The man who gave mr. wilks the engine from America was a man named Richard Dickie Green. He put the first v8 in a Land Rover. It was painted golden rod yellow off of a peterbilt. That man Richard was my grandfather
I buried a 2 wheel drive company pickup to it’s rear axle in sand a year ago (I was too used to my go anywhere 4x4). My first thought when I realize it wasn’t going to get out with the truck’s own power was power is not always the solution.
Had a Buick with the 215 cu.in. (3.5 l.) almost 60 years ago. When the design was sold to rover we used to say "Anyone can make a success of a GM engine except General Motors."
The Rover V8 is such a fantastic engine. It's light, powerful, unbelievably tuneable and sounds great too. It was also so versatile, it suited every vehicle it was fitted in, from saloon and sports cars to 4x4's and not to mention the amount of custom cars and hot rods it found a home in over the years. My favorite was always the SD1, and when I was in my late teens to early 20's you could pick a decent one up for a few hundred quid, but the only problem was fuel consumption. Drive them enthusiastically and the mpg was down to single figures, but they were great fun. Unfortunately, although towards the end of production they were much better, the build quality was appalling. Because of this, they quickly got a bad reputation, lost many loyal customers, so didn't sell anywhere near as many as they could have, and you could never visit a scrap yard without finding them in there, so they've now become rare and gone up in value, the Vitesse especially.
i had 3 SD1's in the late 80's, 2 of them where 2.6, one of the 2.6 engines lost a timing belt and smashed up the valves, i bought a donor V8 for £40. to put in the 2.6, 1 wire had to be added to the loom for the electronic ignition and the back of the rev counter you could change it from 6 cylinder to V8 and the swap was complete, damn i miss that car, i sold it to a friend who smashed it up 0.0
@@chrishenniker5944 I do wonder about getting rid of the dual side draught carbs and dropping on the Buick 4bbl intake with a good, well tuned Quadrajet 4bbl American carburetor. Once figured out, the Rochester Quadrajet is a honey of a carburetor, being easy to tune and easy to set up.
@@leeward6762 Aluminum casting technology was still in its infancy and Buick was throwing away more than half of the castings. That's why they dropped it. Rover worked though those problems before introducing their version.
@@isaakwelch3451 I had a -65 Buick Special with 225 V6 once, it was a great engine. Never had any problems, enough power and surprisingly economic. And hats offt, the same basic engine construction was in production till -08!
Actually what is even more intriguing, GM once sold the rights of the V6 to AMC which produced them few years to Jeeps, but due to the oil crisis, GM bought the rights back and gave new life to their V6 in their own cars.
A couple of years ago, in the Netherlands, I saw a dark charcoal P6 3500, with this engine, parked next to the local Jumbo market. It was very clean, almost like a jewel of a classic car, and the V8 started up almost immediately when the owner got in to leave the parking lot and it sounded quite healthy too. For some reason I can't explain, I had some tears of joy at that moment! 😁 Dear owner of the car, wherever you are, I got to tell you that you have a gem of a car. Please don't scrap it, it deserves to be kept alive! 💗🤟
This video interested me since I learned that the rover V8 is a distant cousin to the Buick 3800 powering my own car. Both came from the original GM V8 but evolved into different beasts.
I came to LOVE that engine and can honestly say I can rebuild one with my eyes shut - SO HEARTBROKEN that it is now gone! I had not less than SEVEN Rover SD1's! I even drove a Bomb Squad Sherpa at one time with the V8! I LOVED THOSE ROVERS!
Santiago Rocha. You did not skip your meds. The SD1 was an exceptional car. I had a 3.5 V8 it had 90.000 when I bought it. I added another 200,000 to that score. It was served regularly and well maintained. That is the secret. I also had two Volvos a 740 and a 960. Both went over 700,000 miles. I parted with the 960 when the cost of petrol went through the roof.
I had 4 rover sd1s with the rover v8. My 1984 car rotted away but the engine was still good (I rebuilt the engine using parts from Reel Steel) . I subsequently put the engine in a Westfield Seight although later I upgraded to a Tvr Griffiths 500 engine, modified by v8 developments. Whilst the v8 is not modern or refined you can get cheap performance from it and provided you change the oil on a regular basis is should be good for more than 100000 miles. Great upload - thanks for sharing.
