'91 rover 220gti

[micrat]

My first ever Gti of any kind!

Just picked her up for the grand sum of 500 pictures of the queen!

Already had issues, its not been used much and the throttle return spring jammed on me, scary!

Other than that, hardly any rust, 1 owner since '94, FSH, a brand new engine supplied AND fitted brand new by rover 38k ago (3 grand at the time?!) generally quite nice to drive, nippy! Should be 147bhp from what ive read...

Plans are...not much at the mo! Just see if she proves reliable for a few months, theres a lot of suspension options as they share chassis parts with EG shape civics, so maybe lower, strip, an oil cooler and kenlowe fan (as these run notoriously hot then do gaskets!)

anyway, a few quick pics, excuse the quality, camera phone!

any info or experiences of these would be most welcome!

[feliciacombi]

Very tidy that......swop alloys for a start though??

BTW.....camera pics don't look too bad!!!

[crazymonkey]

very nice, it should be fairly reliable. my mate had a 206gti and it was left stood for nearly 2 years, put the old plugs back in and a bit of fuel and it started and drove off, shame it was going to the scrappy, if he'd have told me before that I would have had it off him

[Deleted]

I think that looks nice just the way it is, perhaps a bit lower, perhaps some different alloys, but beyond that it's a lovely looking thing. Nice find.

[micrat]

thanks peeps! just noticed all my quick typing spelling errors in my original post! yeah, erm, 'undecided' i imagine i'd have a bit more faith in a 216gti as they run honda lumps of which ive had plenty, this one is a big 2.0 from a rover 800 though, mmm!

the alloys hmm I'm neither here or there i think they are ok they just need to be nearer to the arch the lowering stick is definitly on the cards, i was really into civics a while back so can easily get lots of cheapo shocks/springs/coilovers that would fit this!

am hoping when/if i come to strip it that the immaculate half leather interior would fetch pennies too! have just read through the folder of FSH and receipts that came with the car, and the 4 sets of keys! this thing has had no expense spared! am a happy chappy!

just said goodbye to the micra...

shes off to be a micro banger, ive not raced since last year with the ford probe of doom lol


and on a less traveller note, the reason for choosing the rover was mostly the eg civic chassis connection, ive not posted pics of my civic on here before as always felt it was a bit 'new' but it was totally stripped, lightened, and was in to the 15's at santa pod on a very mildly tuned base model non vtec 1.5! unfortunatly my vtec plans never happened due to redundancy and she was sold on...

[b20wht]

I used to own a 220gti a few years back, I loved it, lowered on 17s with a powerflow exhaust, looked great really nice to drive and prooved very reliable apart from the headgasket went once, but not to bad to change so all was good. Enjoy it.

[mrzee]

I used to have a metro ggta and dreamed of owning one of these babies at the time. Great car!!!

[Robinxr4i]

Very nice, got a lot of time for the old Rover 200/Honda Concerto think they are really good looking cars. The 2.0 is nice engine IMO with plenty of low down torque. I love em!

[robinmasters]

I really like the wheels. Would Rover 800 wheels go on? They came with a very similar (but presumably bigger, 16"?) wheel.

[xbo11ox]

I love these things as most folk know having spent many weeks sorting mine out, they are tough old motors and much nicer to drive than they have any right to be. If yours is as nice as you say it will be a real shame to strip it as they are getting very rare now! It looks a cracker. I say keep it reasonably standard, cherish and enjoy!

[Robinxr4i]

Feb 27, 2011 10:46:04 GMT robinmasters said:

I really like the wheels. Would Rover 800 wheels go on? They came with a very similar (but presumably bigger, 16"?) wheel.

200 and 400 shared the 4x100 PCD with the Civic, Concerto and other small Hondas

600 and 800 shared the 4x114.3 PCD with the Accord, Legend and other larger Hondas

Edit: Pity cause some of the Rover 800s came with 17" 6 spokes that would have looked badass on the 200 IMO

[qwerty]

Always had a soft spot for these since my cousin had one when I was younger.

So will EG coilovers bolt on?

