Rob's long term Supercharging project

ghce said:
It always comes as a bit of a surprise to me that the design team at Rover got it so wrong with the V8 with regards to the tires and rims, perhaps budgetary restraints or just plain old fashioned thinking?
Changing mine to 205's and SD1 rims was revelation and transformed all aspects of ride, handling and safety (my main concern at that time) from a 1960 standard of ride to contemporary modern.
The other minor tweaks they could have done were also cheap to and trans formative to the handling.
Given all the lauded and well thought out design of the P6 it does cast somewhat of a shadow on the competences of the design team....how much better could it have been if they had been up to the task.
If it appears as if I am knocking the design team, yes I am, however bad as that sounds it is done in the reflection of a rear view mirror and is a little unfair as at that time the standards of design / performance were a lot lower than now but Rover at that time was better than most.

Graeme
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Fair comments but as you say, seen in the rear view mirror. The whole target of the design/development team was refinement to suit middle-aged, middle management and members of the professions. They would have been reluctant to compromise that for gains in stability at speed, and indeed, may not even have considered wider wheels/tyres.
It's worth remembering that the contemporary E-type Jag (considerably faster) ran on 185/80 15 tyres and the XJ6 (considerably larger)was a real surprise when it debuted on the 205/70s you use.

John
 
ghce said:
Given all the lauded and well thought out design of the P6 it does cast somewhat of a shadow on the competences of the design team....how much better could it have been if they had been up to the task.
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Yes indeed, it would be nice to have 2015 tyre technology back in 1965. :?
 
add to that that a 7 inch wide rim in the late 60s would only be found on a tractor or a lorry... Not sure why wider tyres as an option wasn't adopted sooner though. Hindsight's a wonderful thing.
 
More thrashing has been occurring :)

Going to wear it out fast like this! Short of the strange overheating (maybe) issue - see other thread, it's going like a bat out of hell. And still no tyre catching, yay. Took it to work and back yesterday, and it got lots of admiring looks & comments in the car park. All spot on, except for the secretary (ooh what a cute little car) - eh?

You certainly know about it when driving it fast. I have to say, the way it launches itself from corner to corner in second gear is really quite something. Still plenty of body roll on, which I think surprises people coming in the other direction, as it must look quite dramatic, but it sticks like the proverbial to a blanket now. Steering loads up quite a bit (!). Just wish the 2nd to 3rd change was a bit better, but I'm saving up for a recon LT77 which should help, though they seem to have a slight rep for slightly non-distinct changes.

A major advantage of the static seatbelts is the ability to ratchet yourself down into the seat. Found myself looking in the back for harness mounting points for full on hooning. At least I have a spare car now to take on a track day if the MG decides not to play .... Oh dear....

I'll have to dig out my video camera :)
 
aah Alex, I'm slow on the Supercharger :(

sister decided to get married, so gave me an excuse to spruce up the old beast a bit.

I reckon it's come out OK. Total cost about 200 quid in paint, about 50 quid in polish and sandpaper and stuff. Needs a bit more of a polish to finish it off.

DSC_0016 by 1275midget, on Flickr

DSC_0012 by 1275midget, on Flickr

New door cards made from hardboard, wadding, and leatherette vinyl stuff that's almost exactly the same colour as the Sandstone Rover 75 seats that have also gone in.

DSC_0021 by 1275midget, on Flickr

Not had much of a chance to take more pics than those, but once the rear seats are in properly I'll write it up.
 
Overall, much improved. Not sure how it compares to a standard car, I got it with 205 tyres on original v8 steel wheels.

Anything above about 20mph is undeniably better, more control, less roll, no lift at speed.

Under 20mph it's a bit jogglyer over rough roads, steering effort is the same.

Wheel and tyre combo is quite a bit lighter. I'll not be going back to standard...

The tyre choice is also much much better.
 
Cheers. Sorry, I've got a couple more questions about the wheels - firstly, do you know what offset they are? I've seen either +40 or +53mm quoted and can't find anything definitive, although one of the 40mm references came from someone's original steel wheels, so that's as close to definitive as I've found.

The only other question was about the spacers - did the wheels foul something without them?

Mine's currently got +4 offset wheels, running 185's at the front and 195's at the rear. I reckon, with the correct offset wheels I could run 225's on the rear and 205's, or possibly 215's on the front, which should improve the cornering performance markedly. A stiffer anti-roll bar would then top things off nicely. I'm currently reading up on the effects of various adjustments to suspension geometry to see if there are any other relatively straightforward modifications that can be made.
 
no worries!

Offset I'm not sure about - I measured it at the time of fitting but have since forgotten. I can measure again though.