Leyland P76 4.4L block with the 3.5L heads, extractors, 3.5" inch exhaust with a dedicated LPG only Gas Research throttle body. Sounded glorious in my SD1 which was a bit of a rarity here in Australia. Surprised many a Commodore and Falcon driver!
the americans are the root of two of the best british engines: the rover V8 and the rolls/bentley V8. Both of which the americans hated and discarded, while the europeans loved em xD
I owned a 3.5 litre SD1. It was an amazing car, very reliable, I dod 200,00 in mine it never missed a beat. The SD1 was the last good car Rover made. Shame they did not use it in the Stag.
Had two. The second never really replaced the first which was a manual. Best when the back box rotted. Then I sounded like Tony Pond. And yes it munched 3Ltr Capris which shocked them as much as it did me at the time. Fond memories.
@@tony_5156 they made about 9k chimaeras and Griffiths and about 80% are still in existence. If need be, you can replace an entire chassis and running gear with new parts. There are companies who have the original jigs for making chassis etc. There are loads of parts still being made so not a problem at all to maintain and run
A good video to watch featuring police SD1 cars is "The liver run", I like the comment from the rozzer in the passenger seat, "the brakes are stinking" but they did not ease up !
Personally always felt it was the P6 the v8 felt most at home in, considering it wasn't designed for the v8, they are fantastic to drive when pushed on.
The best itineration of it was the TVR 4.3 Big-Valve - it used the crank from the buick 300 (same block as rover but in cast iron), chevy rods and ford 260 pistons It was fully balanced, no cats and revved reliably and quickly to 7000rpm The noise it made in a Griffith 430 at full chat is the closest I have ever heard to a nascar sound in a road car.....
After witnessing Steve Greens Mk1 Cortina at Santa pod a few yrs ago with an amazing tuned rover V8 i was in love with these engines. It screamed like a 2 stroke & went like the clappers.
Already have a Vitesse twin-plenum. Love it! Looking to get myself a Defender 90 V8 in the near future. Sounds the business no matter what it’s in. What’s not to love about the Rover V8? The perfect hot-rod block!
@@TheChill001 anything less thank 15 is likely to be a bit of a dog. But then that’s what they’re all about. Throw the dog in it, bikes in it, wife in it, and not worry too much about shitting it up!
Yeah but a modern 1.0L turbo will last nowhere near as long being a highly strung engine as opposed to a natural aspirated 3.5 V8 which is anything but.
Being realistic, I'm somewhat glad they sold the design. It worked out great in Europe, but in the USA we would have killed that little engine with the miles and the way we treat our stuff. It would never come close to a small block chevrolet or ford for reliability. We expect 200k miles and Europe expects 80 to 100k.
Well, they built the originals in the US, in small number, couldn't make it reliable, something that Rover eventually did. Not my favourite engine, but good for the time and eminently tunable.
They're wrong about the Triumph TR-8. The TR-8 (at least the American version) had an all alluminum Buick 215ci V-8 originally developed for the 1963 Buick Special. Buick gave up on the 215 as they couldn't figure out how to keep it cool. Hence, the engine would overheat and seize. The funny thing is that the engine would contract when it cooled off, the engine would start and the owner could drive it home. Buick gave up on the 215 sometime later. Then in the 80's, Triumph made a deal with GM to redesign the 215 with a larger radiator and oil coolers to keep it cool then proceeded to stuff it in the TR-7 with an unknown manual transmission. The car was scary fast and a lot of fun to drive but for whatever reason, it didn't really catch on. Definitely a car ahead of it's time.
I believe SD1 was the last competitive rally car with V8. And how competitive, being a big, heavy rear wheel drive A group, it could catch up with B group prototypes.
Great Vid Van, Thanks for passing the old TG along! i had a 3.5 coupe Wify and I loved her so much we brought her out to Oz with us emigrated 81! Fam and work eventually took over of course But she does live on with a proud owner somewhere in Kiwi! BTW Van i love the name you use, "Van Inhalin"! 😂😂 Classic Man!😅👍👍👍
I have a Land Rover 110 V8 , ex RAF soft top. Enjoyed it for 16 years. The only improvement I made was swapping the twin SUs for an Edelbrock 500---Pure magic.
