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Old 6th June 2002 | 17:39
  #25 (permalink)  
Lowtimer
 
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 306
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From: UK Work: London. Home: East Anglia
Ford not Rover

All this stuff about the delightful Rover / Buick 215 ci V8 family is music to my ears, as is the exhaust note of that emininetly practical and tunable engine itself. But with regret I must confirm that the one-off Aero Bonner Sapphire engine powering the converted Chipmunk, as written about in Pilot (still have it at home somewhere) was not based on the Rover but a Ford V6 block. It was quite clear in both the text and pictures.

I have no idea why he chose the Ford, since the Rover seems like a more practical starting point, but there it is. However, it was turbocharged, and knocked out some 200 bhp, looked like a mini-Merlin and gave the Chippy a nice pointy nose, with a little radiator underneath like a small version of that on a Hurricane. I'm pretty sure it was G-ARWB.

There may, of course, have been a different Chipmunk conversion at some stage using the Rover / Buick engine, but I've never heard of it.

Anyone know what became of Bill Bonner and his enterprise?
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