The Rover V8 is one of the longest-lasting Land Rover engines in history, with an astonishing reputation for versatility, variability and compact power that endured from its purchase from Buick in 1967 up until its final mass-market discontinuation in 2005.

However, as with so many parts of the British automotive industry, this longevity was not necessarily guaranteed, and whilst the Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery were perhaps the two vehicles that showed the V8 engine at its best, it is telling that Rover themselves stopped using it with the end of the SD1 in 1986.

Beyond Land Rover, the main way in which the V8 engine endured was as the powerplant of choice for a generation of fast, character-rich British sports cars, the first and most influential of which was the TVR 350i in 1983. 

British Leyland had tried and failed to make the most of the Rover V8, infamously neglecting to use it in the Triumph Stag and struggling to get the most out of it with models such as the  Triumph TR8 and the MGB GT V8.

What the engine needed was a sports car with the same potential as the Range Rover, and this is exactly what the Rover V8 found with the TVR Tasmin.

The first and perhaps most famous of TVR’s “Wedge era” cars, the Tasmin was a striking car in terms of its looks, but its power was limited by the Ford Cologne V6 engines it was using during an era for American manufacturers defined by malaise and a push for fuel economy.

Whilst the Tasmin 350i, later known as the 350i, was initially designed primarily for the Middle Eastern market, the Tasmin 280 was quickly discontinued as European customers did not want to buy a worse, less powerful version.

TVR would continue to use the Rover V8 in various configurations throughout the Peter Wheeler era, including the Chimaera and the Griffith, with other small sports car manufacturers such as Marcos and Ginetta following their lead.