> Dear fellow SOLs,
>
> I was leafing through some Rover literature and noticed that they
> offer an all-aluminum V6. Does anyone know whether it, like the V8, is
> compact, and also whether it has the right included angle (60 deg) or whether
> it is the 8 with two cylinders lopped off? The dam' things have four cams.
Yee-ha! They *sell* that motor? Buy me one, Daddy, please!
This is the motor that powered the short-lived M.G. Metro 6R4 rally
car, which has the distinction of being the ugliest car ever built
(yes, uglier than even the Volvo 740 *or* the Alfa Milano, about which
I have often said that if sin were that ugly, Jerry Falwell would be
unemployed).
I want one desperately, in spite of looking like a stock Metro that's
been stung by industrial-strength wasps to give it all sorts of bumps
and excresences, not to mention the many wings, winglets, and that sort
of biplane cowcatcher up below where the front bumper used to be.
The M.G. Metro 6R4 was ARG's entry into the Group B Rally Supercar
wars. It looked to be the next dominant factor, displacing the various
turbo/supercharged cars from Audi (who more or less invented the class
with their original Quattro), Peugeot, and Lancia. This one was a
teeny little car -- the Metro is the update of the Mini, smaller than
a VW Golf or Renault R5 ("Le Car") -- into which God's own rally motor
had been stuck, along with the suspension, driveline, and aero aids to
make the thing stick.
Specs were 280 bhp in "Clubman" trim, 400 bhp in the works motors. It
ran through an AWD system with 65-35 rear-front torque splitting and would
accelerate from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds, in the FOREST.
On tarmac it was said to be quicker. :-) Top speed was limited to about
110 mph, but I rarely get going faster than that on my commute anyway,
and the extra ground clearance and stronger suspension would make it a
natural for zipping over median strips when I get caught in traffic.
It won its first outing, the Welsh Rally, and I believe one or two other
events before the class was banned due to the fact that rally fans like
to stand right *on* the apex so that they get nice and close to the cars
as they rocket past, in the snow, at 110 mph or so. When a car slipped
off the road and killed 7 or 8 Portuguese spectators (who were *in* the
roadway at the time, if I recall), the class was banned. (If I hadn't
had a very nice piece of linguica for breakfast, and if I didn't like
the products of the Fonseca vineyards so much, I'd suggest that what they
OUGHT to have banned was the Portuguese...)
Anyway, some other details about this motor. It is in fact the 3.5L V8
with two cylinders lopped off; displacement is something like 2.8L.
Four cams, programmable P.I., instant throttle response unlike the
turbo motors that had been popular till that point; no lag, just what
you want when you need to change the attitude of the car at high speed
in order to miss a tree, or when you realize that yes, you *do* have
a clear line coming out of a pile of scree and wet leaves and the road
suddenly opens up in front of you. Power right NOW instead of in a beat
and a half.
The motor was also "used" in a very pretty show car, about 1987, called
the M.G. EX-E, a nice sculpture that as far as I know never moved. It
looked quite sharp, and was said to have the 280-bhp version of this
motor mounted amidships in a sort of cross between the Acura NSX and
the Peugeot Le Mans cars. Lots of fancy gadgets for to make the rubes
think it's good, like heads-up displays and the like.
Anyway, consider that this motor uses the same engine mounts as the
Rover 3.5L V8, is the same width (modulo the outboard cams), not much
higher once you account for the tunnel ports of the fuel injectors,
and of course is shorter, lighter, and puts out roughly twice the
power. I want one in my MGB. Hell, I want one in *all* my cars.
(Yeah, a 122S with a 280-bhp four-cam V6, that'd be sweet...)
So... (he said, sidling up to the bar and looking furtively over the
shoulder of the man holding the book), Tim, how much did they say it
would cost for one of these little gems?
--Scott
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