Favourite Rover (Modern and Classic)
Discussion
Looking at Arthur Jacksons post (You know those crappy rover 200's.....) I thought it might be fun to ask everyone, What's your favourite Rover? Try to pick a modern one and a classic if possible, for example my favourites would be 220Gsi (Modern) and P5B Coupe (Classic). and yes, I know picking the P5B was predictable..... Any photo's of particular favourites would be good too.
MGJohn said:
I quite liked these ~ when they were new of course ....
Nothing lasts forever ....
..
Edit to add @ 00.05
Modern ones you ask for ...
Quite like these ~ one of my daily driver means of getting about ~ a tidy 620ti :~
Hello John!Nothing lasts forever ....
..
Edit to add @ 00.05
Modern ones you ask for ...
Quite like these ~ one of my daily driver means of getting about ~ a tidy 620ti :~
Edited by MGJohn on Saturday 7th November 00:05
I know where that is. Lots of Rovers there these days
even a MG Maestro at the moment.. pretty tatty mind.My favourites are the following;
SD1 VdP EFi (obviously)
MG ZT-T 260
P6 3500
P5b Coupé
Range Rover V8
The four and six pot ones don't do anything for me. I had a P5 3 litre and it was a nice old thing, but utterly gutless compared to the V8.
I don't like the Honda Rovers much, but 620tis do go well.
SD1 VdP EFi (obviously)
MG ZT-T 260
P6 3500
P5b Coupé
Range Rover V8
The four and six pot ones don't do anything for me. I had a P5 3 litre and it was a nice old thing, but utterly gutless compared to the V8.
I don't like the Honda Rovers much, but 620tis do go well.
te55gib said:
Rover? Try to pick a modern one and a classic if possible, for example my favourites would be 220Gsi (Modern) and P5B Coupe (Classic)
For a classic its hard to beat the burbly V8 and "cosy" 1960 style cabin of the P6B.For a modern(ish), the 827 was always a bit of an unsung hero. The Honda V6 was totally unburstable (Even the police couldn't break them), and the engine was incredibly smooth. It more than made up for the rest of the cars errr "quirks".
robgee1964 said:
te55gib said:
Rover? Try to pick a modern one and a classic if possible, for example my favourites would be 220Gsi (Modern) and P5B Coupe (Classic)
For a classic its hard to beat the burbly V8 and "cosy" 1960 style cabin of the P6B.For a modern(ish), the 827 was always a bit of an unsung hero. The Honda V6 was totally unburstable (Even the police couldn't break them), and the engine was incredibly smooth. It more than made up for the rest of the cars errr "quirks".
I changed the brake discs and camshafts on these cars for the police almost on a weekly basis! The cams were 1500 quid a pair!
Clutches and shockers weren't much better.
The SD1 was a far superior car despite its flaws.
827 
, must admit one of those didn't really cross my mind when looking at the thread title, BUT I did over 100,000 miles in mine and it ran like clockwork, only ever needing routine replacements. Engine was very smooth and quiet as a mouse when I sold it (maybe 3,000 mile oil changes helped?).
Had a couple of V8 SD1s over the years, much more character than the 827, but despite regular servicing, both needed fiddly bits doing (mainly senders etc.), even though they weren't covering the same mileage as the 827.
800 Vitesse Sport was bit of an unsung hero (brakes could have been better though), and I kept that until a couple of years ago, when I eventually decided that I didn't need so many cars and sold it with about 95,000 on the clock. Again, only routine replacements.
Modern: ZT 260 (is that a Rover?) - but I would have had one had they continued in business
Classic: Has to be the P5B (even though it is one I've never actually bought)
, must admit one of those didn't really cross my mind when looking at the thread title, BUT I did over 100,000 miles in mine and it ran like clockwork, only ever needing routine replacements. Engine was very smooth and quiet as a mouse when I sold it (maybe 3,000 mile oil changes helped?). Had a couple of V8 SD1s over the years, much more character than the 827, but despite regular servicing, both needed fiddly bits doing (mainly senders etc.), even though they weren't covering the same mileage as the 827.
800 Vitesse Sport was bit of an unsung hero (brakes could have been better though), and I kept that until a couple of years ago, when I eventually decided that I didn't need so many cars and sold it with about 95,000 on the clock. Again, only routine replacements.
Modern: ZT 260 (is that a Rover?) - but I would have had one had they continued in business
Classic: Has to be the P5B (even though it is one I've never actually bought)
jith said:
Please tell me you're joking!
I changed the brake discs and camshafts on these cars for the police almost on a weekly basis! The cams were 1500 quid a pair!
Clutches and shockers weren't much better.
The SD1 was a far superior car despite its flaws.
I'm really suprised to hear that, I worked for Rover group in the mid 90's and that Honda V6 was the most reliable engine fitted to any of the cars, so much so that our "warranty liason" chap knew nothing about it, simply because there had been no issues with the engine. I changed the brake discs and camshafts on these cars for the police almost on a weekly basis! The cams were 1500 quid a pair!
