Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Not sure where to put this but I wondered if anybody else rallied a Rover car ....

.... I currently run a Rover 220 Gti Stage Rally Car (ex works) .... and was curious to know if I was alone ????

Pic of mine below ....




.... it was built by Tony Pond Motorsport in 1992, (I have original drawings), as a stage rally car, get the impression that Rover wanted to get into the F2 category as was at the time and compete with Ford et al ... have correspondence in my file suggesting the Rover/Pond relationship was not a happy one and the idea got canned .... my car did the 1994 RAC driven by a Norwegian, (whose name escapes me) and failed to finish.

Since then it has been rebuilt by its previous owner, (to massive cost) and he did 2 rallies in it ....

.. I have done both forest and tarmac rallies and it is superb ....

... and it has still only done 3200 miles!!!

Last time out I crashed, so bought a white 220 gti of ebay and scrapped it for parts so now it has original front and rear end .. ..will post full spec below.

Engine: Balanced Billet Steel Crank, Balanced Steel Conrods, Cosworth Pistons, Strengthend Steel Engine Block, Front Mount Oil Cooler, Bespoke Breather System, New Double Rally Radiator Fans, DIS Ingnition Spark System, DTA Engine Management System and wiring Loom, Dyno/Rolling Road Printouts (210bhp) Tony Law Exhaust system ...

Head: Skimmed and gas flowed cylinder head prepped for big valves, Big BDA Style exhaust and inlet valves, New Collets, Double valve springs, Solid Lifters, Special Cams,

Gearbox: Quaffe Gear Kit, Gripper Differential, Final Drive Ratio 4.462 / 1st Gear 2.615 / 2nd Gear 1.937 / 3rd Gear 1.55 / 4th Gear 1.273 / 5th Gear 1.043 @ 8000rpm = 120mph.

Suspension: Gartrac Suspension with Bilstein inserts, Front suspension 270/140, Rear suspension 300/120, Strut braces front and rear, 3 Degrees negative front camber, 2-3 mm Tow in on rear arms, Superflex uprated bushes all round, Pillow ball top mounts(Steel)

Shell: T45 weled in Tarcle roll cadge, this goes all over the car, behind dash, full loop and accross to the front struts, Double skinned front sub frame, Strenthened front chassis legs, Fully seem welded shell
Motordrive Seats, Helmet net, Built IN fire extingushier system and hand held, Lightweight rear spoiler, Navigators Aluminium foot rest, Hydraulic Handbrake system, Braded fuel lines, Braded brake lines, Drilled and grooved front brake discs, Uprated brake pads front and rear, Peltor intercom system, Front and Rear sump/tank Guards, etc etc etc etc

Excellent. Do you rally all around the UK or in a certain area? Would be fab to watch it in action.

Have gone to Wales and the South West, but mainly in the Midlands, just had a child (12 months ago) ...so money tight next season, so will just do a couple of local events. (Midlands) ...... did Weston Park couple of years ago and Gwyndaf Evans was there with an MG ZR .... but he saw mine and said it was a "proper" Rover ...

Gets alot of attention wherever it runs, cos it is unusual and very fast in a straight line .... at MIRA we outdragged an EVO 6 !!

Adrian wrote:Last time out I crashed, so bought a white 220 gti of ebay and scrapped it for parts so now it has original front and rear end

Those are Rover Coupe front and rear bumpers which look really good on it.

They did once ...but got very tatty, and not original, will take a pic of current bodywork, when I get a chance ...

wow ! funny this because I was wondering if anybody rallied them the other day !!

Spooky! I just replied to another post saying yes there is someone else rallying Rovers

Guy on Rovertech had a 214 that got rallied until it met an unfortunate incident. I'll point him over here, I'm sure you'll have plenty to natter about

Yeah ...it would be nice to chat to another Rover "rallier" ....

mach1rob wrote:Guy on Rovertech had a 214 that got rallied until it met an unfortunate incident. I'll point him over here, I'm sure you'll have plenty to natter about

And at risk of doing a "Mr Benn" here I am :-))

I use a 214 for Endurance rallying. I've been road rallying for about the last 6-7 years and in that time gone from an Audi 80 quattro to a Rover 214 via a 90 q, a Volvo 340, a Mk1 Seat Ibiza, a Volvo 240 GLT (oh the RWD tail out fun!!) and finally now the 214.

As Rob mentioned, I (well actually my co-driver (we do turn and turn about driving and nav'ing)) managed to stick it in a ditch a few weeks ago. As we were able to drive it home, we'd hoped it was repairable, but sadly, further investigation showed we'd bent the OS chassis rail :( which as it was going to cost at least £250 to hire the jigs and ram to straighten it, meant it was a write-off :( :(

Luckily, we managed to source a 3 door replacement. So the last few weeks have been a bit of a panic to get everything transfered across ready for a big rally next weekend. I know I'm tempting fate, but it went through the MoT first time last weekend and we're pretty much ready to go this weekend. Which considering in the past, we've been changing engines the night before a rally is something of a achievement.

I haven't got any pics of the new car yet, but here's a few of UAY in happier times!!

pic pic pic pic pic