3500 injection production car - Do they exist?

R

rich j

New Member
Feel the need to be educated today...so,can anyone tell me about the 3500S fuel injected car that came out of the factory.I believe i'm right in saying it was a development concept but did any make it onto the roads here or abroad?
Thanks
 
I'm not sure if this is the car you are referring to or not, but back in the 70's I saw a racing 3500S which had been fitted with Tecalamit-Jackson mechanical injection and Lucas Opus electronic injection. Although I think there was some factory backing for this car I don't believe that the engine came ex works and was probably the work of a specialist engine builder. However at the time Rover used to often supply West Midlands Police with development cars for testing. Never saw one down in London but heard a rumour of a P6 fitted with a Triumph 2.5 PI unit in action on the M5.
 
I think Rover always had the idea to fit the V8 with fuel injection, but in the days of BL these things were never a priority. My understanding was that the two bumps in the series two bonnet were there for this purpose, but that was as close as the public got to actually getting it.
It may be that I've got it all wrong, but either way, I'd be interested to know a bit more as well.
 
If you are considering converting to EFI, I would certainly avoid the opus system, or "opeless" system as it is more commonly known! :laugh:
The hotwire system would proberbly be the best bet in a P6?
You just need to nick the loom out of a landy and find somewhere to house the ECU.
Theres bags of space in a P6 engine bay so that wont exactly be hard to do!

-JC
 
In one of the books on the P6 range , it shows a badge intended for use on a V8 with fuel injection. Something like 3500 Ei

Would a Triumph 2.5 pi engine fit ? Rover had to redesign the front to fit their prototype 5 cylinder engine
 
The Triumph straight six isnt that big believe it or not.
Infact, its proberbly not a great deal longer than a V8. Theres no reason why you cant move the whole lot backwards as there is a fair bit of room at the back of a V8. between the heads and the bulkhead.
 
Dave

On the subject of he striaght five 2.5 ltr version of the P6 four, I've never yet seen a photo either of the engine or the car wearing it. The photos I have seen of P7 are all of the straight SIX 3 ltr version which have a most peculiar looking extended front ( http://www.rover-freunde.de/rffzq830dt.html ). I believe one of these survives. I could just about imagine the five fitting in the standard base unit.

Do you know of any photos of the five, either engine or car?

Chris
 
Great article!,
I would of loved to know how Rovers 'five' sounded, as the Audi 5-cyl sounds fantastic. :cool:
 
apparently only 3 cars were made it on to the roads,one of which exists somewhere and the other two shown to have been scrapped, believe it or not
 
Wow, I never knew about the five pot, this and many features of the 2000 engine show just how advanced Rover became under Spen' King's guiding hand. Just a couple of points on other matters here though, the Triumph Six is a very small engine not only did it fit in the GT6 and Vitesse chassis it could also be shoehorned into the Standard Ten (did it in about 1971.) I actually think that it may not be much bigger that the P6 four cylinder, remember the Triumph is a much more simple design. The Lucas Opus I referred to above was an electronic ignition system only and it worked just fine on Cosworth DFV F1 engines, the Lucas mechanical fuel injection system as used on TR6 and 2.5 PI was another story, although some of it's problems were down to poor maintainence and/or bad location by the manufacturers. As to factory injection on the 3500 I suspect that if indeed this had ever been considered it would have been for the US market only as a means of meeting ever stricter emmision controls. If the intent was to produce more power then surely Rover would have gone for improving the porting and cylinder head profile first, followed by weber 44 IDFs.
 
I remember reading somewhere about someone testing the prototype 3500S injection, and it going completely ape-sh*t in the middle of Solihull!

IIRC it was said to be very quick, but it had a mind of its own. Accelerating full-bore when it felt like it with no input from the driver!.
Scary stuff! ???
 
PeterB76 said:
I remember reading somewhere about someone testing the prototype 3500S injection, and it going completely ape-sh*t in the middle of Solihull!

IIRC it was said to be very quick, but it had a mind of its own. Accelerating full-bore when it felt like it with no input from the driver!.
Scary stuff! ???
Click to expand...
"It wasn't me officer, it was the EFI." :cool:
"whats that sunshine"? ???
"EFI sir" :p
"No such thing. You're nicked!" :cool:
 
Pic of the 3500 EI fitting. Yes it must have been such a rogue they aimed it at a wall :D
[scanned from Classic Rovers, James Taylor, p70, 1996 2nd ed.]

It also mentions later in the book that the last ever all-Rover power unit was a slant twin-cam 2200 unit 'now preserved by BL Heritage' - so where is this now?

There were eight 4500 cars assembled in Australia, a number which were tuned and labelled 4500S.
 
rich j said:
Feel the need to be educated today...so,can anyone tell me about the 3500S fuel injected car that came out of the factory.I believe i'm right in saying it was a development concept but did any make it onto the roads here or abroad?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I've kept out of this discussion as I cannot remember the exact facts but I believe there were circa five 3500EI's built and all were destroyed by Rover. When we went through the registers at Gaydon about a year ago they were all there with -XC plates, but marked as destroyed.

Same goes for the Mandaley's (P9). Very sad to read the records - all withdrawn and documents destroyed in 1971.

Must have been pressure from BL heirachy - especially Sir William Lyons.

Cheers
Nick
 
ooo yes I've always thought the P9 (even with probable Alvis badging) looked great. The only photos I've seen were with these mock windows, Rover badge, did they take it further?
p8_10.jpg
 
I think it was pressure from Sir William Lyons that killed off the mid-engined Rover, a bit too hot for the E type to handle!
 
I have an article from Practicle Classics from 1997 about a Rover 3500s Injection car. It was bedged 3500s, with a small "Lucas Injection" below the S.

I also have got a old plenum, uncomplete from such car.
I do not know where it is from originally, the guy I bought it from said it was from a NADA car from Canada.

I will test it but I will need some parts to make it work. I will need some injectors that fit (the newer type doesn't) and a kind of management system. But it does look cool, much better that the newer systems.

But what I do know is that the newer type of plenum (Flapper, Hot wire) is much better and easier to use, end especially the Hot wire is good.
 
I've quite a few PC magazines, in fact my missus contantly falls over them :D but never seen this one. Would you be able to scan it in? Which month is the issue?
 
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