[ROVERNET - UK] P6 V8 enquiry..please reply to KATHERINE

[rover-rob at xtra.co.nz]

 From: katherine.edgecock at tesco.net
Hi there,
My best mate has a P6, which has a very unusual V8 engine in it.  I'm trying to find out some information on it, as we cannot unearth anything in books.
>The main details are below:
>REGISTRATION:  GKU 916N
>CHASSIS NO:    45126462E
>ENGINE NO:     45118609D
>CAPACITY:      3528cc  PETROL
>COLOR:         ARCTIC WHITE/BLACK
>
>Those are the vital stats, as it were, but there are some very unusual features that we cannot understand.
The car is badged as a standard 3500, but half the trim seems to be 3500S;it has dark wood trim, (which seems to be quite rare).  It has what seems to be a 3500S petrol tank, rear fog lights mounted either side of the license plate, 3500S exhaust system (the manifold is standard cast, but
the downpipe on a 3500 usually has a crossover pipe under the sump, which this car does not have.) The wiring loom is definately 3500S.  The interior of the base unit is white, but the rest of it is black, which is very
unusual.
What is unusual is the fact that on the block, the compression ratio is stamped in at 9.35, when I'm sure that the standard is 9.25.
The most unusual thing was when we came to do some research on the engine,we looked through lists of engine numbers of cars that had been built in the correct year, and could not find any reference to this engine number. 
The closest we came was a reference was made that included the prefix and suffix of our engine number, but it stated that there were only 4 of these development engines made.  The fact that this was the closest we have come to pinpointing this engine is very intriguing, and I'd love to find out more.  Any help you could give me on the subject would be greatly appreciated, especially after reading this horrendously long email!
Many thanks,
Katherine
 katherine.edgecock at tesco.net