Mark's Tomcat looks very different to how it when he first bought it.
The Rover Tomcat has proved popular with younger drivers, and it's a perfect introduction into the ups and downs of Rover ownership.
Mark Gomer's story is not so typical - because he's stuck with his, and continues to develop the Coupé, even after four years of ownership.
A real Tomcat labour of love...
Mark's Tomcat looks very different to how it when he first bought it.
ELL, I thought it was about time
to jump on the running report bandwagon and give a detailed as possible run-down
about the good times and bad times of just over four years (and counting) of
ownership of this particular Rover 216 Coupé, and how it has changed from being
looked upon as 'just another Rover' to being a head-turner wherever it goes,
without resorting to lairy lumps of ill fitting and nauseously shaped lumps
of fibreglass, otherwise known as a bodykit.
So, get yourself a cuppa and get comfortable and we’ll begin with one shiny Rover 216 Coupé SE, in completely standard trim with just 57,000 miles on the clock.
March 2004
How it was
The Thursday I picked the car up, I was working, and all day I'd been bouncing around like an idiot. 4.30 couldn't come quick enough, and I was off like a shot to pick up my new car... at 5.00pm, I was pulling out of a garage in Queensferry with a huge grin on my face. Happy days, or so I thought.
Within a few days of ownership, I noticed I had a slight misfire upon first starting the engine from cold, so, the following Friday afternoon, I returned to where I bought the car from and explained the problem. He was a decent bloke, which seems to be something of a rarity in the used car world these days and I was advised to take it to the garage who do all his servicing and repairs straight away. It was only a short jaunt up to Ellesmere Port, they already knew I was on my way, so were ready to take a look.
About 30 minutes and one compression test later, I was given the news that my head gasket had blown and they were going to repair it there and then, and that they would need a week to do it. Great, I was now stranded 25 miles from home, with my girlfriend and a boot full of her college work. A brief phone call to my mother and a much longer wait sitting outside Sainsbury’s, had me on my way again.
A week later, I picked the car up, and it was good as new. They told me that the radiator was to blame for the head gasket failure and they replaced it with a brand new one. The total cost to me: £0. I was thankful for the dealer’s honesty and that three month warranty I had. For the next 4 years, engine wise, it would never give any trouble whatsoever, taking it through another 53,000 hard miles.
This picture was taken around late-April or early-May 2004. Note the shiny new custom made stainless steel exhaust; one of the first changes to be made, along with the Savage foam air filter that had been fitted to my previous car. At that time, my first priority was to having a decent soundtrack coming from the engine, but just keeping it running was an uphill struggle due to being only a second year apprentice at the time. The exhaust alone cost me just over a month’s wages. Also, the JVC CD player from my previous car was fitted, as I don’t have any tapes for the tape player that was in there.
June/July 2004
The work begins
This is the earliest interior shot I can find, only difference here now is to
the sound system, the Sony
head unit has replaced the JVC unit as one of the channels had given up, resulting
in an extremely
annoying problem where the front, drivers side speaker would only work intermittently.
Thinking the
speakers were to blame, I replaced the standard ones with Pioneer jobbies. Not
a bad move anyway
after putting my finger through the cone of the original. Oops.
A set of KYB lowering springs were bought and fitted. They're claimed to lower the car by about 30mm, but I don’t know if it did or not - but it definitely looked more slammed. The handling was improved quite a bit, but these springs were a lot stiffer, and the ride suffered as a result. After a few months I’d grown accustomed to it, but unfortunately, as you’ll see later on, this was to be their demise.
The low-cost Savage universal filter cone was fouling the lining on the underside of the bonnet, and left a scar I’m pretty sure remains. Obviously, the hunt began for a new one. Being local to Demon Tweeks, the tuning and modifying gods of the North West, this was my first port of call. I had it in my head that a Pipercross was the way to go, and they confirmed that they did do one. I informed them three times that it was for the Rover 1600 K-series engine - and not the Honda 1600 engine.
"Yes, yes that’s fine sir, it is the right one." After getting home and unpacking everything out the box, the picture on the instructions happened to show a D16A8 engine (Honda 1600 twin cam). I thought that was a little strange, maybe it was coincidence or something, so I soldiered on. After an hour of swearing and wondering how I was supposed to clamp an air filter to an angled tube of stainless steel that was aiming the filter cone to on top of the battery, not to mention how that angled tube was meant to fit the plastic throttle body, on the outside.
