Your Rover SD3 stories (mine has ended)

[Christine]

Wanna haynes book? ( manual !)

 

[eddyramrod]

Wanna haynes book?

YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I always had my suspicions, but this picture confirms it .Richard was banging the tarty sister on the backseat of the Rover at every available opportunity .

Hope this isn't why Eddy was attracted to one, have you got a sister in law?

MrsR (on the left) is not an only-child...

 

What an endearing little car.

Thank you, yes, that's exactly what it is!

[Felly Magic]

Will Mrs R now be doing candle lit suppers?

[eddyramrod]

Nah, we don't do candles because of my breathing issues.  (real life is a bitch, ain't it?)

 

Dicky, I'm not sure if this is the Trio-matic box but it certainly is a two-pedal job, the 213SE always was.

[Burnside]

Nice find as mentioned already as a Kid growing up in the 90's these were everywhere.

 

I remember a bloke my dad knew through the building trade had a Red F reg Vitesse and it failing the Mot at barely 10 years old on the drivers door piller and rear half of the sills been rotton. Sadly he didn't bother fixing it and was trying to sell it for ages for a £100. Don't know if he ever did tbh.

[danthecapriman]

This does look really nice, can't remember the last time I saw one so tidy and solid. Well worth sorting that wheel arch and it'll be spot on then.

 

Is it an auto?

[MarvinsMom]

agreed, that little bit of bodywork would be so, so worth while doing on this, that wheel arch and the bloomin' headliner are, looking at the pictures the only thing wrong with it..

 

shame as i've not seen an SD3 in years, and i think that they are ace.

[eddyramrod]

The pics do make it look slightly better than it is.  There are a few small blemishes here and there, but I think this is a car that will repay a bit of care and attention.  And yes Dan, it is auto.

[danthecapriman]

The pics do make it look slightly better than it is.  There are a few small blemishes here and there, but I think this is a car that will repay a bit of care and attention.  And yes Dan, it is auto.

Auto, I expected nothing less Eddy! Only way to fly!

[Angrydicky]

The Trio-matic is the old Hondamatic as fitted to the Honda Civic, Ballade and the Triumph Acclaim. I always thought the Rover 213 got it as well, it certainly got the same engine as the Acclaim but maybe it got a conventional autobox. It's basically a semi-auto, the three forward gears are 'L' '*' and 'OD'. Actually very nice to use!

[JohnDeere]

I was never sure just why these rusted so much, and why ARG didn't do anything about it during the model cycle. The door bottoms on mine were starting to go at less than five-years-old. They obviously did know how to make non-rusty cars because an R8 from the same year was remarkably immune from Fe2O3.

[MarvinsMom]

most cars from that period were the same, sierra, escort, festa, astras, cav, ect, they were all the same, i think a lot of it was that the water and dirt traps were pretty much designed into the car. get it wet, and dirty, and not clean any of those bit out then the metal would just rot out.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Looks sweet this, I reckon these are probably the No.1 most rot-prone car of the late 80's. Nice to drive when on form though

 

Would anyone on here 'do' Hyacinth bouquet? I've briefly thought about it but then decided no.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

[trigger]

I'd take a nosh of her in a darken room.

[hauserplenty]

Candlelight supper? YEAHH BAYBEE.

 

ATCNBE.

[BorniteIdentity]

I know we've said it before, but kids today will think this kind of rust was just the stuff of folklore.

 

I looked at one locally 18 months ago, the roof had rusted so badly that it was pourous.  The whole...bloody...thing.

 

Shame, as these are Gr10.

[Guest Lord Sward]

I used to do warranty claims on them for 4 doors at a time.

[cms206]

WOULD

 

112%/10

[oldford]

I found a history card for one of these, it looks like they never built them perfectly first time at the factory.

 

 

 

 

When they were new, they were a bit heavy on the steering, but I found that they handled well and you could get a 216 moving quite briskly.  I consistently did Ipswich to Debenham along the country roads in 20 minutes door to door.