[micrat]

thanks people, and qwertina thats what i thought, but seems i was slightly under-informed, spent hours searching this so is someone could confirm it would be excellent but this is how i see it...

rear end is EG (92-95) civic this is 100% definite so any shock/springs/coilies will bolt on for the civic however...

front end is honda concerto/rover 200?

please if someone could confirm this!

thankyou for all the good response i didnt think she would go down that well (giggidy!)

can safely say after my first proper drive today I'm very impressed, extremely torquey, will sit nicely in 5th at 30mph being all economical, handles nicely, comfortable, but goes like stink, will do 95 i mean 70 in 3rd although why you would on the public highway is beyond me

so yeah very nice! and if anyone has a finite answer about the front setup ill send them 9 of the 11 herbs and spices needed to make proper KFC! or just say thanks...whatever!

[surprisingskoda]

I've been eyeing these up again lately - the shape really is quite pretty even yet, and they do go well. Not to mention being wonderfully comfortable.
Afaik though, the standard suspension on these is supposed to be really good, and lowering doesn't really improve it any. Just a thought!

[Butterz]

EG coilies wont fit on the front unfortunately. MG ZR stuff will though. I think they're 30-40mm lower, not 100% though. Theres no cheap way to get coilies on the front but MG stuff pops up on ebay every now and again. When I had my 416 tourer I missed out on some Koni coilovers that went for £77 if it comes up. Buy it!

[micrat]

thanks skoda/butterz! I'm not too fussed on lowering it its just a maybe, has immense arch gaps! but i'm beginning to appreciate the rarity of these cars so may just do a slight restoration with a few hidden tweaks (greenstuff pads, panel filter, silicone hoses etc) to just slightly improve it but not de-value it!

also, super-slow spot of the year but...i only just realised the gti has a kinda sierra xr4-esque extra pillar and smaller rear windows than normal rover hatches! i guess i just never paid that much attention to them before, and as most are 5 doors the pillar would get reaaalllly inconvenient!

thanks for the suspension advice too...

[luckygti]

Like it! I have soft spot for these shape Rovers, especially in 2 door guise. And they are getting rare as well, can't even remember the last time I saw a decent one! Even the kiddies don't drive them any more

[micrat]

in the words of james may...permission to say cock!

was driving home, stopped in traffic and heard/felt a slight *donk* followed by my battery light coming on, great I thought, belt has snapped! so limped home, getting more and more confused by the fact my power steering was now intermittent, as was the battery light, so cant have snapped?! finally gives up as I turn onto the drive and I open the bonnet to find...

the alternator had fallen off, like actually off and was just sitting on the power steering pump chilling out!


on first inspection it was obvious the top bolt thats threaded into the block had sheared...



but then that led to the question...wheres the other bolt? answer...well, instead of being a good 5 inches of bolt going through the block and either side of the alternator bracket, theres a half inch stump of thread on 1 side of the bracket that the alternator must literally have been kinda clipped onto and hope for the best! obviously its slipped this and the twisting caused the other bolt to shear! I just undid the stumpy bit it wasnt even finger tight!


bottom of pic is how long that bolt should have been to go through the block!


alternator itself survived ok, looks quite new so imagine it was a bodge job...


belt was ok but will be replaced just in case...

only thing is I now need to get the garage to drill out the sheared bolt if I can get to it tomorrow, its really really awkward to reach with a fat drill, an air drill with a 90 degree tip might do it ok!

I cant believe it, could have been worse though I guess, it could have just fallen out the bottom or jiggled around and holed the rad!

good old british engineering eh?!?

mike

[surprisingskoda]

Somebody's been messing with that as they're awkward to get at with the engine in. Id check around for any other 'repairs' that were done recently as well!

[micrat]

mmm the 'repairs' fill me with confidence managed to extract the sheared end thats in the alternator, the block though, well, i cant reach it with a drill! not a normal black and decker anyway! so shes at the garage with a nice covering letter and a pack of biscuits on the passenger seat lol! wouldnt be surprised if its quicker just to drop the block, would be all of 5 mins then! labour-charging-tastic!