Rover 75 V8 development car, #185, For Sale

Apologies for doing this a bit after the fact. I'm selling #185, but have gone straight to listing it in Autotrader. I'm moving house shortly and want to reduce my fleet. The Autotrader lists all of the info given me by Dom (Middleton) when I bought it from him around 5 years ago. In short, it was rescued by Dom and possibly others after having the engine hydraulic'd over in Ireland where it's previous owner lived (and drive it into a ford - water). Dom told me that he arranged for new front and rear end stuff-ups to be fitted to the car by Austin Garages. I believe that the stuff ups were sourced from Brown and Gammons after the demise of MG Rover. I have photos that he sent me of the engine and gearbox swap. At the same time, a new windscreen, wing, exhausts, brake discs and uprated pads, rear subframe (old one was shocking!), aircon condenser were fitted (the labour bill for the work alone was £4000). After buying the car, I arranged for Austin Garages to transfer the LPG system across to the new engine and replace a leaky heater control valve. I also had the rear dampers rebuilt by Bilstein (reassuringly expensive) and had a new LPG evaporator fitted. I replaced the battery at that time and had a slight colour clash of the replacement wing with the rest of the front of the car rectified by a partial respray. The car has done 8000 miles (2k with Dom) since the major work at Austin Garages, and fewer than 600 miles in the last 2 years. It needed 2 new tyres for the MOT, which was passed only 2 weeks ago. If anyone's interested, please contact me via the Autotrader advert (where there are plenty of photos). I've priced it at £5750 which is hopefully realistic, and way below what I spent buying and refurbishing it after all of the work Dom had done. Mind you, I guess that this is a common theme among owners.
I'm also selling a pair of brand new Rover 75 V8 front strut assemblies, which I]'d like £600 for the pair, and a set of 4 Vortex wheels and tyres which I'll put on eBay. They've done around 3000 miles after being restored by Pristine Alloy Wheels (respecting their diamond cut surface). I'm after £750 for those, as they're in great (but not perfect) condition and the Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres have plenty of life left in them. Apologies for not listing here first.

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Here's the link to the autotrader ad, I'm sure people won't mind if I put it up: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...02008232826962
From another fellow 75 V8 development car owner (#190, Tourer, formerly BU53 RXR), I'd say your car should sell quickly at that price. I would have asked for a bit more to be honest...

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Originally Posted by scoubix

Here's the link to the autotrader ad, I'm sure people won't mind if I put it up: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...02008232826962
From another fellow 75 V8 development car owner (#190, Tourer, formerly BU53 RXR), I'd say your car should sell quickly at that price. I would have asked for a bit more to be honest...

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Sure, Nicolas. It is in the Complete List entry too.
I also think the price is low, particularly bearing in mind the double-stuff-up and the people responsible for doing that and the other work to restore it. If it were only LHD, ...... :(

David

Memories of when it was being worked on by the Longbridge engineers...here is #185 cold-testing in Sweden, January 2004.

https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/mgoc26...2&d=1598213035

A really handsome-looking car, with a solid history of servicing and refurbishing.
I am correct in observing that it has ZT backboxes and bumper?

MGR database thinks it's a Mk 1 MG ZT 260SE anyway, of course, as do the photos from 'scoubix', but what's in a name.
Is it registered as an MG or as a Rover, I wonder?

David

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Originally Posted by David

MGR database thinks it's a Mk 1 MG ZT 260SE anyway, of course, as do the photos from 'scoubix', but what's in a name.
Is it registered as an MG or as a Rover, I wonder?

David

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If it's like mine then it's registered as an MG. The Rover looks date from the time it was at Nick's (or Brown&Gammons), and in any case that has no influence on the registration anyway. The Rover 75 V8 didn't have any legal existence when the car was reg'ed, and its VIN is that of an MG anyway. Mine is officially a manual ZT-T 260...so this one is officially a manual MG ZT 260.

Wow! Many thanks for the photo. Maybe we were on some of the same trips? I went cold testing in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Really appreciate the photo. Do you remember the SDV number?

I'm a complete novice at posting on here and thought that this reply would position itself under David's post. Apologies for messing up the chain.
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You're absolutely right in the literal sense in that being the first development car for the production Rover spec (at least that's what I was told via the forum a while ago) it is a converted MG ZT, I view it as ending up as a Rover after the company's work. Its starting point as logged by production data would be its MG ZT 260SE origin, and DVLA have that too.

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Originally Posted by scoubix

Here's the link to the autotrader ad, I'm sure people won't mind if I put it up: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...02008232826962
From another fellow 75 V8 development car owner (#190, Tourer, formerly BU53 RXR), I'd say your car should sell quickly at that price. I would have asked for a bit more to be honest...

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I had no idea how much to ask, but appreciate your helpful post. At least I won't drop the price at all based on what you've written. I've spent a lot more than that on it, but expected to take a hit, and priced it to sell in the current economic climate. Thanks for your help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David

Sure, Nicolas. It is in the Complete List entry too.
I also think the price is low, particularly bearing in mind the double-stuff-up and the people responsible for doing that and the other work to restore it. If it were only LHD, ...... :(

David

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Thanks for more supporting evidence of the value of my car David. Much appreciated.

