Had a little play with one of these this morning - Quicker than I thought it'd be.
Held one particular corner at speed with no drama even though it was greasy.
Good handling cars?

 

my mate had a green one running 260bhp+

was silly quick as they're quite a light car.
downsides were in the wet, it just wheel span everywhere!

 

I had one for a while. As standard they are very poor in the handling department. It may have had an upgrade of some sort.

 

They are one of the worst cars I have ever driven. Plenty of power - Chassis simply cannot cope with it.

 

I got followed by one the other day he appeared from nowhere on a dual carriage way i pulled over and let him past and boy was it quick making all sorts of sucking whistling sounds

 

mate of mine had one, got it for 800 quid, right little rocket!

 

Chassis is more flexible than a yoga class. can go some in a straight line though. think they were 220 as standard.

Mac

 

I had one ... was very quick 60-100.

Pretty sure figures were close to 0-60 in 6.3 and 0-100 in around 15.5 - 16 so 60-100 pretty similar to UK turbo, current WRX and quicker than bug eye.

3rd gear from 60-100 was fantastic.

Think they had a front LSD as standard but it was a bit woolly and floppy rounds the bends.

Avalyn.

 

Great little cars! Torque steer from hell though and pretty un-reliable.. But the K series is a very tuneable engine (when its not blowing headgaskets)..

 

Thing is they didn't use the K series engine mate!!!! They used a variation of the M series found in the rover 800 called the T series. 197 bhp as standard. Had an LSD as standard also. Decent little motor 10 years ago.
Dave

 

..they had naff brakes also

 

would like to put that engine in my freelander:-)

 

Its based on the K series.. same "through block" head bolts and thus stupidly un-relaible head gaskets.

 

Proven 150 mph top speed though

 

afraid not mate! The block was straight from the O series engine used in the montego!!! with a 16 valve head fitted. I had a 420gsi turbo now that was a sleeper.
Dave

 

Lets not fall out about it... I'm right, and you're wrong
Dave

 

sorry that car is crap!! ive had one of these and the worst thing ive ever owned!! The headgaskets on these are like chocolate!!
They are quick but stupidly unreliable!! The amount of problems i had with mine and also the problems i now know a lot of other people to have had with them!!
I would never touch one again

 

Not the head gasket "per se" but one corner, where the oil feed goes to the camshafts. 90% of perceived head gasket failure was due to this. It caused massive oil leaks which the only remedy was a new head gasket. All in all though a good engine, which, with the addition of forged pistons, could produce excellent bhp figures.
Dave

 

You know your rovers misty

The Rover T16 has one common fault which is a weep from the left hand side of the head gasket which you have mentioned and is not in anyway head gasket failure as the car can be driven like it but you will just leave a mark where ever you go. There is a very simple solution though fit the multi layer clinger gasket and your problems will be sorted.

The other thing the rovers suffer from are diff bearing failure because of the way the PG1 box works it has a lot of side loading on the diff. But there is a very simple solution for that as well have steel caged bearings fitted as they have plastic caged as standard and use the correct oil MTF94 some of the problems is when people use the wrong oil.

Now as for the limited slip diff (Torsen) there is 2 types the type A and Type B the later Type B being the better one The type A in some cases shared of.

As for the flex in the chassis the coupes are worse than the normal 220's but with suspension mods and strut braces could and would make a good road and track car.

But for the fun and power you get from a Rover for what they cost you can not complain

I have personally had a
220 GTi Turbo
220 Gsi Turbo
620 Ti

They are easily and cheaply modified to SENSIBLE power but for big power expect to spend a few pounds.

The most basic mods for a rover are

A T28 Turbo of a 200sx or a pulsar
A pulsar top mount intercooler converted to be a front mount
Battery to boot
Cold air box
And a cone filter
loose the BMV and run a boost controller most say run 12psi but i personally use to run 14 psi

MEMS ( the standard ecu ) will only fuel to 14.7 psi

And for what it costs you to buy the car and add them mods you will not get more fun for your money.

If you wanted to go further in power you would require

Forged pistons and rods
Ported and flowed head
Bigger injectors
DTA engine management or some form of management
A turbo specked to your needs
cams

And a few other things can be done that's just an example

But if you had all the above you would have a very serious road car

cheers

 

thought the k-series HGF issue was due to plastic dowells holding the head in place failing, resulting in teh obvious?

 

Ive never had a lot to do with the K series mate i was into the T16's but im sure if you was to pop onto Welcome to Rovertech.net you can do a search and find out just about anything you want to know about a rover

 

Not had any run in with one but heard they can be very quick cars if modded right! Had a couple of dealings with my mate's old Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, now they're quick little buggers

 

fancy admitting that you've owned a rover!

 

Ive had 3 mate and im not ashamed of it

 

Ha Ha! They used to knock rear trailing arm bushes out every m.o.t which made a crap handling car even worse! the rear arches used to get tin worm after approx 3 years, the dash board used to warp, and the worst thing is they stuck a ROVER badge on it!

 

There is a lad up here who has one that ran 12s on the 1/4, won its class at USC.

 

Rover was quicker than the fiat 20v and higher top speed.
i had a 220 coupe turbo, slightly tuned. it would keep up with standard classics but it was really crap on steering.
Think its still going around in the hull area.
Anyhow i think they looked good.............

 

With modified suspension they can handle very well indeed. Look at what MG-Rover did with the 45, turned it into the ZS which is a very capable car.
It's just that the management didn't develop the car as much as they should have.
I like Rovers and I also like Subarus too (even if any self respecting car thief would rather steal an Evo VII if they want to outrun the police).

For the record, my 800 has 287,000 miles on the clock at the moment and it's still on it's original engine and head gasket. Maintained properly, the engine is a good one albeit tuned for a sedate style of driving in standard form (non turbo of course)

 

I had two 220 coupe turbo's.

The first one was okay,only went through one head gasket in 18 months.The only other thing to go was the entire exhaust,this on a car that was only two years old !!

The second one was imported from Japan with air con and leather,unheard of with UK models - this one was a ****ing mare!

Had the car three years and went through...

A fuel pump
An alternator
A starter motor
FOUR head gaskets !!

It got to the point where i was geting a gasket replaced under warranty each time because it never lasted a year.I just had this habit of checking for oil on the garage floor every time i took it out of the garage - it never disappointed either !

Add to this the noisy targa roof,the astonishing torque steer and the turbo lag and it was a pretty bum car really.

Was bloody quick though !

 

A mate of mine has one of these tuned up to about 400bhp which is a bit of a handfull. Good fun in a straight line when the roads are dry but wet roads and corners it's not the best to drive.