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Should I buy an SD1?


Ratdat

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I agree in that it'd probably be preferable to have a V8 but it wasn't on the menu as it were. I wasn't looking for an SD1, there was just one there and I fancied a punt on it. Just happened to be a six pot! I don't commute or anything so I'll never be piling on the miles, thus i doubt wether running reliabilty issues will be a worry and I certainly don't need the power. My other every day motor is a 2.7 turbo diesel 4x4 which isn't exactly fast either. If I want to actually go fast I'll drive something that is proper quick but my interest in hooning around on the roads is passed now. I must be getting old. :lol:

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Do you two live / work together or something? It's like intercepting a phone call between Ted & Ralph! :lol:

Have you bought it Ed? Is it local, or will we have to put the shed on hold for a day? :D

Yup :lol: Something to smoke about in for the winter! Yep, shed will have to wait a day, we've more important matters to attend to!

Excellent work!!Where is it? will i get back in time so as to have appeared to have been at work?! :lol:

Newmarket. Tom Tom says it 122 miles, 2.55h.

Excellent. We'll be back by lunchtime then!!Is it taxed? drive back job?

Well be back by about four I expect as I'm not sure I can pick it up until lunchtime. Then again we can always go earlier and you can just drop me off and cruise on back. I have to call the geezer in the morning so I'll find out then.It's a drive home jobby. Needs rent but I can get that there.

Sounds dandy. So long as i'm back in Grimsby by 4.45 it'll be fine :)

Perhaps that's why I've previously mixed you two up.....
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Ed very kindly lets me stash some of my tat at his gaff. What Mrs. Mike doesnt know about i can't get earache for!I have to get back to pick the Mrs up from work, she doesnt know ive taken the week off for shed mending / tat collecting! See the earache comment. I know my place!!I got caught out the other week when collecting the Celeste mind, traffic put paid to a speedy return so i had to admit to buying another car. At least all i seem to get now is a nod of dispair!!

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Re. the "new" price of a laurel -VS- SD1... surely the 2600 and 3500 Rovers would be more in competition with the Cedrics than the Laurel? How much was a 300c at the same time? In terms of "desirability", we all know people will pay (comparatively) silly money for the twin plenum Vitesse or whatever the mildly faster manual one the police had was called, and V8s of all hues seem to command a better price than the smaller engined models. If the 6 pots were pants and the 2300 the most pants of all, then in my opinion, a poverty spec 2300 in a crap colour has the best "shite cred"? :o

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If the 6 pots were pants and the 2300 the most pants of all, then in my opinion, a poverty spec 2300 in a crap colour has the best "shite cred"? :o

One of the indian built jobbies with whatever prehistoric lump they shoehorned under that bonnet for the Asian subcontinent would have to be the ultimate in rubbish executive motoring.
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If the 6 pots were pants and the 2300 the most pants of all, then in my opinion, a poverty spec 2300 in a crap colour has the best "shite cred"? :o

One of the indian built jobbies with whatever prehistoric lump they shoehorned under that bonnet for the Asian subcontinent would have to be the ultimate in rubbish executive motoring.
The 2 litre O-series :lol:
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Nice move! They are such smart looking things arent they? Been a while since I`ve seen one. Wasnt really prepared for how smart they were. This is pretty much how I judge cars, I either think "That looks a smart old car" or "These are smaller than I remember them". Due to this rigourous criteria I now have a Maxi (with very smart looking chrome hubcaps, and nice, smart, dark green paintwork, and looking surprisingly small) eyeballing me from the forecourt, just outside the office.

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Due to this rigourous criteria I now have a Maxi (with very smart looking chrome hubcaps, and nice, smart, dark green paintwork, and looking surprisingly small) eyeballing me from the forecourt, just outside the office.

Need any trim spares? There's a complete green maxi with deflated hydrogas (saved from the scrap man for a drink) in our yard awaiting a slightly less ignominious death at a pre-75 banger meet next year...
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Probably! Where (roughly) is this one located?

