TVR and Marcos Rover V8's

[Fire99]

I've just been reading up a bit about Marcos cars and found it interesting that the Mantaray used very similary engines (Rover V8) to the Griff and Chimaera (Notably the Chimaera)

Does anyone know of any specific differences between the RV8's used by each company? I see Marcos were quoting some impressive figures from the 4.6

[grahamw48]

So were TVR for their V8s.

[Fire99]

Don't I know it..

I was more interested if they went down the same route with the engines of if the Marcos versions of the engines had any 'Marcos Specific' attributes to the engines.

[grahamw48]

Actually, interesting question. I'd like to know too.

[Boosted LS1]

Some of the marcos engines were 'javelin' units whatever they were and by all accounts they were thought to be a pain in the arse by some at marcos. Often had problems with emmissions at mot time and mbe used to have to tweak them lots of the time to get them through. They were forever tweaking them which became a pain for the factory and customer, allegedly

[Number 7]

Fire99 said:

I've just been reading up a bit about Marcos cars and found it interesting that the Mantaray used very similary engines (Rover V8) to the Griff and Chimaera (Notably the Chimaera)

Does anyone know of any specific differences between the RV8's used by each company? I see Marcos were quoting some impressive figures from the 4.6

Are you reading the British Sportscar Legends from C & SC? If so, I initially wondered about the power outputs, until I realised that Marcos wass using the 4.6 quad cam Ford V8.

7.

Edited by Number 7 on Sunday 21st February 09:26

[Fire99]

Number 7 said:

Fire99 said:

I've just been reading up a bit about Marcos cars and found it interesting that the Mantaray used very similary engines (Rover V8) to the Griff and Chimaera (Notably the Chimaera)

Does anyone know of any specific differences between the RV8's used by each company? I see Marcos were quoting some impressive figures from the 4.6

Are you reading the British Sportscar Legends from C & SC? If so, I initially wondered about the power outputs, until I realised that Marcos wass using the 4.6 quad cam Ford V8.

7.

Nope, just some history and info on Marcos cars on the internet.
The LM series, namely the Mantis used the Ford Quad Cam, but that Mantaray used the Rover V8 in either 4.0 or two different power output 4.6's.

These engines are the ones i'm interested in.

A quick quote from the history pages:

"To compliment the Mantis in 1999 the much smoother and less aggressive Mantaray was introduced, this was an all-new styling package mounted on virtually the same chassis as the Mantis but using the well-proved Rover V8 engine of previous models. This time the engine options included the 230 bhp 4.0 litre or the 290 or 340 bhp 4.6 litre. The main body changes were to the totally new bonnet and a conventional style boot and luggage area. A very user-friendly car, only 18 of these pretty cars were made."

[Fire99]

Boosted LS1 said:

Some of the marcos engines were 'javelin' units

I've never heard of a 'Javelin' engine. What's one of them?

[Boosted LS1]

They used to get rover v8's from different sources. I think the Javelin units came from PTP (powertrain products) or something like that. I don't think they used many as it was cammed and lumpy at idle. The people I used to know at Marcos hated it's bottom end characteristics.

[Fire99]

Boosted LS1 said:

They used to get rover v8's from different sources. I think the Javelin units came from PTP (powertrain products) or something like that. I don't think they used many as it was cammed and lumpy at idle. The people I used to know at Marcos hated it's bottom end characteristics.

It would be interesting if I could trace a Mantaray to see what spec the engine is and to see how they installed their RV8 engines compared to TVR.
Usual stuff like Plenums, induction etc etc would be interesting to see and maybe what spec heads they used.

[Dodgey_Rog]

Fire99 said:

Boosted LS1 said:

They used to get rover v8's from different sources. I think the Javelin units came from PTP (powertrain products) or something like that. I don't think they used many as it was cammed and lumpy at idle. The people I used to know at Marcos hated it's bottom end characteristics.

