Reginald Nutsack's K-series Kapers - ROVER 623 MOT GUFF

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Had a very painless trip across to the the windswept tundra just NE of Boston (Lincs) tonight, came back with this old heap

 

[jonathan_dyane]

Great colour 😉

[dollywobbler]

What did you make of it then? C'on. Engage full Chris Goffey mode! 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'll do a collection report tonight!

[Shep Shepherd]

Looks quite elegant in JRG

[phil_lihp]

It must be pretty foul, it's killed all the grass around it already...

[RRT22R]

I know I shouldn't, but I really like that.

 

Must have originally been registered in my neck of the woods. 

[greengartside]

Ace purchase Bol! Always thought they looked good in JRG.

 

Hope you twatted a few badgers coming back from there. Wainfleet's apprently over-run with the bu66ers according to Jeremy Vine today.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

i'm not into killing badgers

[Pillock]

That couldn't be more giffer if it tried.

[RoadworkUK]

Ideal registration for anybody named R30BYRT.

 

A hexadecimal olde English type, maybe?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah I went to fetch this shitter last night, I was gonna go on the train but I managed to persuade a friend form work to GET INVOLVED! Here's the route, took a long time:

 

 

Here's the transport:

 

 

My mate uses this 155 as a daily, its got souped-up suspension and some fancy camshafts or something. I drove it quite a lot of the way to see what its like - the verdict is its well nice to drive, quick and the engine is a total honey, it just loves to rev and pulls and pulls super hard right up to 6500rpm or something. Gearchage is nice too. I found the driving position to be appalling, I thought by the mid-90's the pasta munchers had managed to get past that short leg/long arm ergonomic model but this car had it as bad as any Italian motor I've ever tried. Also I may be wrong but I think thse are quite floppy in the bodyshell. Certainly if you drive along with your fingers on the door gap along the roof you can feel them moving a lot when you go round corners and whatnot. I think the souped-up suspension and strut brace were giving the shell a harder time than it was expecting, but once it got past the slight body squidge and hunkered down in a sweeping bend you could really hammer it and it was very sure footed. Great stuff. ONly problem is we were limited to very low speeds on the bumpy fen roads round the guy's house due to lack of suspension!

 

Drove across Lincolnshire, that big empty forgettable chunk of the UK that is actually full of nice villages with handsome buildings if you can be arsed looking. Also drove past any number of vast plains covered with smelly cabbages.

 

Got to the fellers house and he had the 623 out on the road (I think it had been in his field for a while) seemingly the MOT had run out 6 months ago but it was srtating, running and driving fine. The guy was a right character - maybe early 60's, lived with his mum, I think his dad had not long died and they were clearing the place to sell it. It was one of these places with loads of crap everywhere, old cars, machinery, a skip, cement mixer, cobbled-up secutiry lights and whatnot. Anyway he gave us a long detailed tour of the 623 pointing out some obvious features like how there are 2 keys, a new boxed radiator in the boot etc etc. I wanted to crack on but he was too busy giving me a load of MG Rover wisdom. He was a nice guy, but I got the vibe that he was the type you see at car shows divulging large amounts of wisdom to all and sundry, you know what I mean. I looked at the non-working immobiliser fob and said "oh yeah, it looks like a standard Lucas/Rover 5AS job" "No!!!!!" he said triumphantly. "THIS! Is a Lucas 5AS" he said quating a load of numbers and waving another fob out of his kitchen drawer that looked exactly the same. Then he ticked me off for writing 13th September on the V5 when it was actually the 14th. Luckily he then wrote 14th August so I was able to get him back for that. He told me all about his 75 diesel that he'd bought as a non-runner ("I told the guy what was wrong with it, but he didnt believe me, anyway I was right") We had a cup of tea and he gave me a load of totally incomprehensible directions that would save me some time getting back to Boston, eventually I got the money in his hand, feigned understanding of the directions and made for the door. ON the way out he told me about his MGF Anniversary model ("Its got a plaque on the dash saying its number 1868 out of 2000") but I finally managed to get my arse into the 623 and start the enigne. To my surprise it had half a tank of juice in.

 

Anyway apart from a slight pull to one side, fixed by a 50p stop at a petrol station to pump up the tyres, it drove great!

 

 

Drove it back at normal speeds without any hassle, no clonks or rattles from the suspension, pulled well, brakes good, no overheating, nowt much to report really. It sailed over the fen roads much better than the Alfa 155!

 

 

The slushbox is quite 'slushy' not as good as the 5-speeder in the gooner. I think this is a 4-speeder, and its smooth and responds well enough, but I'm not sure it has a lock-up at higher speeds so its feels a little oldskool. The engine is beautifully smooth and quiet and pulls well. 75mph is 3000 rpm so gearing is not the highest but the engine is smooth enough that its not really a problem.

 

 

It does have a couple of faults - seemingly theres a weep on the radiator, although it didnt seem to lose any coolant over the 80-mile trip home. Anyway theres a brand new rad in the boot.

 

 

Its got a slight blow on the back box, radio code missing, key fob doesnt work, rust on the doglegs, drivers window doesnt wind up quite right without assistance.... thats about it really. Needs a good sesh with the polishing mop as well, i reckon it will come up mint.

