This British racing green Rover Vitesse fastback rolled off the Cowley production line in April 1994
Ordered for Barclays Bank it was fitted with Recaro leather seats and a 2 litre 180hp engine
 

Barclays owned the car for 2 years covering 30,000 miles, the next 4 years it was privately owned until I purchased the
car in 2000. Still in very good original condition, that is how the car remained for a year or so
       From Bank manager to Brands Hatch



The standard car has good performance 0-60 in 7.8 seconds and a top speed of 140mph. These misunderstood cars have become
a rare sight on the road today but have great potential with a 2 litre twin cam 16 valve turbo charged engine and long wheelbase
independent suspension chassis. It is a difficult car to modify, it is heavy, front wheel drive and no tuning parts are available
so everything is specially designed. With the demise of Rover even standard parts are becoming difficult to find

The car is always evolving, in 2004 a new engine with forged pistons was fitted along with a bigger turbo and modified cylinder head.
2005 a big valve cylinder head was fitted. 2006 four extra injectors were fitted (two per cylinder) Coil on plug ignition replaced the
HT leads and distributor cap along with DTA engine management. The turbo size was increased further and front suspension and
brakes uprated in 2008. 2010 a full roll cage was welded in for safety and to stiffen the bodyshell, most of the interior has been
removed, replaced with two lightweight Recaro bucket seats and 6 point harnesses, 2014 Wilwood 6 pot brake calipers and
larger front discs were fitted. 2016 the rear suspension was rebuilt and converted to an adjustable coilover setup with uprated
bushes, springs and shock absorbers. 2019 a custom exhaust manifold and system was fitted.

For 2020 the rear suspension is being fine tuned, steering wheel replaced and gearbox and ratios changed.
Details will be added to the updates page in March



This car competed in Redline TOTB3, held every year at Elvington airfield near York, a competition to find the fastest road legal
cars in the country, despite running problems on the day and against all the odds we were the fastest front wheel drive car
around the handing circuit

Redline magazine covered a rolling road shoot out at the G-Force Porsche tuning rolling road in 2003, the Vitesse topped the FWD
group at over 320hp. Quote "Jims Rover Vitesse looks like it should be driven by someones granddad but nitrous oxide and 322hp
means serious fun"

This website rovervitesse.com is dedicated to showing the maintenance and evolution of one particular Rover Vitesse as well as
information on other MG Rover models. Click on the menu at the top of this page for more images and information
updated August 2020