Whilst four-wheel-drive made the Land Rover an exceptional and immediate sales success, what made it amongst the best car model lines in history is the beating heart that enabled it to do almost anything.

At the core of the Land Rover Series III and the original Range Rover is a series of powerful engines, chief among which was the incredible Rover V8 engine.

A heavily modified version of the Buick 215, the Rover V8 was the perfect combination of powerful, reliable and compact. This made it not only perfect for high-performance 4x4s such as the Range Rover but also large estate cars, sports cars and even military vehicles.

Here are some of the most unusual cars with the Rover V8 at their heart.

TVR 350i

One of the best long-term decisions British Leyland made when it came to the V8 engine was to offer to sell it to small car manufacturers as well as use it throughout the monolith. 

This meant that not only were a lot of kit cars powered by the Rover V8, but many great small British sports car companies relied heavily on the engine block as well.

TVR might be the most emblematic of this, as many of the company’s greatest sports cars only used the Rover V8, from the TVR 350i, to the Chimaera and the Griffith.

Sisu Nasu

An articulated cargo transport vehicle designed for the Finnish Army, the Sisu Nasu was designed to carry heavy loads and soldiers across bog lands and snowy wastes, with the Rover V8 powering the four sets of caterpillar tracks.

It is amongst the most unusual vehicles ever made and by far the strangest to use the Rover engine.

Bowler Wildcat

The epitaph for the capabilities of the Rover V8 even up to the end, the modified Land Rover Defender with a huge and aggressively tuned 5-litre V8 engine.