1997 Range Rover SSE Supercharged

Transfered from Cardomain

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3849380/1997-land-rover-range-rover-sport

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Info sourced from RR sites

4.6 HSE Vitesse Edition: The Vitesse Edition models cost $3,000 more than the standard HSE were painted AA Yellow & Monza Red. Vitesse is French for “Speed”. The AA Yellow and Monza Red editions were the same except for the colors. They had all the standard HSE items and ash black leather seats with yellow or red piping . The side mirrors and lower part of the front bumper were painted body color and they has a “blackout grille” (darker plastic than the grills on other models). The inside door handles were chrome rather than black (chrome interior door handles were on all 2000-2002 Range Rover HSEs). The Vitesse came standard with the 300-watt 10 amp Harmon Kardon 12-speaker sound system with “parametric equizalitation” and “active dual-driver subwoofer”. A total of 100 to 150 of each color were sold made (Land Rover Special Edition Brochure from 1997 said a total of 250 of the red and yellow “high impact color” Vitesse editions would be produced). Land Rover sold very few yellow Range Rovers and other than the 1997 Vitesse the only other yellow P38 Range Rovers were a small number of non-Vitesse AA yellow Range Rovers in 1997, the special TReK competition models and the Borego Edition in 2002.

4.6 SSE Edition (by Cameron Concepts): These were supercharged Range Rovers modified in the U.S. by Cameron Concepts who added Eaton superchargers and modified the hood to clear the supercharger. They were not typical modified Range Rovers since all were authorized by Land Rover Special Vehicles and they had a numbered Land Rover Special Vehicles plaque under the hood. Most (if not all) had custom wheels and many other options such as custom leather trim, extra wood and body color painted plastic. The custom “SSE” logo on the tailgate was created by peeling off the H and replacing it with the S from another new tailgate sticker.

Pulled down the AC and dried the Freon, reinstalled it and viola, it works.

Fixed a vacuum line on the CC, dammit it didn't work.

Not gone and not forgotten

Truck was running with a pronounced miss, pulling a plug shows that the plugs were running very lean under boost, one was actually welded shut from the heat. The piston appears to be damaged also.

It appears Cameron concepts failed to increase the fuel delivery for the engine when under boost, on an engine which already has issues with certain pistons being slightly lean anyway.

Took it to Dickmeyer Engineering, this one needs to be sorted right once and for all.

Found the cam to have very damaged lobes, heads need work and more, so now we are going more aggressive on the cam, doing significant porting on the heads and using an FMU to guarantee additional fuel when needed.

The engine's bottom end is good, we will sort it out and we are going to gain around 100hp, putting it a 480hp after the repairs and improvements

I miss this truck and will persevere to get it right.

That is completely ridiculous. I like it!
Definitely needs a Clarkson mask to complete the picture though.

Damaged cam lobes on these engines usually hint at missed oil changes or people stretching the oil change interval a little too far.

Which reminds me, I need to check if I need to change the oil on my wife's RR again.

I really want this thing. Keep the updates coming!

You got it.

How have you not shown us an underhood shot with the blower installed?

i dont understand how you have not accidently bolted parts from one project onto another...

half the freaking build area is aussie builds...

Seriously guys? A bright yellow, blown Range Rover that will be putting out close to 500hp?

So over done, so cliche... So... Freakin'. Awesome!!

So that's an aluminum block with aluminum heads that's run lean enough (how did Cameron fail to add fuel and allow it to run lean?!?!) to melt a plug and it's still got intact head gaskets?

also, you say 4.6 and the valve colors look similar.

is this a 4.6 ford mod motor with modifications by RR? Teksid block?

doesnt look like it after some google foo

Nope, it looks like the OEM 4.6 Rover block, which is a development of the old Buick 3.5L.

Out of curiosity, where are you sourcing the cam?

Is it the same style for the 3.5 buick and you just get one off the shelf, regrind, or is it a RR specific part and a common upgrade?

Do any other buick parts interchange?

In reply to Opti:

Better question, does a 455 bolt in?

This thing is bonkers

OEM 4.6 Land Rover engine, Cameron concepts added the supercharger, brake improvements, gauges, and more.

Somehow they did not feel any need to add fuel to match the boost, now I know why so few survived, a depreciating, electrical gremlin filled Euro truck that has insufficient fuel delivery... What could go wrong.

Oh and

The exact numbers of these cars is very vague but my research has shown that:

Of 250 1997 Range Rover Vitesse models, half were red and the other half were yellow. Of these, Cameron Concepts allegedly modified 50, 47 of these went to the Middle East, the other 3 remained in the US, this appears to be the only yellow one in the US and maybe anywhere.

Other than the pod full of gauges the interior is stock 97 Vitesse

In reply to aussiesmg:

Awesomely oddball rare bird. I love it!!!

It sits really low. Is that the "parked" stance of a leaky air ride or did they lower them some way?

I can't believe they put boost on that motor and didn't modify the fueling. What a bone head idea.

That SUV is going to be a blast once you're done...

Hmmm. Blower whine and school bus yellow. This won't attract police attention at all.

It's for the late kids

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Opti: Better question, does a 455 bolt in?

iirc yes it should.

Heads are off, sorting the fueling issue, the damaged head means we went a little further

along with a cam swap we are looking for another 100 hp

In the words of the engine builder

"A modest but strategic amount of material removal makes a big difference. Air flow jumped from 128 CFM at @ .450 to 207 @ .450 lift. An increase of 79 CFM on the intake will represent a huge jump in power. When 3-angle valve job is performed & valve guides are machined down, air flow will likely jump 8-10 CFM per cylinder. As a note, these numbers are on the conservative side because flow testing was performed with a 3.6" bore where as this engine has a 3.7" bore. Being precise to the number wasn't the objective, but establishing a base line & porting to an increase percentage was. As well as flow testing the overall air flow dynamic of the port to enhance the line of sight to the valve & reduce anomalies which can cause air fuel separation."

That does look very good.

So why exactly do you think that this thing doesn't add fuel in boost? Did you see it was running lean on the wideband that you should have? If it's a MAF car it probably doesn't just stop adding fuel at a magical airflow number. If it's a MAP sensor car you can tell whether it can measure boost by turning the key on and seeing whether the signal line is close to 5v. If it's in the 2-3v range it will measure boost.

If they didnt add ANY fuel they would have blown up before they made it back from Vitesse to the dealerships.