Janspeed 820

[TDHFastback]

Just got a new magazine article through on the Janspeed 820Si Turbo and am intrigued.



The article talks mainly of the engine mods.
The date of the article is March 1988 make it pre Tickford.
Do any of you old stalwarts out there know anything else about these. Did anyone ever have one or know of one in existance? How many were made etc etc.

Kate

ps I know I am still quite new to the forum so forgive me if this has already been covered elsewhere.

[scoobyh123]

Wow!! That is a piece of not just 800 history but motoring history Kate!!!

I had heard Janspeed were doing something with the 820 a year or two before the Tickford appeared and had in fact seen a silver (think it was on either F or G reg) 820SLi Janspeed turbo with the Tickford bodykit that was allegedly used as one of the development vehicles. At the time i owned my last SD1 V8 and the guy who was driving the 280 turbo sort of challenged me to a duel of sorts. I declined, mainly on the grounds that there was nowhere we could do it legally except at a venue known to him through office hours but he did take me for a spin in it and it went like stink. Apparently the boost was a bit higher than they intended for production but nonetheless it was a rapid machine and the only one in existence in the area - even the local main dealers hadn't heard of it at the time!

Never knew what became of it and forgot about it until a couple of years later the Tickford 820 made an appearance. Some time (2-3 years) later, the Vitesse turbo appeared and i think you know the story from there.

Which magazine is that in Kate? I'd love to get a copy!

[Richard Moss]

The body kit looks like it's the TWR one, but Janspeed's wizardy is usually under the bonnet. It's the first I've heard of this model.

[scoobyh123]

Back in those days Richard i lived in Hampshire, not far from Salisbury where Janspeed were based. As far as i recall, the guy who had the 820 turbo either worked directly for Janspeed or for one of the dealers that were "asked" by Rover to provide a car from stock for modification. To the best of my knowledge it was from this the Tickford was born. Unless i remember anything else that's about the sum total of my knowledge and it was 23-25 years ago.

[BlueRover]

The body kit looks like it's the TWR one, but Janspeed's wizardy is usually under the bonnet. It's the first I've heard of this model.

It's very slightly different on the lower front of the bumper but the general shape is there.
I suspect Janspeed had more input with this car than Tickford had with the 820 turbo. From what I can glean from the article, it seems Janspeed mildly boosted a nasp engine as I've heard that the engine can handle around 6psi and give a similar power increase to that mentioned. I think Rover decided on the lower compression to maintain reliability with greater tuning possibilites. Sadly we all know that we never got the more powerful version.

[scoobyh123]

On the one i saw, i think he said it was running either 8 or 10 psi but more than was planned for production.

Just wish i'd known back then that someday it would be more important!

[Alucard7002]

Very interesting!

Nice find Kate!

These days Jaguar have coaxed 237hp/250lbft out of their Ford derived 2l ecoboost What's interesting ,if I recall correctly, is that during the Tickford development (as sourced AROnline) the M16/T16 Hybrid lump (not quite an M16, nor a T16) used in the Tickford Turbo was over engineered and then some. Rover at the time predicted between 250-350 horses. Now as to how useful/driveable/reliable the power would be is another story however seeing the power/torque curves for the vitesse it isn't hard to see how much potential the turbo itself has. Naturally strength of other components became an issue (gearbox for one as we all know) not to mention the thought of that much power going through an 80's front wheel drive chassis...

Out of curiosity, can someone enlighten me as to the maximum OEM boost pressure in the Tickford and the Vitesse? 12 and 14.4 Psi rings a bell but I think that's the over boost cutoff pressure not the actual 'normal' boost pressure.



Tell you what, that Janspeed 820 looks stonking! In that colour and the not-subtle-but-good-taste bodykit it looks very purposeful.

[BlueRover]

When I look at the engine in my car, I can't see anything resembling the T series. Rear mounted water pump, different cambelt tensioner arrangement, M block and head, Mahle pistons (I can't see them but it's accepted they're stronger than the later ones in the Vitesse). Even the crank case breather arrangement is different. There are two ECUs, one for ignition and one for fuelling (the latter is a socketed EEPROM for tuning maps).
I think that Rover had the T series pretty much sorted in 1991 so perhaps they had 560 odd M series left and decided not to waste them by making a limited turbo run based on the Janspeed car research. I suppose we'll never know unless we can find someone from Rover who worked on these cars.

[Richard Moss]

I think that the Vitesse normally boosts to a maximum of 12 psi with a cutoff at 14.7 (1 bar). But don't quote me on that.......

[Manalishi]

I think that the Vitesse normally boosts to a maximum of 12 psi with a cutoff at 14.7 (1 bar). But don't quote me on that.......

I think the 180 is something like 7.7 and the 197bhp is 11.7. "I think..."

[Richard Moss]

That sounds familiar