Quote:
Originally Posted by Laird Scooby
I always thought the 240 series was closer to 15' long Alan?  The 7xx is 15'9" and to me, looks longer than the 240, perhaps because of the lower bonnet line. My Rover is 16' all bar about 1/2-3/4" and is definitely longer than my 760, easily seen when they are parked side by side.
As for turning circle, i frequently shock many people locally with both my beasts as there is a particular place where i park when visiting my local Co-op where it's easier to simply swing round in the road to turn round to come home (avoiding a half-mile extra dog-leg return trip) and many modern cars , even the so-called small ones, just can't do it.
Both of mine can, even the FWD Rover, with ease. You should have a nice tight turning circle on the RB and the steering shouldn't be vague at all, maybe it's just a chacteristic of a 1980 244? |
Hi Dave, Loki and John,
The BofH gives the length as 192", that is where I got the 16' from. The bumper overhangs are pretty big, I suppose they contribute a lot..
The turning circle seems pretty good - almost dodgem-carish with the long front overhang.
Don't get me wrong: the RB steers very well for a 1980 car, it has PAS which works fine and is much, much better than my mate's Capri V6 (no PAS - real men only need apply). As I said to Loki above, this is just a just a relative thing - it is nowhere near as nimble as a modern car either side to side or backwards and forwards (actually backwards is fine - the brakes are very good indeed (no ABS - good thing)).
There is no getting away from the fact that the RB is a bit heavy and rather tall compared with most modern cars - so the slow to react steering is no fault of the mechanism, just physics (the mass is big and high up, simple as that).
The steering improved a great deal after I got the correct size tyres fitted (remember it came with some low profile rubber that was very poor).
The Royal Barge is very much a term of endearment rather than a complaint. It is a really nice car to drive but there wouldn't be much point trying to drive it fast.
Stay safe,
Alan