The Rover 3500 (SD1) has long been a favourite, since I crept out of school to buy Autocar and Motor’s special editions in July 1976, but seeing one on the road is now a rare treat. Just once this year.
The US history of the SD1 is best not recounted in detail (CC hasa great account already, below), but the quantity on the road must now be very low indeed.
So, to see this car, as Constantine Hannaher did in Virginia and posted on the CC Cohort, complete with European style headlights (US spec cars had twin round lights sitting awkwardly in the same recess) and in one of the launch colours was a treat.
My favourite V8? Very likely.
Car Show Classic: 1980 Rover 3500 (SD1) – Rover Over Here, Again
Car Show Classic: 1985 Rover 3500 (SD1) – The Best of British; The Worst of British
Engine and drivetrain were said to be quite reliable. Problems seemed to be in the accessories.. The shape was ahead if it’s time.
Agreed – the engine especially was very good as long as the oil was changed regularly, if that was neglected the camshaft used to wear. As usual with British Leyland products of the time the build quality and paint were awful especially on the early models.Most of the problems had been cured by the time production was coming to an end, but by then Rover’s reputation had gone down the drain.
If it had been properly made from the beginning it would have been a world beater.
I don’t know about being ahead of its time, but the shape was right for that car at that time. Big cars usually sell better as three-box designs, but fastback shapes like the DS, SD1, and Tesla Model S communicate that this is a car for the future. Basically, fastback shapes don’t sell very well, except when they do.
This IS the same car that I wrote up two years ago… it’s great to see that the owner is still driving it around!
When I found this car at a car show in 2016, I had a long conversation with its owner, who was great to talk with, and (obviously) quite a Rover enthusiast.
The Rover SD1 Vitesse model was a great car, the manual had very long legs and was an outstanding high speed cruiser, not many things could outpace it in the early 80s
Rather like the Golf GTI was better than the standard car in every respect, so to was the Vitesse.
When Motor magazine tested the Vitesse against a BMW 528i in April 1983, it pronounced the British car an easy winner, describing it as the ‘poor man’s Aston
I don’t know anybody who ever drove or rode in one was indifferent to it
+1
A father of a childhood friend, just got a brand new Vitesse, and promptly took us on a skiing trip in the mountains with it.
His dad thoroughly enjoyed to drive the snot out of any cars he had, being given 4 brand new loaner cars of different highend brands a year as a perk for being the CEO of a national car import, and so too he did with this one.
Its safe to say the SD1 Vitesse was by far the most memorable part of the trip.
Going sideways up snow covered Norwegian mountain roads, shod with metal spiked snow tires, with the V8 absolutely screaming at full RPM for hours on end, is laser etched into my memory to this day.
This is another case of a British manufacturer accidentally building an American car, and I love this one as well. To those naysayers, tell me that this isn’t a (better looking) UK built A/G Cutlass Salon that’s been on here in the last week. Small V8, fastback styling, conservative underpinnings…
The SD1 doesn’t have IRS or the P6’s de Dion design, but the rear suspension is more complex than the A/G and most models had standard self leveling, as intended. The 3500 was intended to compete with BMW and the smaller Mercedes (BMW sedans were upstarts outside Germany in the early Seventies against established British sports sedans); the A/G happened to be a comparable size and intended to compete with Ford’s Fox family. If anything, the straight axle was Spen King showing off by working with one hand behind his back.
So where was I wrong in what I said?
The SD1 isn’t as simple as the A/G. It just happens to have a straight axle.
A classic shape that still looks fresh 40 yrs later. Typical British cars of the time known for horrible reliability and shoddy build quality. It’s a pity the Brits couldn’t seem to get their act together in the ’70s and ’80s when it came to building cars.
My parents had two of these – a 2600SE then a 3500SE – my father in particular adored them. They never broke down but there were lots of minor problems. Two memories – driving with sacks of coal in the boot of the V8 one to give traction in icy conditions, and my father collecting up more than half a kg of loose nuts bolts and washers from various places in the V8 the first time he vacuumed it – some pre-delivery inspection… He moved jobs from the U.K. to Germany and the brakes weren’t up to autobahn driving so reluctantly he left the car in the U.K. for my mother to use and got an S Class Merc which was so clinical and uncomfortable by comparison but far better for fast driving and all the switches worked all the time.
