Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

so a standard 416 GTi is NA? and that standard 416 GSI (my next car i think) is NA too? the gti is insurance group 14 and the gsi 11 making the gsi slower then the gsi? whats the diffrence? is it the gti is 16 and gsi is same engine but 8v?

Yes 1.6 is normally aspirated. Turbos only came in 2 litre form and are rare on the hatchbacks.

The GTi name was dropped in favour of the GSi name for the reason you have pointed out. It dropped the insurance grouping down. GTis are traditionally seen as hot hatches and attractive for stealing.

well this get very confuseing! *laughs*

i wud like a 416 GTi so if i get a 416 GSI its the same car? i wud like the hatch too, but the gti still holds more bhp then the gsi

When the 220GSi replaced the 220GTi this had the same engine with GSi trim.

However the 416GSi is not the same engine as the 416GTI - as the GTI had the twin cam version of the Honda engine which was about 10bhp more. It is the same with the 216 - GTi was twin cam but the others were not, even the 216 Coupe has the lower power engine (in the UK at least).

Smithy wrote:
The GTi name was dropped in favour of the GSi name for the reason you have pointed out. It dropped the insurance grouping down. GTis are traditionally seen as hot hatches and attractive for stealing.

I was gonna ask about this. Thanks for clearing it up 8)

Theres quite a few differences between the GTi and the GSi, its not just a case of a changed name.

The first and biggest difference is the engine, the 216/416 GTi's mostly had the Honda Twin-cam D16a9 or D16a8 (the a8 had a cat and also had a slightly different compression ratio), although some had the single cam version, which i think is the D16a6. The twin cam GTi had no cat if it was pre '92, so was producing 130bhp, where as the post '92 cat'd gti produced 125bhp. The single cam engine in the GSi produced 115bhp. The second difference was the gearbox; the GTi had a close ratio box which made it significantly quicker than the gsi, mostly because as soon as you changed gear you were already on the cam.
Other than these two there were a few little differences, twin exhaust, alloys, leather seats, full leccy windows. I'd go for a GTi, there one hell of a hoot to drive and a lot more fun than a gsi, but then again i am biased :

hth

just gona throw something eles into this.when the model was launched on the g plate in 90 there were 3 trim levels si sli & the top model 1.6 gsi.this came with leather & alloys.so this begs the question did the gsi start off as a none sporting model,cuz back then it was not sporty looking.may have had the boot spoiler.cant remember.i had a g plate si.my mate had met.bronze colour gsi on a g.i could be wrong i am getting on a bit now.

IIRC there were the three variations you mentioned aswell as the GTi when they launched, though this may have only been on the 400's. I think the 200's were launched a year earlier, which in that case could mean there were only the 3. If this is so I assume there was some sort of 'sport pack' that had the alloys etc