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Mid-90s Hatchback Is Part Sleeper, Part Deathtrap With Over 500 HP per Ton

Modified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engine 10 photos
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video by Monky London
Modified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engineModified Rover 100/Metro sleeper with K20 turbo engine
Some cars are not the safest vehicles on the road, and bumping their power to significant figures leads to hilarious results, but also makes them become proverbial deathtraps. One such concoction is a mid-90s Rover 100, also referred to as a Rover Metro, which received a K20 swap that was also turbocharged.

While the British hatchback only weighs about 750 kilograms (ca 1,653 lbs.) in stock form, fitting an engine that provides twice as much power as its most powerful version will make it faster than its designers imagined.

If that engine happens to be a Honda K20 unit from an EP3 Civic Type R, things are taken up to 11 when the four-cylinder mill is turbocharged.

Despite using stock internals, the Type R engine managed to reach an impressive 460 horsepower, at least that is what its owner claims. The result is a terrifying sleeper, which looks mildly modified from the outside.

Except for the “screamer” pipe that required cutting the hood, a large intercooler, and a Safety Devices half-cage, there are not that many indications that this vehicle makes more than four times more power than a factory-built Rover 100 ever made.

Now, you might think that the term “deathtrap” is used lightly here. We should point out that the Rover 100 was based on a design that harks back to the 1970s, and it received a one-star safety rating from the EuroNCAP back in 1997. That was not a good result at the time, as its rivals obtained two-star and three-star ratings.

At the time, the Rover 100's safety was criticized because the passenger compartment had severe structural damage in the frontal-offset test. That meant that there was a high risk of injury to all body regions for the driver, and the same conclusion was made after doing the side impact test, as EuroNCAP noted.

So, if you plan on doing such a conversion, we suggest having a full roll cage fitted and keeping it on the track for time attack events instead of driving it on the street. With that in mind, listen to it accelerate like mad.

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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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