Nice feature lads, good to see the R8 Rover get some recognition. Was a much loved car here in the UK in it's many guises. Always thought these Tomcat coupes were a cut above the equivalent Calibra or Probe.
We had 3 R8's in our family, a 216 Sprint (gti badged differently), 220 coupe non-turbo and my 414 SLi. All owened back when they were new(ish). Great cars the coupe was my favorite! Compared to some of today's engines the K series was a great engine, yep you'd likely have to change the head gasket but that's far easier than timing chain failure that seems to dog so many modern engines. 90's coupe's were fantastic, what do we have now...box on wheels SUV or you can get a box on wheels SUV, the current car market is so dull.
I had a British Racing Green 416 SLi tourer and I miss it everyday. Cosmos 16's on in cashmere sd1 gold. I loved that car. I also had an mgf 1.8 non vvc and an MG ZS 2.0td ( best handling car I've ever driven
The 2.0 turbo had dreadful characteristics, and combined with the torque steer, it was awful at the limit. MG Maestro was even worse. The Corrado VR6 was vastly superior.
Hold up, speaking as someone who owned several T series turbo vehicles I can confidently say you're talking rubbish. For a start, the relatively small turbo fitted to the T wasn't particularly known for lag and pick up was quick. Low down torque was also good which is something older 16v engines (generally) weren't known for. It's also laughable that 'tOrQuE sTeEr' is the first thing parroted by people who had no experience with them. I also had an MG Maestro and and later on a 1.6 Maestro converted to an M16 engine and early MG Montego CR 'box. Torque steer I don't recall ever being a factor. The Corrado was a good car but overrated. I had a couple if VR6 powered Golfs as well. Lovely sounds.
@@raftonpounder6696The lotus head gasket was much better than the Rover one. For all those owners of Ford ecobooms, BWM N20's, Jaguar Ignibooms and even modern Minis probably wish they had car that a relatively simple head gasket change would fix....
That's just not true. It was a very advanced engine for its time, even for today in some ways. Read contemporary road tests. And the head gasket problem is well understood and easily fixed.
Nice feature lads, good to see the R8 Rover get some recognition. Was a much loved car here in the UK in it's many guises. Always thought these Tomcat coupes were a cut above the equivalent Calibra or Probe.
We had 3 R8's in our family, a 216 Sprint (gti badged differently), 220 coupe non-turbo and my 414 SLi. All owened back when they were new(ish). Great cars the coupe was my favorite! Compared to some of today's engines the K series was a great engine, yep you'd likely have to change the head gasket but that's far easier than timing chain failure that seems to dog so many modern engines. 90's coupe's were fantastic, what do we have now...box on wheels SUV or you can get a box on wheels SUV, the current car market is so dull.
Very suspicious looking red Rover SD1 following you Phil. 😳
Another good video 🚘🚙🚗👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍
I had a 220gsi and a tomcat, loved them both
I had a British Racing Green 416 SLi tourer and I miss it everyday.
Cosmos 16's on in cashmere sd1 gold.
I loved that car.
I also had an mgf 1.8 non vvc and an MG ZS 2.0td ( best handling car I've ever driven
Cracking car the R8 tomcat. Shame they put the bubble dash in the later ones.
The Rover coupe especially the 220 turbo are cracking cars and handle really well.
Was looking at these on Ebay this morning 😂 saw a turbo coupe on fire once 😅
Is that the rover car that people refer to as the Tomcat???? ‘ cause they were damn fast cars!!!!
Regards Ian 👨🎤🇳🇿🎄🍸🍸
Yep! Had their own race series as well, Tomcat Turbo Challenge!
Rover had a lot of say in the engineering of the engine = put a bad head gasket :)
Nice car, but I would prefer the pre facelift front
Both the 200 estate and coupe were both based on Honda models with changes to some body panels from the Honda version.
Like the XX development they were co-developed.
"Not that bad" is not good enough to succeed!
They were a good car though. The amount of internal unrest was the real issue at Rover.
The 2.0 turbo had dreadful characteristics, and combined with the torque steer, it was awful at the limit. MG Maestro was even worse. The Corrado VR6 was vastly superior.
And vastly more expensive
Hold up, speaking as someone who owned several T series turbo vehicles I can confidently say you're talking rubbish.
For a start, the relatively small turbo fitted to the T wasn't particularly known for lag and pick up was quick. Low down torque was also good which is something older 16v engines (generally) weren't known for.
It's also laughable that 'tOrQuE sTeEr' is the first thing parroted by people who had no experience with them.
I also had an MG Maestro and and later on a 1.6 Maestro converted to an M16 engine and early MG Montego CR 'box.
Torque steer I don't recall ever being a factor.
The Corrado was a good car but overrated. I had a couple if VR6 powered Golfs as well. Lovely sounds.
"Not that bad" is not good enough to succeed
The K series was awful.
going well in my 76000 mile Elise!
@ I should like to think so. It has only done 76000. Just wait for the head gasket to go. Which it will.
@@raftonpounder6696The lotus head gasket was much better than the Rover one. For all those owners of Ford ecobooms, BWM N20's, Jaguar Ignibooms and even modern Minis probably wish they had car that a relatively simple head gasket change would fix....
That's just not true. It was a very advanced engine for its time, even for today in some ways.
Read contemporary road tests.
And the head gasket problem is well understood and easily fixed.
@@raftonpounder6696it won't if it's got the revised gasket and looked after