40th Anniversary - The Rover SD1

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 

Anyone that suggests David Bache is holding that wing on ,will be wateboarded using the nasty rusty water out of a drivers side glovebox.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[doubleyeller]

The Rover SD1 was launched the same year as my  Renault 20 I think. Both are truly special cars, but unfortunately both were also ruinous to run, and had more than their fair share of reliability issues. Hence they are scarce nowadays, particularly the Renault! However, I do see a number of SD1s driving about at weekends - I think that some people must now be keeping them as weekend classics.

[Spottedlaurel]

image.jpeg

 

Anyone that suggests David Bache is holding that wing on ,will be wateboarded using the nasty rusty water out of a drivers side glovebox.

 

Did the chap in the car have a full head of hair before he started work on the SD1?

 

Certainly a distinctive dash in them:

 

1985 Rover 2600 Vanden Plas auto SD1 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Rover 2600 SD1 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Wonder how well they sold in France?

[cort16]

The last I was in Paris I saw a spotless one, it looked like it had been restored . I gave the guy the thumbs up and he looked a bit confused until I remembered I was driving a tartan Honda Civic .

 

They also sold them in the states. I remember watching chasing classic cars on telly and he stumbled across a big field full of them with the big daft bumpers on.

[Lacquer Peel]

Has anyone here tried a 2400 SD Turbo? That's my dream SD1, yes I am mental.

[Bren]

Has anyone here tried a 2400 SD Turbo? That's my dream SD1, yes I am mental.

Never had one but apparently the fastest diesel car in the UK at time of release.

[cort16]

I remember one locally that smoked like a big rig with a leaky injector. I think they where less than 90bhp too, probably wads of torque though.

[cort16]

top quality image

 

sd1 telly by cort16, on Flickr

 

look at those bumpers

 

 

and the lights

 

[Lacquer Peel]

I remember one locally that smoked like a big rig with a leaky injector. I think they where less than 90bhp too, probably wads of torque though.

 

I think they'd go well with the later 2.5 VM diesel, circa 125bhp and 200lb/ft so not far off a V8.

 

There's a road test of one here, courtesy of Trigger.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/albums/72157615900382724

[JeeExEll]

The Rover SD1 was the very first car to be sold with a steering wheel on each side so that they could be sold abroad and to encourage owners to travel vast distances and visit other countries.

 

When you turned one steering wheel the other one turned too.

 

Unfortunately strikes in 1976 meant a shortage of steering wheels so the cars began to be sold with only one and the holes were plugged with some air vents they had lying about.

 

The early twin wheel cars are now very rare as most of them had fallen to bits by 1979.

 

The SD1 name actually means Steering-wheel Dual model-1.

[For Fiats Sake]

Has anyone here tried a 2400 SD Turbo? That's my dream SD1, yes I am mental.

 

It was my first car!

 

Plenty of poke, lovely turbo whistle, would get home from Leeds to York on the a64 after clubbing a lot quicker than going.

 

Rot box of course.

[bub2006]

Them sd1 pics in the last post look a lot like the ones in Albert looms yard.

[bub2006]

I thought they may have been the same.

[bub2006]

Lovely motors but they scare me!

[Cleon-Fonte]

Here's mine:

 

 

And here it is in happier, less rusty times adding class to a hotel car park full of so-called German 'executive' barges.

 

 

On paper the SD1 looks like it would be absolute shit, with its incredibly basic technical specification. However, some clever detailed engineering leads it to be immensely better than this suggests. It can do the big V8-powered sofa act when required, but show it a back road and it soon shrinks around you and becomes genuinely entertaining, the waft-performance ratio is bang on.

 

It's not perfect of course: my BX has much more interior space despite being a great deal smaller externally (someone my size would not fit behind me in the SD1 without cutting off their legs); the brakes are a bit rubbish; build quality's a bit flaky and so on. But I'll forgive it all that for being so great to drive, and for being relatively practical with its big boot and hatchback (it even has self-levelling rear suspension).

 

 

 

 

 

[EssDeeWon]

I would love another, trouble is 800 notes no longer bags you a tidy one. You need at least 3 or 4 bags, and much more than that if your obsessed about spoilers and plenums etc...

 

Would like to try a series 2 in 2000 or 2300 pov spec.

[Pillock]

I've missed the boat on these then. I think they're a fantastic shape, almost like they were designed for police stripes.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I've missed the boat on these then. I think they're a fantastic shape, almost like they were designed for police stripes.

Which reminds me, bottom of the second page on a thread about SD1's and no one has posted a link to 'The Liver Run'

 

This place, etc,etc

[Pillock]

Which reminds me, bottom of the second page on a thread about SD1's and no one has posted a link to 'The Liver Run'

 

This place, etc,etc