 

 

The interior is the bees knees, really nice looking. When you touch it, most plastic bits feel horribly chatty and brittle of course but the seats are lovely and very comfortable with good lumbar support (better than the gooner). The doors sound very tinny when you shut them. The seller has dyed the steering wheel leather a tan colour thats wearing off and looks shit.

 

 

Engine bay is clean, no oil leaks or owt - not bad for 146k! The head shield is missing off the manifold, but to replace it will need drilling out of the two broken-off studs in the manifold which looks like a bit of a pain in the arse. No idea how old the timing belt is or what theyre like to change.

 

In summary, its pretty good, god knows what I'm gonna do with it but it seems a good use of £150, I'm glad I bought it. I need to have a weekend garage blitz and get on with some of these old crocks!

 

[Ghosty]

I can hear the adenoids from here.

Tinny doorssounds typical late '90s Ronda.

[cort16]

I had it my mind the 2.3 was some kind of v6. God knows why. I guess it's a honda motor of some description?

 

More importantly when are we getting access to the XXX red hot sills off rust pictures?

[RoadworkUK]

I enjoy the late '90s habit that Rover had of merely stating 600 or 800 on the rumps of its cars. Keeps people guessing.

 

Stealthy.

[Kiltox]

Sir Nuts strikes again - top buying

[RobT]

Meeting such characters/bores is an integral part of collectioning, gotta love it!

 

That steering wheel does look bloody awful, what was he thinking. It's the sort of chintzy effort you'd get in a Rover 75.

[dollywobbler]

Ace. Watch the window mechanisms. They're serious fromage. My old one has two perfect mechanisms though, and hasn't been scrapped yet...

[Lacquer Peel]

 

 

I had it my mind the 2.3 was some kind of v6. God knows why. I guess it's a honda motor of some description?

Honda engine used in Preludes and Shuttles.

It's a lovely engine, super smooth and quiet but a nice snarl when you give it the beans.

H-series capers.

[cort16]

Ace. Watch the window mechanisms. They're serious fromage. My old one has two perfect mechanisms though, and hasn't been scrapped yet...

 

I drove to Edinburgh for a night out through all kinds of horrible Friday night traffic in my 600. I was really looking forward to the night out and because I'd spent so long getting their I was gasping for a pint.

I arrived and put the window down a bit for some reason and it came off the runner. I couldn't get it back up and I couldn't leave it in central Edinburgh with the window down so I just had to drive home (with freezing air blasting in my face).

 

Happy times*

[phil_lihp]

That does look rather nice apart from the steering wheel, do these feel less like a Rover and more 'posh Honda' then?  The interior does look quite lovely, the slightly over-enthusiastic owner makes a good contrast to the one you encountered buying the DOPEHEAD CASTOFF which had the complete opposite problem.

[dollywobbler]

Mine was very much 'posh Honda,' but then that's true of most of these Rondas. The R8s still feel very Honda. I think the 800 was the one that felt least Honda, because the interior and exterior were very, very different to the car they were based on. I'm not actually sure that a Rover should feel like, given that the 800's predecessors were the SD1 and massively different P6.

[worldofceri]

Replacing those window mechs falls into the category of So Straightforward Even WoC Can't Fuck It Up*.

 

*Assumes they're the same as Accord ones.  Not too pricey from Honda either if I remember right, although I'm going back a dozen odd years now.

[Lacquer Peel]

Mine was very much 'posh Honda,' but then that's true of most of these Rondas. The R8s still feel very Honda. I think the 800 was the one that felt least Honda, because the interior and exterior were very, very different to the car they were based on. I'm not actually sure that a Rover should feel like, given that the 800's predecessors were the SD1 and massively different P6.

That was part of their downfall, what should a Rover be?

Er I dunno, a cramped FWD BMW with lashings of chrome leather and wood, set up for comfort and not the Nurburgring even though the market for comfortable medium saloons with a non premium badge was fucked.

Not that I don't like the 75.

[Angrydicky]

Haha I remember that mentalist from the mg-rover.org forums years ago. He set up a long thread about Rover 600s and was lamenting the fact* that there were no Rover 600s for sale in his part of Lincolnshire. Obviously didn't want to travel. He bought this one as a cheap PX from a car dealer somewhere in Suffolk or Essex and drove it home, and when something broke on it, he started whingeing on about the Sale of Goods Act and wanting money back on a £300 car or whatever it cost him. Came across as properly weird then, so I've never forgotten it! There should still be the long thread about this car on there somewhere.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Fantastic info dicky, cheers!!!! I will have a search for that, it sounds 100% accurate!

[Pillock]

Does it still have the paint-by-numbers airbag cover?

That dye looks OK for dashboards and stuff but can't think it'll end well for something your hands are constantly wearing away at.

 

Seats still look delicious though, looks really nice inside. Try as I might I can't get on with the exterior look of a 600 though, looked really dated when new.

[J-T]

That bloody airbag cover, what a guy

[Ghosty]

Seems the steering wheel looked vaguely OK once. Black would be bettter though. Proper LOLZ at the airbag cover/horn buttons.

[RobT]

This is your man.

 

http://forums.mg-rover.org/show-us-your-projects-98/rover-623-gsi-bringing-back-up-spec-507545/

What a nutter. Requesting a VOSA inspection on a 300 quid old Rover, unbelievable!