[Barty50]

Just bought a Rover which is a bit of a hybrid. Its a cabriolet with the engine from a tomcat turbo converted by Moto Build Racing. I believe that there are not too many around and I just wondered if there were any more owners of similar cabrios on here.

[RoverRevival]

Theses a reason, its too much power for the chassis so can't really put the power down.



i went one below and chose the vvc engine for my cabriolet and its like it was designed for it.

[Barty50]

Just collected it and driven it for 250 miles and it handles the power very well, in fact no problems at all. Its a very sensible car to drive around town but really comes to life at motorway speeds where it accelerates with no drama at all.

[GTiJohn]

Interesting, probably unique car

Looking forward to seeing it and meeting you sometime.

Some pictures would be great - photobucket etc

[Barty50]

I was informed by the previous owner that he knew of another in Northampton and that Rover themselves produced 6 of these back in the day. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

[Barty50]

Pictures

[ROVER Cabby]

I believe the only reason they didn't do these from the factory is because the chassis flexes
on the cabriolet and the 2.0T is a big heavy engine so it was just issued with the 1.6 tops.

[Barty50]

Not too sure about the chassis but engineers report on the car states:

'The conversion is of a very high standard and no corners have been cut, to all intents and purposes this vehicle is identical mechanically to a 196ps Rover 220 petrol turbo, as all 200 series cars 1992-1996 share the same chassis platform'

[E_T_V]

Except the cabriolet has different sills and no roof. No chassis difference at all ;)

They tend to suffer scuttle shake because of the lack of stiffness. That doesn't make much difference when driven normally though. So you'll find it a hoot to drive. Just keep an eye on the front inner wings for cracks as this isn't unheard of in the cars with a roof. Without one will make this worse (which is possibly why MGR didn't release one).

There was a lad from South wales who had a purple one too. Can't for the life of me remember his name though.

[Barty50]

Thank you. Any advice is welcome and I will keep an eye on the inner wings. I did think of strengthening the car a bit with strut braces but I read that they would make no difference on a cabriolet, not too sure that they would do any harm either though?
I was told by the previous owner that he knew of another similar car in Northampton so there are a few about.
.