THE GREAT
V8 DEBATE
INTRO BY DR OCTANE
T
he Rover V8 rightly
stands among some
industries greatest
achievements; during its
it transported Ministers
and Royalty in the
plugging Land Rovers through war
zones and helped to produce some
of the world’s quickest production
sports cars. The lightweight 3.5 litre
powerplant was so versatile that
Rover began looking to see if their
American cousins could supply
an eight cylinder replacement for
its lacklustre straight-sixes in its
becoming increasingly fashionable
and powerful V8 lumps from Ford
and Chrysler had already made
cars like the AC Cobra and Jenson’s
CV8. Quite by chance, as Rover
Hurst was taking a break from
schmoozing Chrysler’s top brass, he
and the mechanics’ vans that had to
V8 gathering dust on the workshop
earliest childhood memory of that
trademark V8 burble was not from
piece of automotive exotica but
ambulance en route to Leicester
powerboat project. As luck would
have it, Martin-Hurst discovered
that this compact all-aluminium
(and heavily sedated with laughing
gas) I can distinctly remember
thinking, as we shot through the rush
saloon.
problems were solved and Rover’s
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