The story they told about "Americans not liking the aluminum block" is just trying to make Americans look like they have a lack of vision. They stopped using it because in 1963 there wasn't a grade of antifreeze/coolant that was compatible with aluminum blocks, and it was ruining radiators. When Rover took over the design, they encountered the same problems.
I had 6 SD1.... Including a Vitesse which was awesome.. I had a white one, and on the motorway people moved out of my way because they thought I was a Police car...... Cheap luxury motoring. :-))
I saw the Rover P6 V8 in front of both of them.... that was the car it was made for. Mainly because it has a superior suspension set up to the SD1. I have a '69 Rover P6 Series 1 V8. It's a great, great engine. One thing worth mentioning... GM could not get the engine to be reliable. Rover used their expertise in making Britain's first jet engines and solved the issues with the wet liners and also the casting. The Rover V8 was much improved... all alloy, all hydraulic and very, very tunable.
in my V8 (P6 Monza red with the black leather seats from my written-off 2200TC), nobody ever beat me from the lights, except once when I was hung over . . .
Some additional GM history. The Buick 3.8 V6 did not originate in that form. It was introduced for the new compact Buick Special/Skylark as a 3.2 liter (196 CID, 115 HP if I remember correctly) for 1962, the 3.5 V8 came in 1961. It was basically a cast iron version of the 3.5 V8, minus two cylinders. As such I believe it still weighed in at somewhat more than the V8, but not unduly heavy for an economy compact. (By early '60s majority of buyers were opting for automatic tranny & the Buick guys saved weight there with a rather ingenious trans that actually was 35 lb. lighter than the regular 3 spd manual. Though only a 2 Spd road testers of the day preferred it to the attempted re-design of Hydramatic to reduce size, weight & cost for the Oldsmobile compacts.) When the "upscale" GM compacts were killed off & replaced by new mid-size lines for 1964 each division had its own new larger V8. The V6 survived, was enlarged to 3.7 liters (225 CID) & was then shared with Olds in F-85/Cutlass. HOWEVER, by the later '60s Jeep (Kaiser Jeep Corp) was looking for a better performing engine that would still readily fit under their hood & GM sold the V6 off to them! Then comes the 1970s. AMC buys Jeep. Does a redesign that allows for their in-line 6 to now fit under the hood of the Jeep and abandons the V6. About the same time & America is having it's 1st "fuel crisis". GM is looking for a more "modern" economy engine for expanded use in a whole range of cars and, can you guess? They buy back their own V6 from AMC! Proved to be a smart move. Probably one of the best GM engines ever and probably went into more cars than any other engine they ever made! Maybe they should have bought the V8 back too... The little engine that could!
DRUM ROLL... Actually folks the GM/Rover V8 wasn't designed by the Americans! It was originally a 3.2 Litre, all-alloy, wet liner V8, developing 150bhp at 5,000 rpm DESIGNED by BMW which went into their 1950s V8 sports car the 507. They sold this engine to Buick in the 50s and they developed it from there... and the rest is history.
I have to say, I own a large number of vehicles powered by the rover V8, in Australia of all places and have never had any overheating issues. Mine are all rover products mind you, perhaps they are better sorted in the cooling systems then some.
Видеоклипы
The man who gave mr. wilks the engine from America was a man named Richard Dickie Green. He put the first v8 in a Land Rover. It was painted golden rod yellow off of a peterbilt. That man Richard was my grandfather
well I thank your entire family best car maker and best engine to have in the land rover line
"Need more power" Richard's Clarkson moment
I buried a 2 wheel drive company pickup to it’s rear axle in sand a year ago (I was too used to my go anywhere 4x4). My first thought when I realize it wasn’t going to get out with the truck’s own power was power is not always the solution.
Had a Buick with the 215 cu.in. (3.5 l.) almost 60 years ago. When the design was sold to rover we used to say "Anyone can make a success of a GM engine except General Motors."
GM at the time only really cared about the 350 and 454 :P
That’s not fair. General Motors’ cars run bad longer than most cars run at all.
You do realize GM was the largest automaker in the world for over 75 years and at one point held just shy of 50% of the market, right?
@@dragonbutt "At the time" there was no GM 350 or 454.