 

From experience, they don't take to well to a 5th to 2nd gear change at 70 mph in the wet, the steering locks up and you end up facing the wrong way on a roundabout.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My memory of these when new, mostly leathered up VdP Efi s, was that if you were really giving them stick they'd smoke on bends. Must have been oil getting somewhere it shouldn't have and I shit myself the first time I saw a cloud of smoke behind me, but it happened a few times with different cars and didn't seem to hurt them.

 

Also about 20 years ago I had a B reg 213S that I'd taken as p/ex against a Montego , it had a towbar and someone phoned up my cars wanted ad with a caravan , when I got there it was about 18' long with a door at each end - a big 4 wheeled muthaflippa. Now I should have gone back to the yard and got the Range Rover or Sherpa that were sitting there ,both with towbars.

Note I said should have.... That 85% stuff is only advisory isn't it? The little 213 towed it (slowly) from Bedford to Milton Keynes with no problem, might have looked a bit pikey though.

[AnthonyG]

Wow. I'm amazed there are any left, they rusted so enthusiastically, much worse than the Acclaim, Civic, Ballade or R8 so maybe it was down to some special BL gremlin.

 

There was a mint blue one at Pride of Longbridge but that had only about 8k on it.

 

Anyway, good luck with it and remember the Waxoyl!

[trigger]

Eddy on the way to the shops yesterday...

 

[eddyramrod]

Nah, wasn't me, my car's parked up at the garage by the bakery, where it's been since Monday.  Anyway, our back alleys are wider than those...

[beko1987]

Cor the smoke from that! I presume that's what was meant by they don't like being spanked...

[hauserplenty]

I once owned one of these:

<a href="http://imgh.us/00d0d_2bHJRfW0usI_600x450.jpg"target="_blank">

 

A 1985 Honda Civic. Mine was a bit slow, presumably* because it had a four cylinder, 1500cc, CVCC engine. But it only ran on three of those four...

<a href="http://imgh.us/00j0j_1zgHZOkFgUy_600x450.jpg"target="_blank">

 

This one has had $3000 worth of work, and this dude paid way too much for it in the first place ($2500 or so, as taxed from a dregslist ad):

<a href="http://imgh.us/00I0I_iqNu375o2Fz_600x450.jpg"target="_blank">

 

It's had the cylinder head resurfaced, the headgasket replaced, the brakes redone, and the stereo system is worth more than the car:

<a href="http://imgh.us/00u0u_314RgVO76OH_600x450.jpg"target="_blank">

 

Probably the cleanest example of a car which is quite rare now, especially in sedan form. I also used to chug around in one of the hatchback versions of this piece of shit fine automobile myself back in the day. Mine were nowhere near as loved as this one was, but despite all that, THE CRUSHER BECKONS!

Failed smog, y'see. I can't rescue it. Not for $1200. It might be just a simple adjustment, but the CVCC carbs cost $1000 new, and that was over ten years ago so it might be biscuit tins as I type this.

Your Rover looks like a rebadged version of this...I can see why you're chuffed. Looks like you got a cream puff there; this US version has 171K mi on it, and it's "low mileage for the year!"

I really couldn't fault it, but now I only want to go posh without dosh.

[Noel Tidybeard]

allegedly they tried putting the 2.0 o-series in these and the handling was "interesting" hence the 1.6 efi s-series only appearing in the 200s and not monstros

[Ben_O]

I would love to have one of these and do a full nut and bolt restoration.

 

is that sad??

[Skizzer]

I would love to have one of these and do a full nut and bolt restoration.

 

is that sad??

 

Nope.  Take lots of pictures, post on here, bask in the applause.

[richardmorris]

What's happened to the headlining? Looks like a werewolf attack:-)

 

I can't remember the last time I saw one -so well done, but get it rustproofed!