Rovers
`the ex-Roy Pierpoint Rover P6 JXC 808D'
BUILT : 1970 by Bill Shaw, Jim Morgan and Jim Rose
CLASSIFICATION : Special saloon
ENGINE : Traco-Oldsmobile 4.3 V8 ( from John Coundley`s McLaren bored to 4.5 litres )
BHP : 360 @6800rpm WEIGHT : 950 kgs
RACED BY : Roy Pierpoint ( 1970 ), Alec Poole ( 1971-72 )
TOP SPEED : Approx 175 mph
CURRENTLY : Restored, alive and well in the UK
NOTES : It only raced 9 times in England but Roy Pierpoint`s Rover V8 was one of the stars of the 1970 special saloon season and fondly remembered. Thankfully it survives today. Debuted at Mallory in April 1970, the plan was to get some track time in ahead of British Leyland`s entry into the British Saloon car championship. Alas it came too late as BL`s top brass closed the entire 'works' racing department that summer.
Pierpoint won 4 times in special saloons...at Combe, Mallory, Brands and the BARC 100-kms at Silverstone.The car was sold to the very gifted and staunch BL racer Alec Poole who raced her in his native Ireland in 1972/73.
A sister car 'JXC 806B' in blue livery ran in the 'Marathon-de-la-route' at Nurburgring. This sister car went to Australia and ran a yellow 'Camel' livery.
Meanwhile decades later the Pierpoint car reappeared for sale and was snapped up by a real enthusiast. Perhaps confusingly after restoration it was repainted blue but a fine job was made and the original style hood scoop returned. It debuted at Race Retro in 2012 and ran at the 2013 Silverstone Classic. A great car and a favourite of fans of old Leyland cars.
Replicas of this car also exist.
`the 27-litre Rover SD1'
BUILT : 1982
CLASSIFICATION : Road car
ENGINE : Rover Meteor V12 27,022cc
BHP : approx 550 bhp
RACED BY : n/a
TOP SPEED : Approx 162 mph
CURRENTLY : Alive and well in the UK
NOTES : I could hardly do a page on special Rovers without featuring Charlie Bloomfield`s extraordinary Rover SD1. Road legal it uses a 27-litre Rover Meteor engine out of a Challenger tank ! The Meteor being the unsupercharged version of the Merlin aircraft engine.
The car is well known having been featured on TVs Fifth Gear and had regular features in Practical Performance Car magazine for several years.
Charlie reckons he`s built the car for under £10k but had to use all his engineering genius in the transmission department to exploit the power of the low revving monster engine.