@@wesgregg6451 The 350 smallblock has been around since the late 60s, and the 454 came out in 70 for the camaro IIRC
Should have waited 2 more years then they could have farewelled the entire Rover company
But that would make it 2 years too late
😂
But Land Rover still exists so not the entire company.
@@jackstanding9774 it's owned by TATA now
@@ghivifahmi4252 a fate worse than death
“Styled to look like a Ferrari Daytona, and it does.”
“It has a stereo radio cassette that doesn’t work, it has cruise control that... doesn’t work”
@@hamza361 'I've opened my door.... door's still in there!'
@@Mauritsvdspek It's come back to Longbridge
@@TheCarArchives96 it's on strike
@@hamza361 "An electric sunshine roof that... doesn't work, eeeh, BUT."
The Rover V8 is such a fantastic engine. It's light, powerful, unbelievably tuneable and sounds great too. It was also so versatile, it suited every vehicle it was fitted in, from saloon and sports cars to 4x4's and not to mention the amount of custom cars and hot rods it found a home in over the years. My favorite was always the SD1, and when I was in my late teens to early 20's you could pick a decent one up for a few hundred quid, but the only problem was fuel consumption. Drive them enthusiastically and the mpg was down to single figures, but they were great fun. Unfortunately, although towards the end of production they were much better, the build quality was appalling. Because of this, they quickly got a bad reputation, lost many loyal customers, so didn't sell anywhere near as many as they could have, and you could never visit a scrap yard without finding them in there, so they've now become rare and gone up in value, the Vitesse especially.
People got 30-35 mpg out of them when driven sensibly in a light car.
i had 3 SD1's in the late 80's, 2 of them where 2.6, one of the 2.6 engines lost a timing belt and smashed up the valves, i bought a donor V8 for £40. to put in the 2.6, 1 wire had to be added to the loom for the electronic ignition and the back of the rev counter you could change it from 6 cylinder to V8 and the swap was complete, damn i miss that car, i sold it to a friend who smashed it up 0.0
@@chrishenniker5944 I do wonder about getting rid of the dual side draught carbs and dropping on the Buick 4bbl intake with a good, well tuned Quadrajet 4bbl American carburetor. Once figured out, the Rochester Quadrajet is a honey of a carburetor, being easy to tune and easy to set up.
Crazy GM basically just developed it and then threw it away.
@@leeward6762 Aluminum casting technology was still in its infancy and Buick was throwing away more than half of the castings. That's why they dropped it. Rover worked though those problems before introducing their version.
I'm glad they mentioned SD1 and actually liking it. SD1 for me is an all time great
the SD1 is a legendary car in my book and many others
What made it more legendary is that, it was used in the Liver Run.
@@emmanuelseen594 hell yeah it was most memorable SD1 moment
Great indeed. I don't recall seeing anyone who dislikes them
The doors may have a slight chance to fall just saying
“THE DOORS HAVE GONE ON STRIKE!!”
It's come back to Longbrigde 😅
@@justas525 I've opened me door... and the doors still there!
"I only lost two trim pieces...one of them was quite large, I'll admit."
"The Americans didn't like the aluminum block"
He's right. A GM-made aluminum block V8 would never work.
Cough LS7
GM suck anyway because jeremy already mention that american cars that were manufacturer by GM is made out of cheap material
@@rayton-fissoremagnum3060 laughs in LS engines
Cough EVERY FKN GM V8 EXCLUDING THE VORTEC
LS's are op
The comedy difference in roll angles between Richard's car and the white one makes me think his excuses might be justified 😁
I think buick engineers would be proud to see how far their engine went.
Two great engines, they hacked off two cylinders and gave us the ubiquitous 3.8L!
Both British greats.
@@lordflashheart3706 The buick v6 is such a fantastic engine. Probably the best of the american v6's.
@@isaakwelch3451 I had a -65 Buick Special with 225 V6 once, it was a great engine. Never had any problems, enough power and surprisingly economic.
And hats offt, the same basic engine construction was in production till -08!
Actually what is even more intriguing, GM once sold the rights of the V6 to AMC which produced them few years to Jeeps, but due to the oil crisis, GM bought the rights back and gave new life to their V6 in their own cars.