Clutches and shockers weren't much better.
The SD1 was a far superior car despite its flaws.
I do agree, the SDI was a well designed car, but its early build quality, along with 6 cylinder engine problems, was one of the big things which tarnished Rover's previously good image.
robgee1964 said:
jith said:
Please tell me you're joking!
I changed the brake discs and camshafts on these cars for the police almost on a weekly basis! The cams were 1500 quid a pair!
Clutches and shockers weren't much better.
The SD1 was a far superior car despite its flaws.
I'm really suprised to hear that, I worked for Rover group in the mid 90's and that Honda V6 was the most reliable engine fitted to any of the cars, so much so that our "warranty liason" chap knew nothing about it, simply because there had been no issues with the engine. I changed the brake discs and camshafts on these cars for the police almost on a weekly basis! The cams were 1500 quid a pair!
Clutches and shockers weren't much better.
The SD1 was a far superior car despite its flaws.
I do agree, the SDI was a well designed car, but its early build quality, along with 6 cylinder engine problems, was one of the big things which tarnished Rover's previously good image.
let me qualify this a bit by stating that only the early cars had the camshaft problem, which usually started with noisy tappets. The later 24 valve engines with twin cams were no problem at all, but resulted in a massively complex job to replace the timing belts. I had at least three private customers, one a Honda Coupe, who experienced camshaft failure with the early 2.7 engine, but these failures were usually when the car was at least 2 or 3 years old, therefore out of warranty. In fact the Honda owner was seriously upset as the car was pampered from new and had covered only 42k when the cams failed.
You have to understand that these cars came with no warranty when used by the police; when you worked with some of the drivers that was perfectly understandable!! That's probably why your friend never processed any claims. Having said that, any and all problems were always reported back to the factory, but it was the days of BL and the Honda takeover; a miserable time for the British motor industry.
To cure the brake disc problems we eventually fitted Brembo discs and pads; these performed perfectly.
In the forces I was involved with we never used the 6 cylinder SD1 Rovers, and all I can say to that is thank the lord. They were appalling; constant head gasket problems and ignition failure. But the V8s were terrific. Even the early cars on SUs were rapid and reliable. Most of the problems were small, niggly complaints due to lack of quality control on the line.
I always thought that a beautifully interesting car would be an SD1 with KE Jet injection, De Dion rear axle and ZF 'box. A project for someone, no doubt.
jith said:
only the early cars had the camshaft problem, which usually started with noisy tappets. The later 24 valve engines with twin cams were no problem at all, but resulted in a massively complex job to replace the timing belts. .....
Are you quite sure about that? The 2.7, 24v valve engine only has one belt, its only single cam per bank, the second row of valves being driven by a cranked rocker and tappet arrangement. Belt change was a fairly straightforward job, certainly on the 1995 car which I had, did it myself in about 3-4 hours. They do sometimes suffer from lazy tappets, at high mileages. Mine used to rattle a bit sometimes (180k mile) but it was always good as gold once warmed up.To be honest I don't know much about the 2.5. They were reckoned to be nowhere near as good to drive anyway, the 2.7 was more torquey. The chap to whom I refer dealt with all problems, including the police. He'd been there since the Standard-Triumph days, and really knew his stuff. I must say I never asked him about the 2.5 since the 2.7 was just so more desirable.
robgee1964 said:
jith said:
only the early cars had the camshaft problem, which usually started with noisy tappets. The later 24 valve engines with twin cams were no problem at all, but resulted in a massively complex job to replace the timing belts. .....
Are you quite sure about that? The 2.7, 24v valve engine only has one belt, its only single cam per bank, the second row of valves being driven by a cranked rocker and tappet arrangement. Belt change was a fairly straightforward job, certainly on the 1995 car which I had, did it myself in about 3-4 hours. They do sometimes suffer from lazy tappets, at high mileages. Mine used to rattle a bit sometimes (180k mile) but it was always good as gold once warmed up.To be honest I don't know much about the 2.5. They were reckoned to be nowhere near as good to drive anyway, the 2.7 was more torquey. The chap to whom I refer dealt with all problems, including the police. He'd been there since the Standard-Triumph days, and really knew his stuff. I must say I never asked him about the 2.5 since the 2.7 was just so more desirable.
Following the Audi V6 example it employed floating cam pulleys, i.e. no keys, which meant that all the cams and the crank had to be locked up with special tools before removing and replacing the belts. I can specifically remember that we had real difficulty getting our hands on these tools for the first one we did, and actually ended up making them up. I can assure you it was an utter pig of a job! The engine was positively horseshoed into place.
This engine however was more powerful than the old 2.7 and made a lovely noise when driven hard. It had an extremely complex ECU setup with the ability to run as two 3 cylinder engines in tandem. When under load it actually changed the valve timing and firing order to do so!
There was apparently some problems with early engines blowing head gaskets, but we only did one like this, and it had covered over 100k before it leaked, so that was acceptable.
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