Want to know about his motor ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8
History
The Rover V8 began life as the
Buick 215, an all-aluminum engine introduced for the
1961 model year. The compact engine was extremely lightweight, at just 144 kg (318 lb), and capable of high power outputs: the strongest
Buick version of this engine rated 200 hp (149 kW), and the very similar
Oldsmobile "Jetfire"
turbocharged version made 215 hp (160 kW) (both numbers SAE gross). The aluminum engine was very expensive to produce, however, and it suffered considerable problems with oil and coolant sealing, as well as with
radiator clogging from use of
antifreeze incompatible with aluminum. As a result, GM ceased production of the all-aluminum engine after
1963, although Buick retained a similar iron engine as well as a
V6 that would prove to have a very long and successful life.
As the aluminium block made this engine one of the lightest stock V8s built there was some attempts to use it in racing at Indianapolis. The Australian firm Repco converted this engine for
Formula One by reducing it to 3 litres and fitting a
single overhead camshaft per bank rather than the shared pushrod arrangement. Repco-powered
Brabhams won the F1 championship twice, in 1966 and 1967.
In January
1964 Rover gave American operations head
J. Bruce McWilliams permission to investigate the possible purchase of an American V8 engine for Rover cars. McWilliams realised that the lightweight Buick engine would be ideal for smaller British cars (indeed, it weighed less than many
straight-4 engines it would replace). McWilliams and William Martin-Hurst began an aggressive campaign to convince GM to sell the tooling, which they finally agreed to do in January
1965. Retiring Buick engineer
Joe Turley also moved to the UK to act as a consultant.
The demise of the
MG Rover Group in 2005 led to a halt in production of the famed Rover V8 after 40 years. However,
Land Rover desired for production of the engine to continue, and they arranged for production to restart in
Weston-super-Mare under MCT, an engineering and manufacturing company. Although Land Rover has switched to the
Jaguar AJ-V8 engine for new applications, MCT will continue limited production of the engine for the indeterminate future, supplying engines for aftermarket and replacement use.
Theres more if you go to the linky
Why do I have a hard time believeing that