A couple of years ago, in the Netherlands, I saw a dark charcoal P6 3500, with this engine, parked next to the local Jumbo market. It was very clean, almost like a jewel of a classic car, and the V8 started up almost immediately when the owner got in to leave the parking lot and it sounded quite healthy too. For some reason I can't explain, I had some tears of joy at that moment! 😁
Dear owner of the car, wherever you are, I got to tell you that you have a gem of a car. Please don't scrap it, it deserves to be kept alive! 💗🤟
This video interested me since I learned that the rover V8 is a distant cousin to the Buick 3800 powering my own car. Both came from the original GM V8 but evolved into different beasts.
V6 Commodore?
It's amazing to see how American engineering has, almost secretly, birthed some truly amazing engines and cars on the other side of the planet.
I came to LOVE that engine and can honestly say I can rebuild one with my eyes shut - SO HEARTBROKEN that it is now gone! I had not less than SEVEN Rover SD1's! I even drove a Bomb Squad Sherpa at one time with the V8! I LOVED THOSE ROVERS!
I love Rovers especially. I have a 71’ P5B myself
One of my favourite Top Gear films, great to see this again!
Was just thinking that. Top gear have some amazing pieces throughout the years.
I always thought TVR had some of the best evolutions of this engine. They certainly sounded the best.
High-quality Top Gear videos from the past. Great job finding these!
Anyone else notice the music from The Matrix? 😂
From the highway chase from Matrix reloaded
Loved seeing this again. I used to own the white P6 behind Hammond, a loooong time ago!
Why am i seeing Top Gear talking well about the SD1...?
Am i going nuts?
Did i skip my meds today?
Yeah. They should be filling it with water and doing a power lap with it or something.
Hammond is a fraud as a 911 luvva
Santiago Rocha. You did not skip your meds. The SD1 was an exceptional car. I had a 3.5 V8 it had 90.000 when I bought it. I added another 200,000 to that score. It was served regularly and well maintained. That is the secret.
I also had two Volvos a 740 and a 960. Both went over 700,000 miles. I parted with the 960 when the cost of petrol went through the roof.
I had 4 rover sd1s with the rover v8. My 1984 car rotted away but the engine was still good (I rebuilt the engine using parts from Reel Steel) . I subsequently put the engine in a Westfield Seight although later I upgraded to a Tvr Griffiths 500 engine, modified by v8 developments. Whilst the v8 is not modern or refined you can get cheap performance from it and provided you change the oil on a regular basis is should be good for more than 100000 miles. Great upload - thanks for sharing.
100000 miles is a pretty low bar these days, got a lot more than that out of my RV8's
The rover v8 is one of the best sounding engines ever
Up thete with the Busso V6 from Alfa Romeo.
lol
Leyland P76 4.4L block with the 3.5L heads, extractors, 3.5" inch exhaust with a dedicated LPG only Gas Research throttle body.
Sounded glorious in my SD1 which was a bit of a rarity here in Australia.
Surprised many a Commodore and Falcon driver!
So they basically said that the Americans made a great engine
the americans are the root of two of the best british engines: the rover V8 and the rolls/bentley V8. Both of which the americans hated and discarded, while the europeans loved em xD
@@TheChill001 well they do say, one man's trash is another man's treasure
@@TheChill001 But you’re missing the point, they’re not british engines, they’re Buick engines
No their saying that the British improved it
@@TheChill001 The Rolls Royce engine had nothing to do with America. It was entirely developed by themselves.
Richard nearly crashing into the grass was a bad sign right from day 1
Fun fact: That Rover didn't just win in British Touring Cars. It won in DTM.
I owned a 3.5 litre SD1. It was an amazing car, very reliable, I dod 200,00 in mine it never missed a beat.
The SD1 was the last good car Rover made. Shame they did not use it in the Stag.
Had two. The second never really replaced the first which was a manual. Best when the back box rotted. Then I sounded like Tony Pond. And yes it munched 3Ltr Capris which shocked them as much as it did me at the time. Fond memories.
Thanks for putting this up. I’ve never seen this Top Gear segment. The SD1 is an all time great.
SD1 and the Rover V8 must be a fantastic combination of Car and Engine.... After all, Hammond failed to crash! 😆
Still got mine. 1999 TVR chimaera. 👍🇬🇧🏆
Oh Jesus Christ
How’s the TVR doing, absolutely hell isn’t it? No parts for a company that doesn’t exist anymore..