Spacers needed on the front to keep the wheel & tyre away from the upright. The wheel fits on, but not with the tyre on; hence the spacer. The wider front track (20mm wider) has, I think, reduced the body roll a bit. Again, too much wider on here and the back of the tyre will start to get close to the bodywork on full lock.

The rears are very very tight. Fingers width tight. I wouldn't get 215 s in under the rear D posts, even though I rebuilt one side to be specifically thin to give more space. Even then, I had to adjust part of the inner shell with a hammer to get enough clearance. Fortunately the car is very solid at the back with very little lateral side to side movement so the tyres don't catch (unlike my Midget, which has terrible sidewall flex and rear axle movement all over the place and needs about 1/4 of an inch clearance before it won't catch)

DSC_0560 by 1275midget, on Flickr

shows the bit of the shell that causes the problem, just behind the door.

This is the bit that had to be 'adjusted'

DSC_0564 by 1275midget, on Flickr

it's all very tight!
 
Thanks for the offer - don't worry about measuring them unless you have to take the wheels off for some reason. I think the best course of action for me is to whip off the front and rear wings on one side and take my own measurements from the existing wheels. That way I'll know exactly what will and won't fit.

This may be over simplistic, but if I'm running 195 section tyres on a wheel with +4 offset, then I've got (in theory) 36 or 49mm to play with, so wheels of 40mm offset should allow 225's to fit (at the rear - the front is a whole different ballgame!). At the front I'm running 185's, with the same offset, so using the same logic, I think 215's should fit. 225's might, but it's going to be extremely tight with the wheel arch.
 
There's a distinct lack of supercharging going on here :wink:

Wheels and paint are a good combo, well done :)

What colour is it by the way?

Baron von Marlon said:
Thanks for the offer - don't worry about measuring them unless you have to take the wheels off for some reason. I think the best course of action for me is to whip off the front and rear wings on one side and take my own measurements from the existing wheels. That way I'll know exactly what will and won't fit.

This may be over simplistic, but if I'm running 195 section tyres on a wheel with +4 offset, then I've got (in theory) 36 or 49mm to play with, so wheels of 40mm offset should allow 225's to fit (at the rear - the front is a whole different ballgame!). At the front I'm running 185's, with the same offset, so using the same logic, I think 215's should fit. 225's might, but it's going to be extremely tight with the wheel arch.
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Remember that the rear wheels move in and out on an arc around the centre of the axle. I've got 225 tyres on mine and it was a serious amount of work modifying the internal rear arches (half removed) and the doors too, not something I'd recommend doing.
 
sowen said:
There's a distinct lack of supercharging going on here :wink:
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Shhhhh nobody's noticed... Still on the books! :oops:

It's vauxhall kings blue. Just a flat colour but polishes up ok.

Concurr with the comments on moving rear around. Also, it won't unstick under Road conditions so why would wider tyres be needed? (btw, "because I want them" is a perfectly good reason!)
 
1396midget said:
sowen said:
There's a distinct lack of supercharging going on here :wink:
Click to expand...

Shhhhh nobody's noticed... Still on the books! :oops:

It's vauxhall kings blue. Just a flat colour but polishes up ok.

Concurr with the comments on moving rear around. Also, it won't unstick under Road conditions so why would wider tyres be needed? (btw, "because I want them" is a perfectly good reason!)
Click to expand...

In the photos it almost looks like a metallic colour, very nice 8)

Going forced induction is quite a commitment in terms of reliablity, time, fuel consumption, insurance etc, but worth it once you're there :wink:
 
1396midget said:
"because I want them" is a perfectly good reason!)
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I agree, that's about the size of it as far as I'm concerned!

sowen said:
I've got 225 tyres on mine and it was a serious amount of work modifying the internal rear arches (half removed) and the doors too, not something I'd recommend doing.
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I'm not sure I want them that much though! Some modifications have been done to allow the current wheels and tyres to fit, but not the doors as far as I can tell. I'll have to take some measurements at various wheel positions and see what will fit. I certainly don't have the facilities at the moment for any serious reconstructive surgery.
 
well the seats are all in now.

Front:

DSC_0097 by 1275midget, on Flickr

rear (need a little more tucking)

DSC_0096 by 1275midget, on Flickr

All from a Rover 75; Sandstone Leather. £60 for the whole lot, so not too bad.

A bit of polish and a wax and the shine is really starting to show

DSC_0105 by 1275midget, on Flickr

centre caps built and fitted

DSC_0077 by 1275midget, on Flickr

and some blue calipers :oops:

DSC_0076 by 1275midget, on Flickr

It's caused some division on the various facebook sites, but I reckon it looks a lot better now than it did before. Hope you like it too, but understood if it's not your thing.....

Feel free to ask any questions about the seat fitting / wheels etc :)
 
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