I'm someone who you would call a tomcat fanatic, I've consistently owned and worked on these cars since 2009 starting off with a Platinum Silver 216SE for a number of years, then eventually replacing this with what I would call the cream of the crop. A 220 Turbo Coupe that I took on as a project car and required a fairly extensive rebuild in order to see the road again. Back in 2020 I finally got the car finished to a very high standard making it one of the best out there.
As well as tinkering with these cars, I've always been interested in the history of the 220 from the land speed records set at Millbrook Test Track to the Rover Sport Dunlop championship series that took place in the early 90's. For the Dunlop Series, Rover produced around 35 Coupes which were all specifically built for racing therefore not your normal road going equivalent.
Here is a video on YouTube for anyone interested in seeing more race action from the time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWulXBqUIK8
In fact these cars were never given a VIN number/registration plate and so now these cars are pretty much all in personal ownership with various individuals out doing track days and club based championships, all in various states and condition, but every now and again these Ex-dunlop cars appear on the internet for sale and this is why you are reading this new thread
In November 2020, I was offered the opportunity to buy one of these ex-Dunlop racers from someone within the 'Coupe community' and it was something I couldn't turn down. The only problem today is that these cars are getting very old and with many miles of racing on them, they tend to be in very sketchy condition with a sketchy past and this one is no exception!
Before I show you some recent pictures of the race car in question, here is what it looked like in its heyday:
Originally a Dave Loudoun 1994/1995 Race winning car:
The car was then re-shelled for a new season, all mechanical parts transferred over to a new shell and Steve Warburton was the driver in 1996 with the following livery:
It then went through various colour changes throughout various championships and later looked like this:
On the same day this picture was taken, the car was involved in a crash being heavily rear ended in a race forcing it to retire
The car did re-appear again in surprisingly mint condition, repaired and fresh paint on the outside....
...but on the inside, was signs of a cut and shut repair. This race car literally got cut in half and a new rear end welded in (I do have pictures somewhere)
The car disappeared for a number of years but later reappeared on Ebay now looking like this
I'm not sure if the person who purchased the car on Ebay knew its history, but they made the right decision to completely re-shell the car and start again, so they went out and brought a 218vvc rolling shell:
The 218vvc they purchased only happened to later be confirmed as a members old car - rjessett. Here is a picture of him in the car during its glory days!
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So with all of the above digested, it's now time to show you what Frankenstein looks like. This is basically now a road car fitted with Ex-dunlop 220 Coupe running gear.
Now the car is in my possession and Ive had a good look around it, I can honestly say that the re-shelled car is no better than the old cut and shut shell that was scrapped
The chassis is not race prep'd like the Roversport cars and its been bodged together in various areas which you might be able to see in the pictures above.
I'll be stripping the car right back to a bare shell and starting again with the aim of having the car look more like its original form.
been to see a few 216 GTi cup cars but like you said there wrecked and not many on original Shells so I'm just doing my own for the MG Cup
