Why is the Rover Tomcat not more popular?
Discussion
Recently, I got to wondering about another forgotten coupe of the 90's, the Rover Coupe (namely the Tomcat). You very rarely see them on the road, and I can remember the last time I saw one for sale at a garage - that was several years ago, and it was in 'part ex to clear', so it's probably long since scrapped.
On paper, these cars are an appealing prospect, particularly the Turbo. Nearly 200bhp from a revvy engine, good handling and a decent level of trim. They are also fantastically good looking things. I can't understand why these cars haven't had more of a following over the years. They can be had for buttons now, though the market seems a little sketchy, with no-one really knowing what to ask for models in good condition.
The looks, oh the looks...
I always thought that rear end was fantastic...
I loved the quirky interior too, with the wooden trim...
My enduring memory of these cars is through a friend who is a little bit obsessed with them. He had one in the late 90's as a first car, and loved it. He's been chasing the dream ever since, and when I first went out in his Turbo Coupe I was impressed with it. Subsequently, that car was sold. He recently bought a £300 scrapper to fix up, before taking it home and realising he didn't have the time to give it the attention it needed and got rid of it.
On paper, these cars are an appealing prospect, particularly the Turbo. Nearly 200bhp from a revvy engine, good handling and a decent level of trim. They are also fantastically good looking things. I can't understand why these cars haven't had more of a following over the years. They can be had for buttons now, though the market seems a little sketchy, with no-one really knowing what to ask for models in good condition.
The looks, oh the looks...
I always thought that rear end was fantastic...
I loved the quirky interior too, with the wooden trim...
My enduring memory of these cars is through a friend who is a little bit obsessed with them. He had one in the late 90's as a first car, and loved it. He's been chasing the dream ever since, and when I first went out in his Turbo Coupe I was impressed with it. Subsequently, that car was sold. He recently bought a £300 scrapper to fix up, before taking it home and realising he didn't have the time to give it the attention it needed and got rid of it.
The one I had about 10 years ago was a great little car trying to escape from under-development and lack of funding from BL.
The targa roof was crap, and just made a din. I'd have happily swapped it for a normal sun roof or nothing.
The gearing in top was way too low for the nice, grunty 2l engine - it made motorways a noisy chore and completely buggered the car up as any kind of a high speed distance cruiser.
The boot opening was a joke. Apparently BL didn't have the funds to give the car the hatchback it should have had - or that's what I read somewhere. It turned an already rather limited car into something which struggled to take any odd sized load at all.
All that aside, I liked the car. It handled well, was reliable and reasonably well made, and was quick enough to be fun. I suspect the badge did it no favours, and I always felt it had a bit of an image problem which the Golf GTI I'd had a few years earlier never suffered from.
The targa roof was crap, and just made a din. I'd have happily swapped it for a normal sun roof or nothing.
The gearing in top was way too low for the nice, grunty 2l engine - it made motorways a noisy chore and completely buggered the car up as any kind of a high speed distance cruiser.
The boot opening was a joke. Apparently BL didn't have the funds to give the car the hatchback it should have had - or that's what I read somewhere. It turned an already rather limited car into something which struggled to take any odd sized load at all.
All that aside, I liked the car. It handled well, was reliable and reasonably well made, and was quick enough to be fun. I suspect the badge did it no favours, and I always felt it had a bit of an image problem which the Golf GTI I'd had a few years earlier never suffered from.
surveyor said:
The interior was not quirky. It was from a Rover 200...
Perhaps nothing special in the day, but looking back now it appears rather better for it's age. What gives it character, for me, is the wooden trim, the flat dash in front of the passenger and the cloth trim patterns. I seem to recall my friend's Tomcat having branded Recaros, but he might have added those himself.Baryonyx said:
Recently, I got to wondering about another forgotten coupe of the 90's, the Rover Coupe (namely the Tomcat). You very rarely see them on the road, and I can remember the last time I saw one for sale at a garage - that was several years ago, and it was in 'part ex to clear', so it's probably long since scrapped.
