Tuesday 5th May 2015

Rover 75 V8: Guilty Pleasures

Closet Rover fan Matt attempts to explain his fascination with a very rare 75

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Well if Dan thought the SLK was going to be a controversial choice! Here I am as a relatively young car enthusiast attempting to defend the Rover 75 V8. Having never driven one. I'm not sure I've ever seen one to be entirely honest. So here goes...

Is that Nightfire Red?

Firstly I'd like to pass the buck slightly. As in blaming my dad. Back in 1998 he bought a secondhand Rover 600, just a few months before the 75 was being shown at the Birmingham motor show. He was excited about seeing the 75 but back then the whole world was excited about the 75. As a seven-year-old car nerd counting down the days to my first motor show I was cramming in as much about the show stars as possible. Which wasn't a lot given the attention span of a seven-year-old but the effort was there. And it seemed every front cover was either Rover 75 or Jaguar S-Type for weeks and weeks. Perhaps a Ford Focus comfortably winning a group test for a bit of variety. But there was tangible optimism then about the 75's prospects and I suppose that rubbed off.

Then the MG Z-cars came along and when you're 10 yellow cars with big spoilers are about the coolest things in the entire universe. Dad's penchant for saloons, plus the BTCC success, meant I really wanted a four-door ZS 180 for a while. Still do, in fact.

Bentley on a budget. Hopefully

So there's some context. There's also the Rover 25 I owned as my first car which turned out to be a very bad Cat D but that's a story for another time... I quite like Rovers, seemingly just because my dad did.

But why the 75 V8? Why not a ZT? Especially given there's an example of the latter in my £100K Garage? Truth is I like them both but there's nothing especially shameful about liking the MG version... The 75's appeal for me lies in the old Roverness of it. Wood and leather and V8 torque, just the sort of things that very much weren't popular in the mid-2000s. Indeed if you want that you would probably just by an old Rover but something about this 21st century reimagination appeals a lot. By most accounts it's not brilliant to drive but I'm not that fussed; I like to look on it as a mini Bentley, a big and luxurious saloon with the sole priority of driver and passenger comfort. Perhaps the reality would ruin that but until then I can covet one.

I like the rarity, the looks (no, really) and the thought of going out for a pub lunch with pops in the Rover V8. It's daft and not exactly living the PH dream but then that's kind of the point of these blogs. Lord knows where they're going from here. I await your feedback with some considerable trepidation!

[J4SON88]

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.

[HarryFlatters]

That is a very unattractive gear knob.

[Matt Bird]

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.

Phew. I like the Satria as well so that makes at least two of us!

[soad]

Cut price Bentley?

[tog]

I want one of the handful (maybe only a couple?) of Rover 75 V8 estates.

[Barchettaman]

Didn´t these have an engine management system that involved a BMW unit talking to a Rover ECU, then going through to another ECU for the V8? Something daft like that...?

Plus the V8 is extremely low-output for its capacity, is it not?

I think I´d rather have an S-type R.

[soad]

Barchettaman said:

Plus the V8 is extremely low-output for its capacity, is it not?

Ford-sourced (256bhp) 4.6-litre V8...a detuned Mustang engine (bought cheaply?).

[ewenm]

soad said:

Barchettaman said:

Plus the V8 is extremely low-output for its capacity, is it not?

Ford-sourced 256bhp 4.6-litre V8...detuned Mustang engine (bought cheaply?).

Supercharge it to 400bhp easily though...

[darkblueturbo]

Hey, it's got a V8. That's all you need right. It could be ANYTHING, but if it's got a V8 it's awesome.

[Mr2Mike]

Barchettaman said:

Plus the V8 is extremely low-output for its capacity, is it not?

Just like a Rover V8, even more retro appeal!

[joncon]

I was lucky enough to have the mg version, from new,kept it 3 years and loved every mile in it.....
it had a thirst for fuel
and a bigger one for tyres ...
most enjoyable 24000 miles of my life

[TurboHatchback]

Everything is better with a V8 and I imagine they make lovely noises. I'm not sure I could live with the combination of limp performance and huge thirst though when others can do so much better at both.

[cologne2792]

Wonderful Car ! Built when they were broke by enthusiasts - definitively British !

[amoeba]

Would love one, but they are (last time I looked) similar in price to an S-Type R and are inferior in just about every way. So I bought the STR.

[mnx42]

Matt Bird said:

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.

Phew. I like the Satria as well so that makes at least two of us!

And me!

[sjc]

soad said:

Cut price Bentley?

If they'd done it on the early cars, it could indeed be called a junior Bentley refinement and nvh wise.The fact that they did it on the facelift cars with their dreadful cost-cutting of materials and quality just about everywhere, leaves the description a long long way wide of the mark.

[kambites]

I'd love a per-facelift one to waft around in for a while. They may not be particularly good in objective terms but they have a character the Germans could only dream of.

[Andy JB]

Always admired the 75 from a far especially the V8, however, a former boss was a Director at Rover during this era and had several of these as company cars all of which broke quite catastrophically. Also stated the engine was very underpowered for a V8 & hugely thirsty & underdeveloped installation generally - enough to steer you away....

[monty quick]

I have just returned from China where I kept having these strange flashbacks of the Rover era when new Roewe 750's would waft past. Not the V8 but a very potent V6 and still clearly based on the Rover75. The shape doesn't look dated and I agree the V8 was a natural progression following the old Rover principles of comfort and torque!

[CedricN]

I've rode as a passenger in an estate v8. The sound was really cool, felt very odd with the yank hot rod sound in a brittish estate. Felt pretty quick aswell.