The 8 best sportscars with a Rover V8
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the Rover V8 engine. It started life as the Buick 215, but the American car-maker had given up on its aluminium construction in favour of iron because of unreliability problems. Rover management believed they could overcome the issues and spent a year negotiating the purchase of the tooling and rights to continue manufacture.
It was first used in the Rover P5B, marking the beginning of a long career. In its 39-year production life, it found its way into machines as diverse as saloons, off-roaders, military vehicles... and sportscars. Here are the top eight sports cars that had Rover V8 power.
MGB
The first ‘in-house’ sportscar to use the Rover V8 engine was the MGB. It was introduced in 1973, coinciding badly with the fuel crisis. Arriving late in the MGB’s production cycle, it was beaten to showrooms by Costello’s aftermarket offering. Unlike the factory car, Costello’s version was available in Roadster form; the official car being offered only in GT format. Many MGBs have subsequently been converted to V8 power, the combination of traditional sportscar lines and an eight-cylinder burble proving too tempting to resist.
Triumph TR8
Another British Leyland sportscar to benefit from the OEM V8 engine was the Triumph TR8, which is separate from but similar to the TR7 V8 rally car. Initially intended for a worldwide audience, most sold in the States – only 14 right-hand-drive cars were build when production eventually got underway in 1980. Assembly ran two years behind schedule, industrial action being the root cause of the delay. Most TR8s were open-top, but some fixed-head cars were built, too. Like the MGB, many four-cylinder cars have been converted later in life.
MG RV8
Before the craze for retro cars came the MG RV8. Rather than a pastiche of cars that came before, it actually shared a lot of structure with the MGB that had bowed out of production twenty years earlier. This time, it was only available as a roadster. Produced between 1992 and 1995, as much as anything it served to foreshadow the MGF, which was the true revival of MG as a sportscar brand after the fast saloons and hot hatches of the 1980s.
TVR Griffith
The Rover V8 was hugely popular with low-volume sportscar manufacturers as a plug-and-play engine option. We could have chosen from any number of TVR models but opted for the Griffith because it really marked the direction in which Peter Wheeler was taking the marque. The Rover engine had been used in earlier TVRs and would be used in later models, but the Griffith set the tone for what we now recognise as the marque’s heyday. And it would remain the powerhouse of TVR models until the it realised its ambition to manufacture its own engines.
Westfield SEiGHT
Sticking a V8 engine in a Lotus Seven would seem like sacrilege, but Westfield Sportscars had no such qualms. While its cars take undeniable inspiration from the Lotus, it is unencumbered with Colin Chapman’s heritage and values. So if it wants to stick an eight-cylinder engine into the small chassis, it can. The SEiGHT arrived in 1991 and became one of the most characterful cars of its kind. Subtle? No. But that was never the point. It remained a mainstay of the range for more than a decade.
Morgan Plus 8
One of the first cottage industry car makers to identify the merits of the Rover V8 was Morgan. The Plus 8 was introduced in 1969 and, in the finest tradition of the Malvern marque, remained in production for decades. It was altered and developed in that time, though, with varying wheelbases and track widths over the years. Who says Morgan designs once and repeats ad infinitum? The Rover V8 powered Plus 8 lasted until 2004, when engine supply was no longer available. It took until 2012 for the nameplate to return, this time thanks to a BMW engine.
Marcos Mantara
Like TVR, Marcos was another British sportscar maker that kept coming back to the Rover V8 engine. We’ve picked on the 1992 Mantara as it was intended to be a turning point for the marque. With Type Approval, it was available in turnkey form only, where previous models had been available in kit form. Marcos was hoping to go head to head with TVR (itself a former kit car maker), but the Wiltshire outfit was never able to unseat its Blackpool rival. We still love that Dennis Adams styling...
Ginetta G33
Rover was doing a roaring trade in selling V8 engines to low-volume car makers in the early 1990s. Ginetta was another manufacturer to wrap up a Rover V8 in a glassfibre body to offer raw thrills. Like the Marcos Mantara, the Ginetta G33 also had styling that harked back three decades; it was similar to the G4, if not quite so delicate. Fewer than 100 were built, though not all of them with V8 engines.
Triumph TR8 and Morgan Plus 8 images courtesy of Getty Images.
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