It was, indeed, for the Honda engine after all, bugger. The next day saw me return to give it them back and actually order me the right one. Eventually, after five weeks, a nice K&N turned up, which thankfully, did fit and sounded quite nice.
September 2004
After new wheels and colour-coding
A bit more saving and a pay rise later I had the rubbing strips colour-coded, as well as the bottom of the rear bumper, to match the rest of the car. This makes a huge improvement, I feel, and still occasionally I think I should have left it in this condition. A set of 17-inch TSW Rib alloys and Toyo tyres, really seemed to bring the whole look of the car together. One passer-by described the wheels as looking almost as new, possibly even futuristic. I now think they’re a bit fussy and possibly even over the top, not to mention a nightmare when parking alongside any sort of kerb - but May 2007 saw them back, refurbished and a different colour, making me like them again.
To compliment all the work that had been done, I fitted clear side repeaters and meshed both front grilles, I felt that the black plastic on the Rover grille didn’t look quite right in my opinion, and was something I had never been too keen on, I felt that the mesh improved the look of the front no end and combined with the clear side repeaters, helped to freshen up the looks.
October 2005
Lights fitted then blended in
A few months after the colour-coding, I managed to get hold of a set of Afterburner rear lights. I’d only seen one picture of them, and I knew I had to have them. This was at a time when Lexus-style rear lights were at their high point, and that was certainly somewhere I didn’t want to be going. I primed them, wired them up and fitted them myself, but after a couple of months I decided to send it back to the bodyshop, take the plunge and have them blended in, so it looked like they were meant to be there - and didn’t look so stuck-on. I think they look fantastic, and still do after all this time. A real credit to the guy who did it.
Before blending:
After blending:
Lit up at night:
Pride of Longbridge 2006
(Pictures courtesy of Anthony Endsor)
September 2006
Trax: Still on temporary wheels
A chance look at the tyres the day before an MoT was due prompted me to resort to having to fit these wheels and tyres on at the very last minute. Luckily the passing of another 216 Coupé I had provided these 16-inch OZ SuperTurismos - and they ended up staying on for nearly 18 months. If you’re thinking "I’m sure I’ve seen those wheels somewhere else on this site," you’d be right. They went on to be fitted to the AROnline project 216 GTi in May 2007, which was then owned by Keith Adams, and in my opinion, looked better on that than they ever did on my Coupé.
During these months, I bought yet another air filter, the K&N may have sounded good but it did my engine no favours what so ever. Even with a cold air feed, it still suffered from horrendous heat-soak on hot days, and made a lot of difference. At a wild guess, I felt that I was losing around 5-7bhp in hot and/or humid weather. Its replacement, the BMC CDA is made from carbon fibre and enclosed to keep the heat out - and it feeds cold air from down by the front crossmember. This made the induction noise even better sounding and was actually a little quieter than the K&N.
Also fitted at this point was an OMP front upper strut brace. I wasn’t expecting it to be much more than engine bay bling but it surprised me and actually made a small difference to the handling, giving much sharper and tidier turn-in.
December 2006
Removing the Coupé front end and trial fitting Roversport front end
To this day, I still don’t know why I felt the need to change the whole front end, whether it was the feeling that other Coupé owners were liking what I’d done and began to start copying mine, or whether I felt the need to think outside the box and do something that I hadn’t ever seen done before; to fit a full Roversport GTi front end, including the front foglights and the (hens’ teeth) three-bar grille.
By this time I’d amassed a huge amount of parts that I don’t really need - and not just off Rover 216 Coupés either. I sold what was left from the last one I broke, which pretty much funded the price I paid for all the parts I’d bought for the conversion. At the same time, I decided upon getting hold of a Japanese specification rear number plate plinth, as I like the look of the small rectangular number plate and to make it even more difficult to be copied.
I also bought a PI rear spoiler to replace the OE version, which has a very nasty habit and peeling the paint off and bubbling, no matter how many times you spray it or how well you prepare and prime the thing. The beauty of the PI version is that its made from a different material to begin with, so that this doesn’t happen, and is an exact replica to the OE version.
