MISSION CREEP
There was a time when there were plenty of V8-engined Land Rover 90s and 110s in the world. People were forever using them as a way of making their painfully slow old motors sound nice and go well. The advent of affordable second-hand Tdi lumps did a number on that but while people have long since-stopped using the Rover V8 for repower, those that survive still retain that same aura of specialness about them.
An LS unit out of a crate is all very well, but you’ll never make a Corvette out of a Defender – and you’ll never make a Rover V8 out of anything else, regardless of how much power it’s got.
There are Rover V8s, though, and there are Rover V8s. One instinctively knows when a thing is right, as the advert for some sort of posh drink used to say, and that’s very much the case with Defenders. There are some very nice repowers around – but an original is a cut above.
Even today, if you fi nd a V8 90 or 110 it’s likely that the engine first saw service under the bonnet of a long-since deceased SD1 or Range Rover and the vehicle started life as a 2.25 (if it’s proper old) or some sort of 2.5.
The old nat-asp diesel was a favourite for hooking out back in the day, and of course the pre-Tdi Turbo-Diesel was always up for a game of Moths in Your Wallet. And it must be said, the workmanship on some of the repowered V8 Defenders we’ve seen has been outstanding.
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