On paper, these cars are an appealing prospect, particularly the Turbo. Nearly 200bhp from a revvy engine, good handling and a decent level of trim. They are also fantastically good looking things.
A work colleague had a K-reg Nightfire Red Turbo - lovely fast cruiser and a genuine 150mph car. They put the wrong spec diff in the Coupe Turbo in my opinion. He had a problem with the box because of some circlip failure ( or similar ) and we ended up swapping the later type one like in the 620 turbo. Made a big difference to the handling as the diff was a lot less snatchy. The later type was better suited to cars ( rather than specced for a Hummer military vehicle ).On paper, these cars are an appealing prospect, particularly the Turbo. Nearly 200bhp from a revvy engine, good handling and a decent level of trim. They are also fantastically good looking things.
We had a good run with a Dakar Yellow M3 one evening on the dual carriageway to Wales
0a said:
- poor handling
- poor build and interior
- front wheel drive
Did you own one ?- poor build and interior
- front wheel drive
They handled really rather nicely, they got independant rear suspension vs the beam in other models, the handling was really only called into question when overwhelmed by the turbo engine.
The build was fine, pretty good in fact, the interior was of its time, nice seats and generally on a par or better than its contemporaries.
It was front wheel drive, because most cars are, I dont get the point, if you want rwd, buy a rwd car ?
I had a bright green 1.6 auto for a few months, bought very cheaply and sold at a profit, was a decent little car and despite the colour, a great looking car, when new they were quite sought after but a very very rare sight these days, I suppose given that the youngest is getting on for twenty years old explains why.
J4CKO said:
Did you own one ?
They handled really rather nicely, they got independant rear suspension vs the beam in other models, the handling was really only called into question when overwhelmed by the turbo engine.
The build was fine, pretty good in fact, the interior was of its time, nice seats and generally on a par or better than its contemporaries.
It was front wheel drive, because most cars are, I dont get the point, if you want rwd, buy a rwd car ?
I had a bright green 1.6 auto for a few months, bought very cheaply and sold at a profit, was a decent little car and despite the colour, a great looking car, when new they were quite sought after but a very very rare sight these days, I suppose given that the youngest is getting on for twenty years old explains why.
I have driven a turbo and it was unable to cope with the power. I stand by my points - in particular the point about the car being a poor handler. More power does not make a better handling car...They handled really rather nicely, they got independant rear suspension vs the beam in other models, the handling was really only called into question when overwhelmed by the turbo engine.
The build was fine, pretty good in fact, the interior was of its time, nice seats and generally on a par or better than its contemporaries.
It was front wheel drive, because most cars are, I dont get the point, if you want rwd, buy a rwd car ?
I had a bright green 1.6 auto for a few months, bought very cheaply and sold at a profit, was a decent little car and despite the colour, a great looking car, when new they were quite sought after but a very very rare sight these days, I suppose given that the youngest is getting on for twenty years old explains why.
0a said:
- poor handling
- poor build and interior
- front wheel drive
This, I had two good friends own them, warp speed on the straights but no good on the bends, this is something they would admit to, similar running cost's would see you in a Nissan 200 SX which had the same go but a much better chassis, shame really because they were a lovely looking coupe.- poor build and interior
- front wheel drive
N Dentressangle said:
The gearing in top was way too low for the nice, grunty 2l engine - it made motorways a noisy chore and completely buggered the car up as any kind of a high speed distance cruiser.
The boot opening was a joke. Apparently BL didn't have the funds to give the car the hatchback it should have had - or that's what I read somewhere. It turned an already rather limited car into something which struggled to take any odd sized load at all.
All that aside, I liked the car. It handled well, was reliable and reasonably well made, and was quick enough to be fun. I suspect the badge did it no favours, and I always felt it had a bit of an image problem which the Golf GTI I'd had a few years earlier never suffered from.
