Rover 220 coupe turbo - Who Remembers?
Discussion
Who remembers the race series for them ( as well as the Vento one )?
A friend had a K-reg Nightfire Red one with the T-roof. It was, as stated, very quick at the time - a genuine 150mph car.
I do remember following an enthusiastically driven Dakar Yellow M3, owned by someone we knew, a 3-litre model and him struggling to pull away - the Rover was good value performance wise and it was finished nicely inside. The handling seemed fine on smooth roads but did snatch and pull on bumpier, broken Tarmac.....however, when a circlip in the gearbox went west, we sourced a gearbox fitted with the Torsen B diff ( rather than the A ) to replace it. That improved the handling by a margin, much less prone to snatch and weave and a change of tyres shortly after improved it some more.The bias ratio was much milder on the B type as it was meant for cars rather than military applications!
He had a head gasket leak as well but it was just the usual oil way leak rather than a compression blow so he ran around for a while with it just seeping oil. Don't remember any other particular engine problems and the power delivery was pretty smooth for a turbo application
A friend had a K-reg Nightfire Red one with the T-roof. It was, as stated, very quick at the time - a genuine 150mph car.
I do remember following an enthusiastically driven Dakar Yellow M3, owned by someone we knew, a 3-litre model and him struggling to pull away - the Rover was good value performance wise and it was finished nicely inside. The handling seemed fine on smooth roads but did snatch and pull on bumpier, broken Tarmac.....however, when a circlip in the gearbox went west, we sourced a gearbox fitted with the Torsen B diff ( rather than the A ) to replace it. That improved the handling by a margin, much less prone to snatch and weave and a change of tyres shortly after improved it some more.The bias ratio was much milder on the B type as it was meant for cars rather than military applications!
He had a head gasket leak as well but it was just the usual oil way leak rather than a compression blow so he ran around for a while with it just seeping oil. Don't remember any other particular engine problems and the power delivery was pretty smooth for a turbo application
Blown2CV said:
2 pages in and no pics!!
I'd one of those. Amazingly quick. I debadged mine so it just looked like a regular 214Si at the time.
Also had a 620Ti with the same engine, and my dad had that bodyshape in a 216 GTI 16v and subsequently a 220i Coupe with rare (for a non turbo) black leather and t bar roof.
Never had the opportunity of getting my hands on the 220 Turbo. I had read up about them and about the oil leakage they suffered from, something which I suffered and got rather annoyed about by the 205 I had (it had a tendency to spit oil into the air filter box), that and the potential fuel consumption, so I nabbed the VVC version instead. As far as colours go, I only ever thought it looked good in three - Nightfire Red, Purple and the pick of the bunch Pearlescent Tahiti Blue.
Have to say that it's been the car I view with the greatest affection that I've owned, not saying much mind when you look at my car history (eleven years later I still own her and going through a rolling restoration, she's a little crusty
). I still get a smile on my face when driving though (more so after plodding in around in an oil burner).
Gratuitous photo (best colour, Pearlescent Tahiti Blue) -
Have to say that it's been the car I view with the greatest affection that I've owned, not saying much mind when you look at my car history (eleven years later I still own her and going through a rolling restoration, she's a little crusty
). I still get a smile on my face when driving though (more so after plodding in around in an oil burner).Gratuitous photo (best colour, Pearlescent Tahiti Blue) -
I only drove one of these once when my mate let me have a go in his. In just driving it around normally getting used to it I remember the controls all being very light (dare I say 'loose') - steering, clutch, even the throttle pedal seemed to have little resistance and a long throw. At 8/10ths it seemed a very spritely car indeed for the day. At 9/10ths things began to 'fall apart' on the handling front to such an extent that I did not dare venture to the 10/10ths level. I fear Seb Loeb cum Ken Block levels of car control were/are needed to drive one of these 'flat out'.
A friend's father had them as company demonstrators back in the day. They were quick in their time but used to eat tyres and drive shafts. Apparently on corporate track days, people discovered that they would corner much faster than they thought because they hadn't expected to arrive at the corners so fast.
I've done a good few miles in the 216 and non turbo 220 coupes over the years. Both of which I liked. The 216 was probably the nicer car in general and not much slower. Both B road blasters rather than motorway cruisers.
As a slight irrelevance, the glass roof panels were changed at some point, the early ones being far to easy to shatter (from experience), later ones were tougher (still got a pair somewhere).
My mother has only just scrapped her 220 because the clutch was shot and the car was worth nothing.
All in all fond memories.
I've done a good few miles in the 216 and non turbo 220 coupes over the years. Both of which I liked. The 216 was probably the nicer car in general and not much slower. Both B road blasters rather than motorway cruisers.
As a slight irrelevance, the glass roof panels were changed at some point, the early ones being far to easy to shatter (from experience), later ones were tougher (still got a pair somewhere).
My mother has only just scrapped her 220 because the clutch was shot and the car was worth nothing.
All in all fond memories.
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