About 10 miles off junction 14 of the M1 - car belongs to the other lad in the yard so I'd have to check what can come off, but as it's for bangers, any trim, electricals, or interior should not be a problem.
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Well, the back doors didn't fall off on the way home :lol: I like it. It drives really nicely. Power delivery is a bit like a C32 laurel with maybe a little bit more bottom end torque noticable in 1st and 2nd. Not a lot up top just like a C32 but it's rare that'd I'd want to take it over a ton anyway. Handles okay, brakes are fine and generally feels reasonably up together. Virtually no rust and interior seems dry although the sunroof has been sealed (and it'll stay that way for the winter!). Only bad thing I've found is I suspect the thermostat might be missing as it runs way too cool. This has a knock-on effect of the heater being useless when at speed. I was freezing on the way home! Should be simple to sort though. Everything seems to work alright on it. I really did expect there to be some electrical problems but the only thing I experienced was the radio went off momentarily when vigorously rounding a couple of bends. The head unit is almost certainly as old as the car too but works well.I'll give it a better look over tomorrow, but so far I'm more than happy with it!

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I think Eddie, you're the first J-tin fanatic I know to wonder over to BL stuff. Its normally the otherway. Variety is certainly the key to life.Whats the dash like? Is it the same as the original? I've always loved the simplicity of the original SD1 dash. We demand to have pictures.

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The later dash is different to the series 1. I'll bang some pics up tomorrow.It's really interesting to drive other stuff. One thing that is imeadiately apparent is the difference in build quality between this and something like a Laurel or 300C. The Nissan feel like they were assembled by a high prescision machine, whereas the SD1 kind of feels like it was put together by a keen DIY-er in their shed. I guess it's one of the things that gives it character and it certainly has plenty of that. After some years of amost purely Japanese car ownership, I want to have a play with a few other things. I guess it'll help me keep perspective. I can't ever see anything stealing me away from Japanese stuff as I like it too much though.

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What does the Rover 6-cylinder sound like? Don't think I've ever heard one.

Actually sounds pretty nice. Fairly muffled from inside the car. Sounds more like the old Triumph six to me than say, a Datsun six like in a Z or Laurel.

 

I got the heater working (fitted a thermostat and bled the heater) and been cruising around in it quite happily. I like it considerably more than I thought I would. I was only thinking of smoking it about until spring but I think I may end up keeping it for a lot longer than that. Here's some pics I took this afternoon. It could do with a couple of small bits of rust doing and a bit of paint here and there but it's pretty presentable as is for now.

 

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I find the seats very comfortable and supportive. Storage galore with the extra compartment under the column (great idea from BL that one). The column adjustment is probably the worst, most inconvenient design I've seen on a car yet but extra marks for having reach adjustment as well as height. Curiously, the oddly shaped steering wheel seems to make sense on the go, even though I feel logically it's silly. Only critisism from a drivers perspective is a remarkable lack of room in the footwell. Nowhere to put your clutch foot to the left of the pedal seems at odds with a largish car like this. Wipers are painfully slow but expect the wiper motor is just a bit tired. I might just splash out on a complete new assembly from Rimmers. There's a small cut on the passenger seat that needs fixing and the headliners a bit baggy in places but otherwise it's nice inside.

 

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Engine seems sweet. Performance is very acceptable, although certainly not fast. I'm quite happy with it, although it does seem quite heavy on fuel. It has been running nearly cold up until now so maybe it'll improve now I've done the stat. I'm not really bothered by the consumption to be fair, as it's not much worse than my truck on a run. Engine is quiet and idles nice and smooth. It started first time this morning when it was icy and it doesn't mis-behave at all. Everything is quite tidy under the bonnet. There is another cam cover amongst the spares that came with the car so I may swap it as the one on it looks poo. Note the genius "old man engineering" piece of string (with a loop on the end near the brake servo) to allow you to shut the bonnet from the drivers side. There's a similar setup on the rear seat for folding that down.

 

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I suspect this car has been well looked after in it's time. Everwhere where there is a little patch of surface rust it's been touched up with some waxoyl on a brush to stop it getting worse. With that and the string, I suspect a previous elderly owner.

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The front of the bonnet has been repainted a bit badly but it looks okay for now. there's a couple of touch ups here and there but overall it had survived remarkably well.

 

No history as such but it did come with the original service book, handbook and warrenty paperwork all in the original plastic dealership wallet. The first owner on the warrenty is I.C.I Paints Division at Slough so I suspect it was a company car. It came from Lex Mead in Maidenhead.

 

One nice thing was the PDI card that originally hung from the interior mirror on delivery was still with the paperwork...

 

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Here's a couple of pics from the warrenty booklet and leaflet...

 

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