Rover 220 Coupe Tomcat Goes For a Drive

(My) Rover 220 Coupe Tomcat Goes For a Drive - taking the Rover Coupe for a last minute drive and review before the lock down.

Tomcat Merch

[Orion]

S-plate 1.8 VVC owner and club member here. Really glad to hear your enthusiasm for this old girl!

Despite the unique body panels, literally everything else is still available, so keeping one running is no great cost or hardship. A couple of points on your video though?

1) The best affordable brake conversion is from the MG-ZS. Straight fit and bolt compatible, though you will need wheels with a larger internal diameter than the standard 15s.

2) The FDHes might have been well-equipped, but they spent years on ships being sprayed with salt water, or in fields when they came home. They were great, but needed some serious TLC (and undersealing).

3) The gear linkage problem is horrible (finding 1st can lead you to punch your passenger in the crotch) but can be easily fixed with orange Powerflex poly bushes, which are cheap as chips and you don't have to drill/grind to fit the Fiesta mod.

Cheers!

[FuzzWoof]

I had three - a 220 Turbo and two 218 VVCs - loved the power of the turbo, but ended up liking the VVCs far more, as the far lighter engine up front made it handle so much better. Definitely a very underrated car!

[kev]

I so so so wish I'd never sold mine, bought the N reg around 2007 and had the most fun driving anything, ever. Smoked everybody who wanted to have a go off the lights and loved the feel, the noise, everything. Loved the old fella to bits

[richardjohnson]

"Emerging classic" indeed. Hold on tight to it

[paulillingworth]

I remember my boss had one brand new in same colour as yours it was an M reg, love the grunt sound of Rovers, I agree Rover was much better quality than people slammed them for, I’ve driven many cars and my Rover is still the most fun.

[robdixon]

I had a tahiti blue L reg turbo in the late 90s .... totally reliable and very fast in its day. If I could have one again I would. I can confirm I had mine off the clock ....

[johnmalin]

Tomcat was one of the most underrated cars of the day. True legend

[byronmills]

Can always remember a Prototype pre production Tomcat painted Satin/Matt black making its way just south of Chippingham at the start of 1992 - it looked great then and it looked even better later on that year at the UK unveiling at the Nec Motorshow. Rover were quite bullish with their pricing if I can remember - they regarded it it as premium product and priced it accordingly. Still a great looking car but I'd have to delete the front grille to take it back to its purest form. Rover did offer some lovely colours in that era - your looks great in the pearl blue.

[alansimpson]

Rover Tahiti Blue is still one of my favourite all-time car colours and it really suits the shape of the Tomcat. I never knew this was meant to be an MG originally but glad it ended up with a Rover badge. The range looked good with a sporty model

[KJM.]

The rover tomcat is a cracking car matt definitely a permanent keeper along with the p6's the value and rarity is only going one way with them...

[davidhall]

My uncle had a racing green 216SLi and he kept it immaculate. It just felt so much posher than the Escorts, Astras, etc of that era. The Tomcat was an absolute looker 😍 Great video again Matt 👍

[llcooljaz]

Great video brings back great mid 90s memories this car stood out so much back then

[crossercuss]

i worked in a rover dealership in mid 90s and drooled over the tomcat on the forecourt... still look great today and were i think one of the nicest cars to drive at the time compared to vauxhall and ford...

[JimmuClarku]

10:03 The retraction sound of the belt. Unmistakable part of my childhood soundtrack. Fantastic colour this blue one. Nice video!

[chrisblay]

That was the Rover model which prompted BMW to bid for Rover Group and eliminate the competition. We all know what happened later.

[aljack]

I had a 216 coupe tomcat, with the Honda engine. Absolutely pristine. Found memory's. Never had an issue with it.

[adrianpalmeredwards]

Great cars, I bought one of the first Rover 216 in October 1989 the 216 GSI, with a sports pack in white great car, then in 1991 swapped the GSI for a 220GTI again a great car with good performance, both were well used & never failed I must admit, they were great cars.

[justinchadwick]

I had a 2.0 turbo N reg in Tahiti blue amazingly quick at the time it cost me 6 months off the road near Bournemouth when I got caught speeding at 116 mph. The 6 cd auto changer was under the passenger seat in mine
Lovely to see one again made me smile 😃

[thesteveo]

I ALWAYS wanted one of these but couldn't afford the turbo, so got the 220 coupe. Lovely car, amazing how 200bhp back then was so amazing, how times have changed.
Great video, brings back many memories!

[MarkieC]

Great cars, very highly underrated across all the range.

“INDICATOR STALKS*” 🤣