The Rover 820 Turbo 16V is one of the more curious cars in Rover's recent history. Why produce a new engine variant so near to its demise? What involvement did Tickford, 800 design and development and Rover Special Products have in it? Why do so few remain?
Scott Woodcock's example is one of the last few left, and although it is currently off the road, it should be back in business by the end of the summer...
If you want to know more about these fascinating cars, please check out the 820 Turbo 16V development story.
Rover 820 Turbo 16V
Scott's 800 is rather unusual because it is a car that he intends to keep as standard as possible: he says that even the side repeaters and dust caps will stay original. An admirable stance, considering the fate of most of the remaining "Tickfords". Current mileage is 55,000, and it comes with a fairly comprehensive service history, and nearly all the old MoTs. Noting the car's depreciation, Scott stated, "I think i even have the original receipt for about £10.5k , but I'm not sure what the P/X was if any, as in '91 it cost £24k, scary..."
Scott also has other plans: "Under the bonnet, however, when I reach the ripe old age of cheaper insurance, I may look into some performance modifications, as numerous advantages set it aside from the T16 counterpart. Also, an interest in computers and cars in general will lead me into remapping the fuel ECU as this can be done via the socketed EEPROM fuel map in the Lucas 14CUX ECU, as found on Land Rovers and other Rover V8s."
"With the exchange rate being so low at the moment, a larger turbo seems very cheap. With the M-Series turbo manifold being a direct fit to the Garrett T3 range, it all becomes even more appealing in terms of plug-and-play"
Like most enthusiasts, Scott dabbled with eBay, and his ownership of this car is a direct result: "...It was on ebay: 1 line description, 5 pictures, I saw it, and just purely on the look of the car, had to buy it. This was totally ridiculous at the time, as it was over 100 miles away, I had no licence, and had bought a 216GTi 16V two weeks before!"
"The auction ended below its reserve at about £600, so I contacted the seller and aranged to buy it pretty much straight away. Once he was happy to sell it to me, I set about trying to raise some money from friends, and pursuade my mother and my friend to help me go to London to pick it up. Eventually we arrived at the location, and met the chap selling it: He was old and cheery, but quite sad to see his Rover go. After owning it for 11 years, he said he would like to buy another Rover, but his wife wasn't too keen on them! After a short test drive, we couldn't fault the car (apart from a non working fuel gauge), and as soon as we stopped, £550 changed hands, and the car was mine."
"I managed to run it for about 6 months before I effectively bankrupted myself because of the insurance premium (I was 19 years old with a provisional licence!) It was taken off the road in October 2003 after an 'incident' changing the thermostat (my father decided to try and remove an airlock with a garden hose forced into the coolant system. Hot engines and cold water dont mix too well, and so it has a cracked head). Luckily the damage is not too serious. Being a keen DIYer, I have spent many months building up my collection of spares and the tools to tackle the jobs required. The bodywork is fairly sound, but some of the underbonnet components are starting to rust (including a coolant pipe or two), which will be a nightmare as most M-Series turbo parts are no longer available from Rover (half of the cooling system is not akin to the usual 800 M-Series)".
It will be interesting to meet-up with this car when it makes it back onto the road, and knowing Scott's persistence, this will in the not-too-distant future...