February 2007
New items sprayed
After trial fitting everything and enduring the financial struggle that we call Christmas, I booked the Coupé into what’s now known as its second home. That's right, it was off to the bodyshop again for all the parts to be sprayed the right colour. A nice surprise was that they actually fitted it all too. I gave them all the parts and this was how I picked it up a week later. Bonus!
March 2007
Front splitter and front fogs fitted
To continue the theme of being to OE standards, eBay came up trumps when I found these ‘new old stock’ GTi front foglights. They were even still in the old Rover Group boxes when they arrived, and fitted perfectly, even if they wee slightly awkward to install. While it was away at the bodyshop, I’d bought a Renault Laguna front splitter without the intention of even fitting it; I wanted something to make the front a little deeper looking while still being subtle, so this was merely a trial.
Once I’d fitted it, I knew it simply had to stay and the front bumper was still in the garden and not re-fitted.
March 2007
Posh new dials
Having always been fascinated by that blue electro-luminescent glow that graced the dials of recent Volkswagens. I'd made a few attempts to replicate that on the Rover, unfortunately the first attempt with a set of Lockwood dials and some blue LED's meant you could only see if you were doing 30 or 120mph at night, with a huge black void in between. It had to go.
I was ready to go back to my standard faces and work from there when I came across a company making these electro luminscent kits, and just happened to do Rover ones. They required a little hacksawing of the plastic housing of the clocks to allow small wires to pass through but it was definately worth it.
May 2007
Old wheels refurbished, sprayed and re-fitted
As many of you who tinker with their cars will know, there is nothing more boring than doing something that isn’t related to fiddling about with it, and by now the TSW alloys were languishing behind the shed with knackered tyres, light kerbing on all of them and covered in cobwebs. I’d always said “I’ll get round to doing them one day”, so eventually I did what I do best by opening my mouth (or typing on the keyboard as was the case) before thinking about what I’d said. Five minutes later, realisation set in. I’d actually sold and arranged the pick up of my OZ wheels that still happened to be fitted and I had no replacements. I thought I’d better get my finger out and get the TSWs sorted again. I had nine days.
Now I could have just gone and pulled the tyres off, replaced them and been done with and spent the next eight days sitting on my crack, but no, that wasn’t going to happen. Remember me saying I wasn’t too keen on them? I had the tyres stripped off and took the bare alloys to a specialist in Saltney. His work looked brilliant and the brand new, unregistered Jaguar X-Type that was in there having an alloy repaired after being scuffed when being unloaded off the transporter at the dealer had a large input on my decision, and I was running out of time, I left them there and then.
I specified that I needed them repaired and I wanted them re-coloured to Anthracite instead of their original Silver finish. I went back three days later to pick them up, it was 6pm, the place was locked and the tyres were being fitted the morning after. By a stroke of luck, he knew I was going to be slightly late and came back, thankfully he also understood my dilemma, so they came straight out the oven and into the boot of the car, still too hot to touch with just bare digits.
The next morning 4 brand new 205/40/17 Goodyear F1 Eagle tyres went on to the TSW’s that had been practically dumped 18 months ago and forgotten about, then fitted and balanced. A few days later, I met up with Keith again, where I was relieved of the OZ wheels and the car was photographed to become AROnline’s CotM June 2007.
March 2008
A coil too far
A
period of nearly ten months' trouble-free motoring came to an abrupt end by
simply pulling out of the driveway one evening. As soon as the car moved forwards,
there was a sharp cracking noise followed by a horrible grinding, every time
the car moved, after a 300 mile drive in a non-turbo Transit van, this was the
last thing I needed.
As the car was now sat precariously across the road, I had no choice but to gingerly move on, at first I thought the noise would go away, as I thought the handbrake was slightly binding, it had been sat for a week after all. Unfortunately, around 20 metres up the road, it hadn’t gone away and was actually pulling severely to the right.
By now, I have two more cars sat behind me, and I live on a way street, so around the block I had to go, still with no idea what the hell was going on or even if I was driving it to self destruction at just 15mph.
A few days later, I jacked the front up and whipped the wheel off, to take a look and see what had happened, initially, I couldn’t see anything wrong until I scanned up the suspension turret to find this:
It now became apparent why my front splitter caught the ground when I reversed it back in the driveway.