@@tony_5156 they made about 9k chimaeras and Griffiths and about 80% are still in existence. If need be, you can replace an entire chassis and running gear with new parts. There are companies who have the original jigs for making chassis etc. There are loads of parts still being made so not a problem at all to maintain and run
5:37 Charles and Seb in Austria 2020.
In fairness that thing was rolling all over the place while the white one wasn't
A good video to watch featuring police SD1 cars is "The liver run", I like the comment from the rozzer in the passenger seat, "the brakes are stinking" but they did not ease up !
That was absolutely epic that.
Left out the Australian Leyland P76
Yes, the largest form of it, at the time. Later versions were larger, not least in Range Rovers.
Personally always felt it was the P6 the v8 felt most at home in, considering it wasn't designed for the v8, they are fantastic to drive when pushed on.
Cracking engine, especially in the light TVRs. Richard looks infinitely better without the donut
The face donut or the gut donut? Lol
@@joshacollins84 Dunno what a guy donut is
Nice goatee. I've got the same thing around my ahole
@@jstdrv yeah, that was supposed to be gut.
The best itineration of it was the TVR 4.3 Big-Valve - it used the crank from the buick 300 (same block as rover but in cast iron), chevy rods and ford 260 pistons
It was fully balanced, no cats and revved reliably and quickly to 7000rpm
The noise it made in a Griffith 430 at full chat is the closest I have ever heard to a nascar sound in a road car.....
I have it as the 4.6 in my P38. Makes a tremendous noise when used in anger.
Looking for a rare V8 engined LDV.
My father had three SD1 V8's then a V8-S Basically a very strong vehicle. Great tow car too! Thanks for this video.
THE DAM DOORS COME OFF
After witnessing Steve Greens Mk1 Cortina at Santa pod a few yrs ago with an amazing tuned rover V8 i was in love with these engines. It screamed like a 2 stroke & went like the clappers.
Already have a Vitesse twin-plenum. Love it! Looking to get myself a Defender 90 V8 in the near future. Sounds the business no matter what it’s in. What’s not to love about the Rover V8? The perfect hot-rod block!
I fully support your decision xD, good luck finding one in good nick for a couple a grant, you won't be disappointed
And I have a 3.9 sitting in my shed...
Is it basically a British LS V8?
@@adamismail2883 so some extent... yes. Small block, lightweight, originally a Buick I think.
@@TheChill001 anything less thank 15 is likely to be a bit of a dog. But then that’s what they’re all about. Throw the dog in it, bikes in it, wife in it, and not worry too much about shitting it up!
Crazy to think modern 1.0L turbo engines make almost the same power as a 1970s 3.5 V8.
Yeah but not as much torque
@@wildcat6669 Yeah, for the same amount of torque you need a modern 1.5 ;)
Yeah but a modern 1.0L turbo will last nowhere near as long being a highly strung engine as opposed to a natural aspirated 3.5 V8 which is anything but.
@@80sfordman As if anything Rover-made was anywhere near reliable :P
@@80sfordman How long are we talking here? Are we still assuming the engines are always maintained as directed by the manufacturer?
My uncle used to have an SD1 with the 3500 V8 in it. Such a superb car - fast, whisper quiet and properly luxurious.
"Oh that's important these day's"
"NIEEEIEIEYYEYEESSSS.."
Basically, gm helped power almost the entire British motoring industry.
Made by Buick idk some say that it's unreliable.
Being realistic, I'm somewhat glad they sold the design. It worked out great in Europe, but in the USA we would have killed that little engine with the miles and the way we treat our stuff. It would never come close to a small block chevrolet or ford for reliability. We expect 200k miles and Europe expects 80 to 100k.
he's on about the engine, not the car
Well, they built the originals in the US, in small number, couldn't make it reliable, something that Rover eventually did. Not my favourite engine, but good for the time and eminently tunable.
Honda had a fairly large part later on, early 80s to early 00s.
Now this is the Top Gear that I miss.
0:19 just in case you guys want to hear this masterpiece in the background
It's Lujon by Henry Mancini
Thank you so much
Thank you!! Been looking since I watched 'One', an f1 documentary. Plays when Jim Clark's on...perfect match
I think it’s funny that the British petro-heads think it was a great engine when in America, it was known for having catastrophic overheating issues.
