There are very few lasting icons in an automotive industry that is constantly looking for the next big technological achievement, but that is even less common when it comes to automotive components and engines.

This is what made the longevity of the Rover V8 so astonishing, something that is even more amazing given that the engine started life as an unloved Buick engine block seven years before it was fitted to the Rover P6 en route to the Range Rover.

However, much like how the United States would provide Rover with one of the greatest engines ever made, a crisis centred around the nation would also provide the engine with perhaps its biggest failure.

The Buick 215 was unpopular in America because the market loved huge, thirsty engines, something that became a massive problem during the oil crises of the 1980s.

In order to sell larger cars in the USA, British Leyland realised they needed to make a diesel engine, but given that this same energy crisis had also led to a financial crisis in the car industry, it had to be based on a petrol engine.

Whilst it is possible to convert some petrol engines into diesel blocks, they require some redesigning to ensure they have stronger head bolts (to avoid blown gaskets) and a water separator to avoid destroying the engine through water corrosion.

General Motors infamously failed with the Oldsmobile V8 diesel and the failure of what became known as Project Iceberg was a blessing in disguise.

Based on the 3.5-litre Rover V8, the engine kept struggling with cooling and the cylinder heads, and altering the engine too much to fix these would mean that it could not be built on the same production line as the petrol V8.

Ultimately, BL was reorganised with an eye towards selling it off, Land Rover and Rover were split into separate divisions and they did not have the capacity to make a diesel engine, ultimately using turbodiesels from VM Motori instead.