given the carbs a clean and topped up the dashpots, and now it seems to be well up to speed. It is not a rocketship, but it pulls along well, and is quite enjoyable to trundle along a twisty road, as despite the fairly basic rear suspension and the car's size and weight it handles pretty decently.