Typical summer day in England is 72 degrees. When it hits 82 they think its scorching.
Problem was they used aluminum in USA, while the Brits used proper aluminium!
Honestly this my favourite top gear segment
like the high shot of all the cars
most beautiful thing ever
Thanks for re-uploading! My dad has a P5B
They're wrong about the Triumph TR-8. The TR-8 (at least the American version) had an all alluminum Buick 215ci V-8 originally developed for the 1963 Buick Special. Buick gave up on the 215 as they couldn't figure out how to keep it cool. Hence, the engine would overheat and seize. The funny thing is that the engine would contract when it cooled off, the engine would start and the owner could drive it home. Buick gave up on the 215 sometime later. Then in the 80's, Triumph made a deal with GM to redesign the 215 with a larger radiator and oil coolers to keep it cool then proceeded to stuff it in the TR-7 with an unknown manual transmission. The car was scary fast and a lot of fun to drive but for whatever reason, it didn't really catch on. Definitely a car ahead of it's time.
It's hilarious watching the amount of roll in the SD1 Hammond was driving, lol
I believe SD1 was the last competitive rally car with V8. And how competitive, being a big, heavy rear wheel drive A group, it could catch up with B group prototypes.
Cant beat the old school cars, I wasnt born until 93, but the SD1 is one of my favourite all time cars.
Ahhhhhh, the unloved and unappreciated TR8 - best sports car I ever owned
At this point it's just the editor having fun with the matrix 3 music
Great Vid Van, Thanks for passing the old TG along! i had a 3.5 coupe Wify and I loved her so much we brought her out to Oz with us emigrated 81! Fam and work eventually took over of course But she does live on with a proud owner somewhere in Kiwi! BTW Van i love the name you use, "Van Inhalin"! 😂😂 Classic Man!😅👍👍👍
God damn that bird catching line 😅
Ecurie Ecosse used the Buick V8 in their Ecosse Tojeiro in 1961. It was David Murray that suggested Rover should pick the engine up and use it.
Although he managed to stay right-side-up this time, he do go off the track as usual.
I love the 3.5 v8 in my TVR, it sounds epic and is pretty quick with a genuine 197bhp on the rolling road
How’s the TVR doing ?
@@tony_5156 Going really well, just been out making noise in it tonight :)
I have a Land Rover 110 V8 , ex RAF soft top. Enjoyed it for 16 years. The only improvement I made was swapping the twin SUs for an Edelbrock 500---Pure magic.
I've got a '63 Olds F-85 with a 215 in it, very sweet engine, very underappreciated here in the states
The Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac 215, a good engine that found new life in Britain.
A Top Gear segment I've never seen. Wonder.
the Rover 3.5 always makes me think of Alexie Sayle talking about motorbikers!!
The story they told about "Americans not liking the aluminum block" is just trying to make Americans look like they have a lack of vision. They stopped using it because in 1963 there wasn't a grade of antifreeze/coolant that was compatible with aluminum blocks, and it was ruining radiators.
When Rover took over the design, they encountered the same problems.
Lovely, thx for sharing!
Fun fact it was also the FIRST EVER factory turbocharged engine in the Oldsmobile F85 Jetfire
They used this engine for soo many years. Its a very good engine
I learned to drive in a Range Rover with this engine. Great stuff.
"A locking petrol cap. Important these days" lol :)
My old dad had 2 of these but I think you should have involved the Rover P6 V8 as that was such a great car as well.
A few years I saw one in a Volvo 121. Actually heard it before I saw it!
3:03 - & mine 'always had' about half an inch of water in each footwell too !
Racing a SD1 or just any Rover V8 looks like so much fun.
We need more re-upload like this.
Brilliant 😂 love the sd1 beautiful styling 😍
I had 6 SD1.... Including a Vitesse which was awesome.. I had a white one, and on the motorway people moved out of my way because they thought I was a Police car...... Cheap luxury motoring. :-))
The Met still have an SD1 officially on its fleet as part of its heritage collection.
I've had 3 vehicles with the Rover V8...SD1 ,2 door Range and a converted 109 landy.
It is my wish to have an SD1 again..
Originally the Buick/Oldsmobile 215 aluminum V8, a great little motor that sadly didn’t catch on here in the States where it started.
So sad, because it would've been one great engine, had GM bothered to spend the R&D, to refine this engine!!
@@turbinexman Imagine an updated Rover V8 in the Fiero, or ZQ8 S10/Colorado, or in place (forced induction or no) of the L67 supercharged 3800.
@@The_sinner_Jim_Whitney Most definitely, especially with modern aftermarket EFI, such as a unit from Edelbrock!!
@@turbinexman Yeah, and injected, it would’ve been a HELL of a Jeep motor. I know a guy with one in a CJ-5, and it’s an animal.
i would love to import one of these to the states someday. i love the look with a baby V8
Just bought one of the few sold here. A v8 manual! Very excited.
"I'll have to drive right on my limit." aka "I'll end up binning it sooner or later."
I saw the Rover P6 V8 in front of both of them.... that was the car it was made for. Mainly because it has a superior suspension set up to the SD1. I have a '69 Rover P6 Series 1 V8. It's a great, great engine. One thing worth mentioning... GM could not get the engine to be reliable. Rover used their expertise in making Britain's first jet engines and solved the issues with the wet liners and also the casting. The Rover V8 was much improved... all alloy, all hydraulic and very, very tunable.
in my V8 (P6 Monza red with the black leather seats from my written-off 2200TC), nobody ever beat me from the lights, except once when I was hung over . . .
The original SD1 is still by far the best looking.
G.M. didn't regret ditching that V8, they brought out their 3.8 V6 that I believe still is in production.
Some additional GM history. The Buick 3.8 V6 did not originate in that form. It was introduced for the new compact Buick Special/Skylark as a 3.2 liter (196 CID, 115 HP if I remember correctly) for 1962, the 3.5 V8 came in 1961. It was basically a cast iron version of the 3.5 V8, minus two cylinders. As such I believe it still weighed in at somewhat more than the V8, but not unduly heavy for an economy compact. (By early '60s majority of buyers were opting for automatic tranny & the Buick guys saved weight there with a rather ingenious trans that actually was 35 lb. lighter than the regular 3 spd manual. Though only a 2 Spd road testers of the day preferred it to the attempted re-design of Hydramatic to reduce size, weight & cost for the Oldsmobile compacts.)
When the "upscale" GM compacts were killed off & replaced by new mid-size lines for 1964 each division had its own new larger V8. The V6 survived, was enlarged to 3.7 liters (225 CID) & was then shared with Olds in F-85/Cutlass.
HOWEVER, by the later '60s Jeep (Kaiser Jeep Corp) was looking for a better performing engine that would still readily fit under their hood & GM sold the V6 off to them!
Then comes the 1970s. AMC buys Jeep. Does a redesign that allows for their in-line 6 to now fit under the hood of the Jeep and abandons the V6. About the same time & America is having it's 1st "fuel crisis". GM is looking for a more "modern" economy engine for expanded use in a whole range of cars and, can you guess? They buy back their own V6 from AMC!
Proved to be a smart move. Probably one of the best GM engines ever and probably went into more cars than any other engine they ever made! Maybe they should have bought the V8 back too... The little engine that could!
That exact sd1 is for sale on ebay right now for 5000 pounds
Someone buy it please
1:20
Hammonds off bowling I reckon
Music at 0:18 is Henry Mancini - Lujon if anyone's wondering.
Should be noted that the Oldsmobile Starfire with the 215 was the first production turbo charged passenger car.
1:15 when the pinewood computer core is about to explode
P 5 B ultimate all day cruiser. didn't know they put them in the Sherpa, that woulkd be fun too
Mostly the ambulance and police variants
.... memories of a Land Rover Stage One with a SD1 engine ... :-)
DRUM ROLL... Actually folks the GM/Rover V8 wasn't designed by the Americans! It was originally a 3.2 Litre, all-alloy, wet liner V8, developing 150bhp at 5,000 rpm DESIGNED by BMW which went into their 1950s V8 sports car the 507. They sold this engine to Buick in the 50s and they developed it from there... and the rest is history.
Had a discovery 2 door , 1991 beautiful car
ahh the end of endless cooling issues
I have to say, I own a large number of vehicles powered by the rover V8, in Australia of all places and have never had any overheating issues. Mine are all rover products mind you, perhaps they are better sorted in the cooling systems then some.
@@horiucthesmith6233 land rover discovery ii