A bit more investigation threw up another alarming discovery, where the coil had broken, it had stuck out and gouged part of the alloy rim away and torn the inside of my 1000 mile old, £108 tyre right down to the canvas. Ouch.
As luck would have it, I’d bought myself a full GMAX suspension kit, with both uprated dampers and springs a few months previously, and was waiting for a chance to fit them. Now was as good a time as any.
Out came the tools, and off came all the wishbone bolts, balljoints and everything else that needed to come off. Except one. The most important one obviously. The pinch bolt that secures the strut to the hub assembly was going nowhere, and with tempers rising as fast as the length of bar being used to try and undo it, the inevitable happened and the bolt head ended up nice and round.
Brilliant, time to come up with a plan B. Next to come out the shed was the extension lead and an angle grinder, not the wisest item to be in control of at this point, but there was no alternative. A total of around an hour passed and as much of the head was off, and to my surprise, it was still stuck fast.
By this time I’m trying to conjure up yet another plan, so, off came the whole lot, hub assembly, wheel bearing, everything. All that was left in the arch was the driveshaft and the broken spring in all its glory.
Thankfully, my father has access to some handy tools at work, which we don’t have at home. Apparently it took two blokes, a gas axe, a bench vice and two 10mm drill bits, as well as two hours to get that bolt out. After all that messing around, it was time for the other side to do. Surely that one should be ok shouldn’t it? Well, the answer to that was a resounding 'no.. Cue the gas axe again.
Once these were sorted, I turned my attention to actually getting it put back together, one of the top mounts had the ball race cover come off, allowing all sorts to get in there, and both of them were getting quite rusty, so I replaced these with brand new items.
From this point on, everything went to plan and fitting was nice and easy, and the rears were a doddle. A few days passed and it really began to settle nicely and have a good stance.
April 2008
An attack of heritage
There’s a well known phrase that can be applied to the next tale of woe, it goes, “History will repeat itself”, and it indeed did so, in quite possibly the most ironic location possible. Cofton Park, across the road from Q-gate at Longbridge.
A few bits of gunky looking sludge had been appearing and disappearing in the header tank for a week or so, and now and again, it would lose a load of water, so I was monitoring very closely what was going on in there, as well as being very aware of what my temperature gauge was doing. A quick stop on the way down revealed my worst thoughts, the sludge appeared to be slowly taking hold of the header tank, I was well over half way and had spare water with me, if I took my time, I’d make it there and back… hopefully. A quick poke round by some of the forum members indeed confirmed that the head gasket was on its last legs, and I’d be lucky to make it home.
So, spare water bottle filled again, I headed for home, keeping under 3000rpm and no full-throttle. Thankfully, it made it back alright and was put back in the “naughty corner” of the driveway. Over the following week, the engine was stripped down, and the cause was there, when it was repaired last time, the gasket used appeared to be a very cheap one, and had failed round one of the waterways, this was not helped by plastic location dowels being used to locate the head to the block. It was only a matter of time before it went again, and probably did well to survive the treatment that engine got for as long as it did.
In the following weeks, all the necessary parts required were ordered in, multi-layer head gasket and gasket set, steel dowels, new water pump and new head bolts. Unfortunately, other commitments, a back injury and a holiday delayed this repair by nearly four months. This really was a low point, as I’d almost pretty much forgotten how everything came apart and I was left with my engine bay looking like this:
I came back off holiday and decided enough was enough, this engine simply had to go back together. A Herculean effort from both my father and myself had it back together in around five hours in total and ready to turn the key, hoping that piston crowns wouldn’t be meeting valves or anything else that could have caused a K-series powered barbecue.
It took some spluttering and some false starts, but on the seventh attempt, it fired into life and kept going under its own power. The cooling system was bled and filled with OAT coolant and two, very tired but very happy, men breathed a large sigh of relief. The following few days would test how well the head gasket had been done, thanks to hot weather and sitting in traffic, yet everything worked how it should have, no overheating, no clouds of steam and no loss of water. A job well done.
No further plans are in the pipeline as of yet, I’m enjoying it being useable again for now. No doubt something else will crop up soon enough, and you’ll be the first to read about it here.
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