For all things Rover V8, the TVR Griffith and Chimaera and TVR T-Cars
The story of the ‘Rover’ V8 is the stuff of legend. It has everything: coincidence, luck, battles against the odds and finally success beyond all expectations. It’s like X-Factor but without the awful soundtrack.
The genesis was freakish. Despite the steel industry having, for whatever reason, massive influence in government circles, in 1958 GM went ahead with the design and development of an all aluminium engine: the Fireball V8. Oddly, being a time of excess and hideously sized cars, it was just 3528cc, compact and low in weight, everything that was of little use to American manufacturers. It lasted three seasons then, when thin wall castings were developed, it was discarded only to be found by Rover's Managing Director, William Martin-Hurst, in, of all places, a boatyard.
Rover needed a replacement for their venerable ioe straight six then fitted to their luxury P5, the 105 bhp net from the 3-litre cast-iron lump was not nearly enough. The experiments with gas turbine power left no funds for an in-house design but there was sufficient over evidently for the outright purchase of the GM V8 in January 1965.
The engine was fitted into the P5, renamed P5B for Buick. The versatility of the RV8 is shown by the two niches it fitted perfectly but which were just about as far apart as it is possible to get: Range Rover and TVR. There was no other engine in current production that would have suited the classic 4 x 4, the one that established the genre, as well as the RV8, let alone be an improvement. It lasted until 1994, but even then it continued in the Land Rover.
That Peter Wheeler chose the RV8 for TVRs requires a suspension of logic. At that time, 1981, he was experiencing difficulty with exporting the Tasmin to the middle east with its Ford V6, any American badge being as much a downer in those days as it is now. The RV8, designed and originally built in America, might not seem the answer but these things were overlooked by those to whom such things mattered. It was fitted to the Wedge series in various sizes and power outputs, then went on to power over 400 S-Types, which would have been seen as a success story if it hadn’t been for the nearly 3000 Griffiths and 5500 Chimaeras (figures in doubt) in various capacities and power outputs. It powered the original TVR Tuscan Challenge cars until the advent of the in-house V8. It was to be the engine for the Cerbera but a late change gave it the Speed 6 and AJP8.
Speculation abounds about the Speed 6 engine but there seems to be general acceptance that things might have been so different if TVR had stuck with the RV8 and not squandered so much of its resources on developing their own range of engines.
It stayed in production until 2004 when it was replaced in the Land Rover by a Jaguar-sourced unit. Longevity is not unknown in British Leyland, the A-series being a case in point, but for a unit powering luxury cars, 46 years is all but unique. That said, the last 4.6 on the production line bore little resemblance to the one found in the boatyard.
A pre-serpentine 4.0 BV RV8 fitted in a 1993 TVR Chimaera. Picture copyright RV8R
Mark Burley’s 101” forward control Land Rover. Picture courtesy of Mark Burley
The original engine, the GM Fireball, first saw the light of day in the 1961 Buick Special. It lasted just two seasons.
Once picked up by Rover they dropped it in their luxury P5 in 1967, changing the nomenclature to P5B to designate Buick powered. The same designation was used with the compact executive saloon, the P6B a year later. The final use for it in a Rover was in the very successful 3500, generally known as the SD1, in 1976. In the meantime a 4.4 litre version, developed in this country,
was used in the Leyland (Australia) P76 saloon and fastback.
The Range Rover was not inspired by the RV8, a vehicle between the Land Rover and the P4 being considered in the 50s, but what is true is that the engine made the vehicle. It created the genre. Many other manufacturers have aspired to the crown but Range Rover is to luxury 4x4s as Hoover is to vacuum cleaners.
Land Rover went looking for customers for its RV8-powered 101” military forward control in 1972. Despite less than 2000 being produced a number are in private hands. The first public Landy to be fitted with the RV8 was the suitably named 109” Land Rover V8. With the introduction of the much revised range in 1983 the engine was fitted to the 110” and 90”. The Discovery, launched in 1986, had the RV8 as an option, and probably the best one.
What might have been is an enjoyable pastime and the MGB GTV8 (officially MG MGBGTV8) is a favourite subject. Even brought in at the time of a petrol crisis
50th anniversary Land Rover. Picture courtesy of Mark Burley
Genesis
introduction of the stunning, 150mph+ Griffith in 1991 that really took TVR to the public’s heart. The later Chimaera outsold the Griffith, bringing TVR’s RV8 production up to getting on for 8000 units.
Mention must be made of the TVR Tuscan Challenge. It was the premiere one-make sports car series for years, almost guaranteeing full gates to most circuits, powered originally by a 400+bhp RV8. TVR’s in-house V8, the AJP8, replaced the RV8 in the Tuscan, and its straight 6, the Speed 6, in most of the road cars. One wonders if TVR would be around today if it had stuck with the RV8 for a bit longer.
The engine is all but perfect for high performance kit cars and it provides the motive power for many Cobra replicas, including the rather lovely BRA 289 Cobra. Ginetta offered it as an option in their G27 and G33, Westfield in their SEight and others, Marcos had it in their Mantula and it was a cheap option for GT40 look-alikes.
It was used in cars meant for the track as well, including the Lotus GKN 47D (Europa) sports racing car, the Triumph TR7 V8, Morris Marina rally cars and, most notably, the Brabham Repco F1 car of 1966 had a much modified engine based on the original Buick Fireball.
The mighty Metro 6R4 had an engine based on the RV8. Indeed the prototype engine was little more than a hacksaw job. Whilst a V6 might feel a step too far from the V8, it was much closer to it than the 6R4 was to a Metro.
This is not an exhaustive list of the cars the RV8 graced. It also has a history of being the replacement engine of choice, there being many owners of Stags exasperated with overheating problems and those of Scimitars that who were looking for a bit more power and refinement who have chosen it over the original fitting.
The Rover V8 engine fitted to, left, the MGBGTV8 and right, the Triumph TR8. There were significant differences between the engines in these cars and the Griff and Chim. They were smaller, lower powered and carb versions. Further, the MG’s release was at the time of a fuel crisis and, more significantly many feel, at a time of those rubber bumpers.