Why BoostedV8.com?
Well whilst building the Twin Turbo P38 Range Rover I decided I wanted to create my own blog for the build. Obviously I was filming most things at RPi where I was working at the time however I knew long term I wanted my own build blog/page detailing the build for my own records and in text / picture form rather than video. At that point I created the Facebook page BoostedV8. A page that I still have done nothing with however maybe after spending some time on this website I will get round to it 🙂
At the end of 2022 when I left RPi I decided to purchase the domain name BoostedV8.com as well, just in case I decided to do something. Fast forward a couple of months into 2023 and I had found myself getting a bit more involved with the Rover V8 Appreciation group on Facebook than I had been before and several people were direct messaging with questions that I felt I could give reasonably in depth answers to. Of course creating a library for these answers would always be a good idea and I decided that actually it would be a good thing to use BoostedV8.com for.
Me
Well… more of how I came to be around Rover V8’s as the story of “Ian” is not all that exciting, but at least understanding why and how I ended up hooked on the Rover V8 engine is worth knowing if your interested in what drives this site.
I started working at RPi engineering in 2002 (or thereabouts), just part time whilst I was at College studying Engineering. Not motor engineering but generic engineering, design, forces in structures, production processes and all that jazz. However Saturday mornings and I think Monday afternoons I was employed to answer the phones and to update the V8engines.com website. Very quickly answering the phones meant finding out answers to things then updating the website meant my technical knowledge on the Rover V8 engine started to grow.
When I left college I went full time at RPi and continued with more of the same however got far more involved with the customers etc. Talking to customers and being involved in what their having done to their car/engine and the decisions etc is actually a really enjoyable thing for me and no two customers or cars are the same.
Now for sure there are cars that I own or have owned that add to this story and possibly explain my passion further however I will not include them in this section as it will push this well beyond the word count that it currently is however once I have posted my car section on this site I will link to that here.
Fast forward 8 years and for several reasons, it was time for me to move on from RPi. And of all the things I could have done I made wooden pallets. Actually it was an enjoyable job for the 4 years that I then did that however this was shift work and not long after I had settled into it RPi contacted me to come in on a self employed basis to help them in the workshop on certain projects which kept me in and around Rover V8’s over and above the 3.9 Discovery 1 that I owned at that time.
After 4 years of pallets though and spending quite a bit of time back involved with RPi I was asked to go back full time and assist in running the company. What an opportunity and one I knew should not be missed so that was that. I was back at RPi Engineering again and playing with Rover V8’s full time. Things progressed really well as could be seen through the Youtube channel, I had made a personal investment into the CNC machine and Merlin cylinder heads that we took on production of when Real Steel sold off the rights etc. LPG conversions had certainly slowed down however I was still invested in ensuring that anything we did with LPG was setup and running the best it could be.
However unfortunately after several years I was struggling with stress. There is a lot that goes into running a company and ultimately it was not my company although I did my best to think of it that way, but long days and not being able to switch off from problems here and there were not good for me so I had to slow down (work wise) for my own mental state. However I knew I still wanted to progress with the Rover V8 engine and when funds were freed up from my divorce I decided to turbo charge my own 4.6 P38 Range Rover. This was along side continuing to build my off road project Ford KA / Discovery Hybrid which was of course 4.6 powered with LPG as its only fuel.
With the Twin Turbo P38 achieving everything I had planned it to and the 4×4 KA known as the DisKAvery being used several times off road however still not being road registered I figured I would add a series 2 1959 Land Rover and a 1975 MG B GT to the collection. Neither of which were V8 powered when I purchased them and as I write this they still are not however plans are on the table and V8 parts are stored up along with other goodies in readiness for there conversions!
At the end of 2022 events unfolded that meant I had to leave RPi, I wont get into detail however decisions where made which I did not agree with and affected me directly so I made a call to Cambridge Rebores who I had known for several years and they were more than happy to offer me a job straight away. And wow, you never stop learning. In just 4 months of being at the machining side rather than the assembly side of engines it is amazing how much goes into the perfection of things. Engine building is an artform, component machining is an artform at another level! Its not just engine component machining though which is nice as it mixes the day up. Rollers for paper mills, steering shafts and more and all with there own little challenges in tolerances or how on earth am I going to hold that on the machine.
After leaving RPi so many people contacted me directly and several said to setup a business and do things myself. Being self employed full time is not something I see myself doing, the whole stress thing comes back to mind. However it does seem that there are people out there that would like me to carry out work on their engines / vehicles so potentially there is room for some BoostedV8 or idTuning (IDT being my initials, see what I did there ;-)) additional work with Cambridge Rebores carrying out component machining. We will see.
For now I have decided to put together a bit of an informative website as there have been several questions sent to me directly which I enjoy answering however feel it would be great to catalogue the answers so that others can find them. I will point out as I will go on to say on the home page when I write it that the information on this site is just my thoughts. There is always more than one way to achieve the same or similar results and my logic is not always the best route or even the right route. Its just what I would do if I were there. I welcome all feedback etc.
Thanks for reading, assuming you got this far then well done. I am known for going on a bit lol.