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3 unusual facts about Rover K engine


1990 in motoring

The ancient 1.0 and 1.3 A-Series engines were dropped in favour of the new 16-valve K-Series units, with a choice of 1.1 and 1.4 litres.

Clubmans

Sports 1600 gave way to "K Sports" with a Rover K-series engine and the 16-valve two-litre Vauxhall temporarily replaced the 1700 cc Crossflow unit in 1993 for the short-lived rear-engined Supersports category.

Rover K engine

The aluminium engine blocks were fitted with spun cast iron cylinder liners that were initially manufactured by GKN's Sheepbridge Stokes of Chesterfield, but replaced by spun cast iron liners made by Goetze after some seminal research conducted by Charles Bernstein at Longbridge, which proved influential even to Ducati for their race engines.


GTM Cars

With the introduction of the Rover 'K'-series engine, GTM were quick to fit one in their third generation Rossa which was launched as simply the 'K3', the first vehicle to be made available with a mid-mounted 'K'-series (subsequently followed by Lotus' Elise, MG's own MGF and Ariel's Atom to name but three).


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