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Originally Posted by anthony27

A really handsome-looking car, with a solid history of servicing and refurbishing.
I am correct in observing that it has ZT backboxes and bumper?

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Many thanks for that summary. I'm not sure about the back boxes any more as the exhaust was replaced during the work at Austin Garages, but you are absolutely right about the rear bumper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scoubix

Memories of when it was being worked on by the Longbridge engineers...here is #185 cold-testing in Sweden, January 2004.

https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/mgoc26...2&d=1598213035

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I thought I'd ask whether you would mind me adding this photo to those in my advert please? No worries if you'd rather I didn't.

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Originally Posted by PhilR75

I thought I'd ask whether you would mind me adding this photo to those in my advert please? No worries if you'd rather I didn't.

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I'd rather not Phil, I'm sharing it here but it was sent to me by a former member of the engineering staff on the V8 programme and I'd like to keep it amongst us.
I have a 2nd one I can send you by email if you'd like. Let me know your email address through a PM...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PhilR75

Wow! Many thanks for the photo. Maybe we were on some of the same trips? I went cold testing in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Really appreciate the photo. Do you remember the SDV number?

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I'm not the one who took that picture, as explained previously, so no we were not on the same trips ;-)
Didn't know you used to work for MGR. I never did :)
There was no SDV numbers on the 75 V8 development cars, as they were production MG cars straight out of the production line with proper SARRX VIN plates, and then being worked on in the Flightshed where the changes, such as suspension, automatic gearbox, etc...was carried out. This was confirmed to me by Rob Oldaker and several members of the V8 engineering team.

FYI, my own research on the V8 program has turned up with the following cars being 75 V8 development cars out of MG cars :

• #160 was BU53RXJ (RHD Tourer, now scrapped)
• #161 was BU53RXK (LHD saloon, now in Sweden, owned by Olof over here)
• #185 was BU53RXP (RHD saloon, yours)
• #186 was BU53RXL (LHD saloon, now in Spain, don't know the owner)
• #190 was BU53RXR (LHD Tourer, mine)
• #192 was BU53RXT (RHD saloon, this one has yet to be confirmed as being a 75 V8 car but its VIN and reg follow the pattern of previous cars)

And then of course, we can add #215 to that list, the actual first properly-dressed 75 V8 which was the Geneva show car, and which was also born as an MG ZT 260.

Here's the very first 75 V8 development car, #160, when scrapped. Evidenced as being a 75 V8 development car by the same 17'' Mirage wheels as other 75 V8 development cars, Rover-badged tailgate, Rover bumpers, chrome lines...

https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/mgoc26...2&d=1358542146

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scoubix

I'm not the one who took that picture, as explained previously, so no we were not on the same trips ;-)
Didn't know you used to work for MGR. I never did :)
There was no SDV numbers on the 75 V8 development cars, as they were production MG cars straight out of the production line with proper SARRX VIN plates, and then being worked on in the Flightshed where the changes, such as suspension, automatic gearbox, etc...was carried out. This was confirmed to me by Rob Oldaker and several members of the V8 engineering team.

FYI, my own research on the V8 program has turned up with the following cars being 75 V8 development cars out of MG cars :

• #160 was BU53RXJ (RHD Tourer, now scrapped)
• #161 was BU53RXK (LHD saloon, now in Sweden, owned by Olof over here)
• #185 was BU53RXP (RHD saloon, yours)
• #186 was BU53RXL (LHD saloon, now in Spain, don't know the owner)
• #190 was BU53RXR (LHD Tourer, mine)
• #192 was BU53RXT (RHD saloon, this one has yet to be confirmed as being a 75 V8 car but its VIN and reg follow the pattern of previous cars)

And then of course, we can add #215 to that list, the actual first properly-dressed 75 V8 which was the Geneva show car, and which was also born as an MG ZT 260.

Here's the very first 75 V8 development car, #160, when scrapped. Evidenced as being a 75 V8 development car by the same 17'' Mirage wheels as other 75 V8 development cars, Rover-badged tailgate, Rover bumpers, chrome lines...

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Sorry, I jumped to the wrong conclusion, I did get that you hadn't taken the photo but thought you might have been there anyway. :-)

I didn't work for MGR either, but ran the company that delivered all of MGR's outsourced engine management system calibration work apart from the V8 (some K4 models, completion of 2.0 R75 KV6, MG ZS180, ZT 190, ZT160 and their OBD calibrations for all K4 and all but the 2.5 KV6 75). I have some very happy memories of those days, where I too was based in our company's office in the Flight Shed.

Many thanks for all that interesting detail on the various V8 development cars. I wonder whether between all the people on this site like you, there doesn't exist more information than in the books that have so far been written on the 75 and ZT(T) models. I was told a while ago on this site that mine was the first development car, but clearly it wasn't. The photo of #160 is a really sad one, but thanks for the history lesson which was great!

Thanks to everyone for all of the help and interesting information about the car. I can now say that it has been sold to Dominic 22, which feels good because he was in such a large part responsible for making it the car it is today. I can see myself becoming an owner of a Rover 75 V8 again at some point in the future though.

Some additional photos of #185 testing in Sweden.

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