It would be interesting if I could trace a Mantaray to see what spec the engine is and to see how they installed their RV8 engines compared to TVR.
Usual stuff like Plenums, induction etc etc would be interesting to see and maybe what spec heads they used.

I think from memory, they didn't change anything from the standard crated Rover 4.0 or 4.6 V8, they opted for reliability accordingly to Don Powell, so any tweaks would have been tricky and probably cost them more in warranty claims.

Having had a 4.0 Griff and a 4.0 Mantaray, the Marcos variant didn't seem as quick as the Griff, whether it was just the general experience of driving a TVR made it seem quicker, but the Mantaray always seemed more sedate.

Now, the Mantis Supercharged version was an absolute beast!!!! You could hear that f**ker a mile away!!!!

[Fire99]

Dodgey_Rog said:

I think from memory, they didn't change anything from the standard crated Rover 4.0 or 4.6 V8, they opted for reliability accordingly to Don Powell, so any tweaks would have been tricky and probably cost them more in warranty claims.

Thats interesting. Just that from the history pages it states 3 engine tunes. Two of which were from the 4.6 of which the higher performance one states quite impressive BHP. Yes I know TVR's history for massaging figures but I was interested what, atleast with the higher spec 4.6, parts / setup they used.

[Boosted LS1]

^ I think you'll find it was valvetrain stuff and a cam hence why it didn't idle to well.

[Dodgey_Rog]

Fire99 said:

Dodgey_Rog said:

I think from memory, they didn't change anything from the standard crated Rover 4.0 or 4.6 V8, they opted for reliability accordingly to Don Powell, so any tweaks would have been tricky and probably cost them more in warranty claims.

Thats interesting. Just that from the history pages it states 3 engine tunes. Two of which were from the 4.6 of which the higher performance one states quite impressive BHP. Yes I know TVR's history for massaging figures but I was interested what, atleast with the higher spec 4.6, parts / setup they used.

I never actually drove the 4.6 version, but from what my old man said, it went like billio, a better suited engine performance wise from he said. Its a shame about the Mantaray, had the makings of a good car, i made some suggestions to Tom Hulme as we used to work the motor shows together and i saw an incarnation at the factory which had the smoothed door shuts (ala Mantis) but then someone decided to stick Peugeot 406 Coupe headlights at the front, ruined the look for me, i actually liked the look of the front.

It only needed minor tweaks, but then, we were boys in our 20's telling blokes in their 50's and 60's what would to appeal to a wider audience. Sorry i'm not much help on the engine stuff, this was over 10 years ago, my memories not what it used to be.......

[Fire99]

Boosted LS1 said:

^ I think you'll find it was valvetrain stuff and a cam hence why it didn't idle to well.

Thats fair enough. That said my Chim doesn't idle well when the wind is blowing from the East and there are exactly 11 clouds in the sky.

[Fire99]

Dodgey_Rog said:

I never actually drove the 4.6 version, but from what my old man said, it went like billio, a better suited engine performance wise from he said. Its a shame about the Mantaray, had the makings of a good car, i made some suggestions to Tom Hulme as we used to work the motor shows together and i saw an incarnation at the factory which had the smoothed door shuts (ala Mantis) but then someone decided to stick Peugeot 406 Coupe headlights at the front, ruined the look for me, i actually liked the look of the front.

It only needed minor tweaks, but then, we were boys in our 20's telling blokes in their 50's and 60's what would to appeal to a wider audience. Sorry i'm not much help on the engine stuff, this was over 10 years ago, my memories not what it used to be.......

Thanks for that. I find the recent-day Marcos quite an intriguing car. Different from a TVR but still appealing none the less.

[JonRB]

As far as I am aware, Javelin bought the rights to the Rover V8 comparatively recently (as in round about the time the Chimaera was discontinued by TVR) and were touting it as being able to meet modern emissions standards. I don't know what happened to it.

My understanding is that the TVR V8s were very heavily reworked nut the Marcos ones were much closer to 'standard' Rover V8s. But I could be wrong about the latter.