One of my colleagues had one of the 2 liters back in the 90s; good looking car, always liked the shape. Always felt that it was let down by image and lack of engineering - pretty much demonstrated by the lack of them on the roads these days.The boot opening was a joke. Apparently BL didn't have the funds to give the car the hatchback it should have had - or that's what I read somewhere. It turned an already rather limited car into something which struggled to take any odd sized load at all.
All that aside, I liked the car. It handled well, was reliable and reasonably well made, and was quick enough to be fun. I suspect the badge did it no favours, and I always felt it had a bit of an image problem which the Golf GTI I'd had a few years earlier never suffered from.
Definitely an image problem overall with Rover - you always think of them as cars driven by granddads .... damn, that means I should be getting one
0a said:
J4CKO said:
Did you own one ?
They handled really rather nicely, they got independant rear suspension vs the beam in other models, the handling was really only called into question when overwhelmed by the turbo engine.
The build was fine, pretty good in fact, the interior was of its time, nice seats and generally on a par or better than its contemporaries.
It was front wheel drive, because most cars are, I dont get the point, if you want rwd, buy a rwd car ?
I had a bright green 1.6 auto for a few months, bought very cheaply and sold at a profit, was a decent little car and despite the colour, a great looking car, when new they were quite sought after but a very very rare sight these days, I suppose given that the youngest is getting on for twenty years old explains why.
I have driven a turbo and it was unable to cope with the power. I stand by my points - in particular the point about the car being a poor handler. More power does not make a better handling car...They handled really rather nicely, they got independant rear suspension vs the beam in other models, the handling was really only called into question when overwhelmed by the turbo engine.
The build was fine, pretty good in fact, the interior was of its time, nice seats and generally on a par or better than its contemporaries.
It was front wheel drive, because most cars are, I dont get the point, if you want rwd, buy a rwd car ?
I had a bright green 1.6 auto for a few months, bought very cheaply and sold at a profit, was a decent little car and despite the colour, a great looking car, when new they were quite sought after but a very very rare sight these days, I suppose given that the youngest is getting on for twenty years old explains why.
I loved mine, I had a puke green M plate one in 99/2000. Was the first proper quick car I owned. At the time it seemed like a rocket ship!
Handling was fine apart for when you have it two many beans in the bends and it just scrabbled around trying to find traction whilst under steering!
It also saw my first (and so far only) court appearing for speeding! 129mph on the a30. Was lucky to keep my licence, would see you locked up for a spell these days.
Handling was fine apart for when you have it two many beans in the bends and it just scrabbled around trying to find traction whilst under steering!
It also saw my first (and so far only) court appearing for speeding! 129mph on the a30. Was lucky to keep my licence, would see you locked up for a spell these days.
I had 2 of these, a brand new Ameranth VVC with full grey leather, & later a modified 220 Turbo running 260bhp. I liked them both, the VVC unit revved well & was quite perky on the road, the glass Y-Tops were not too noisy on my car, mpg was pretty good really & in the 2 years I owned it nothing went wrong at all.
The Turbo was a different animal altogether, breaking traction with the front wheels was laughably easy, but it was really quick in a straight line & it handled well in my opinion, although as I said it was modified & had aftermarket suspension, bigger brakes, large FMI & a bigger Turbo. I remember having a friendly play with a VX220 very early one Sunday morning on the A34 & there was nothing in it from rolling starts, & the quicker we went I pulled a gap on him. That must have been the NA though & not the turbo model.
I still think the body shape looks good today.
The Turbo was a different animal altogether, breaking traction with the front wheels was laughably easy, but it was really quick in a straight line & it handled well in my opinion, although as I said it was modified & had aftermarket suspension, bigger brakes, large FMI & a bigger Turbo. I remember having a friendly play with a VX220 very early one Sunday morning on the A34 & there was nothing in it from rolling starts, & the quicker we went I pulled a gap on him. That must have been the NA though & not the turbo model.
I still think the body shape looks good today.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff