MartinT

Here's a link to a road test of a V8 944 from
Pistonheads

I know this subject is not to everyones taste, but some of you may be interested.

Martin

josephsc

Seems like it was very well done. I'm surprised that the V8 engine actually weights less than the original. I wish the article wrote more up about the weight reduction (You can see lightened door panels and mirrors in the photos).

89951DREAMER

It looks like a professional installation. However, a poor choice of V8 engines IMHO. The Rover V8 is nothing more than the old Buick 215cid from the early to mid 1960's. Yeah, it's all alluminum, but you have to lean on it pretty hard to get big HP out of it. I have worked on them in the Land Rover Discovery, and let me tell you, the ports and heads have a horrible flow. Anyway, I think a SBC LT1 or LT4 or LS1 would be a much better choice if you have to have a V8. Seeing as this was a European car, the availablity of SBC's may be limited and the Rover V8 a plenty. This could have been the reason for the Rover V8. My $.02.

Ian

L8 APEKS

I agree.

Good article, nonetheless. On a side note, if anyone has good info on the LT1 swap, feel free to drop me line. I will be doing this in the near future, but now I am still in the planning/info gathering stages. Thanks!

adie

That's why TVR used them, I guess there just another slow one, there's also a few punched out to 6.0 and twin turbo's and having in excess of 800 bhp. It's not hard to extract 300 bhp with bags of torque from these engines, adn the Rangie and disco engines do indeed have small ports, now go and look at the wildcat heads and you'll see how rover restricted these engines. Also you probably had a good look at the serpt engines, how did you decide that it was a glorified buick engine.
I race the SBC's and it's always a different kind of run with the chevys, in comparison the rover sounds like it's revving at full rpm in comparison with the chevy's, I know of lots of rover engines that push the 9000 rpm envelope, and in the TVR I don't know many cars that will keep with them. A disco is hardly a high output engine, as you would already know by reading the comp ratio (8.13:1 as opposed to that engine, 10.5:1) and the 10A number. The rangie also never had 0216 heads and had about the worst of all the heads out there.
I have personally spent many hours on these engine's and have a good understanding of what makes them go, and the heads are indeed the worst of the design, however the performance that can be gained from an engine that was the cornerstone of british motoring.