I remember a guy I went to art school with in Los Angeles with had one of these in the mid-1990s. It seemed to be reliable and he really liked it. (It made him an iconoclast and it was certainly very different from everything else in the school parking lot.)
Rovers are objects of desire for many. Which model one lusts over may be a generational thing – for me it was always the P5. I’m still hoping to see one in the wild. 🙂
Twice over the past 3 weeks I have seen a grey Rover P5 coupe on the roads around Abergavenny on my way to Mid Wales, It was around 8am so the chap could have been driving it to work.
I prefer the look of the P5 Mk3, without the build in fog lights of the P5b, My previous car was a 2002 Rover 75, I bought it specifically because it bore a strong resemblance to the P5, I wanted a vintage style car, but without the rust and modern drivability, which the 75 delivered
I have been fancying a straight six again, the 2nd generation Lexus GS300 3 litre seem to me to be a spiritual descendent of the 60s 3 litre British straight sixs, such as the P5, Wolselely, Vanden Plas and Humber
Still such an elegant – and beautiful – design. An absolute favourite, and (in 3500 VDP form) a definite in my fantasy 10-car garage.
I think I have seen 2, maybe 3 of these on the road (people in California drive THE most unique cars).
You know they had to be a reasonably decent car if so many British police departments drove them.
A pretty good car not helped by lackluster assembly quality issues.
The SD1 was the biggest, fastest British built car for the money. The only alternative was Jaguar.
Still not particularly rare out here I see a fair number locally including a curb parked 2600, the numbers are thinning but they arent all gone yet, the motors were a favourite for stock cars being light plenty of room on the weight regs for more strengthening steel now Nissan or toyota V8s have taken their place. Yes they went bang occasionally but were so cheap to buy new it hardly mattered.
I can trace – some – of my obsession with cars to getting a ride in a gold metallic 2600 with a matching gold velour interior. I’d have been 6 or so, and I remember being so impressed with the quietness and comfort. Even now, I can vividly recall how it felt. That being said, my father-in-law who is a die-hard Rover man wouldn’t have one!!
My 93 year old neighbour had one, a series 2 Vandenplas with a real trip computer.
And sunroof.
She does not drive any longer and it has been sold.
Here’s a picture of hers, very little rust
I was so excited to see another of these on local streets, but no… the license plate gave it away, my photograph from 2009 was this same vehicle in its previous color. A small detail, but it still had its wing badges back then. I’d actually read Eric703’s car show writeup at the time and didn’t make the connection!
Ok guys, I am going to come out and say it: I don’t get the attraction. Perhaps I would need to ride in or drive one. But just to look at it – it is of an era that is among the least appealing to me.
JP, if you rode or drove in one, you’d get it even less. They’re not fast (Vitesse excepted), are thirsty, have a thumpy and choppy ride, the back seat is a knees-up-mother-brown experience, and some part of it will not be working and probably never did. And, mind, I say all this as one who DOES get the attraction.
If you want to be known as a tolerant and inclusive person, door open to the strange(r), loving of those who you do not understand, perhaps try picturing it with a Studebaker badge?
“Don’t You Want Me?”
I have always liked the looks of the SD1 since I saw that video in the 1980’s.
It is hard to believe that this car first started to be sold 42 years ago. (of course it is hard to believe I am 41 now also….sigh…). This did not look like a 1970’s car. It looked like a 1980’s car 4 or 5 years early. It was night and day compared with the cars it replaced (the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2000) and it seemed to influence it’s successor the Rover 800 Fastback. It also might have been an influence on the Ford Sierra too.
What is more surprising was that the design for this car dated back to 1971-1972 during a time that British cars were quite boxy and stodgy.
I bet that when this car arrived in 1976, it looked like an alien creature dropped down to earth to the British public.
It also made the famous British Liver Run.
The British Press calls the SD1 the right car that was made by the wrong company
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/classic/rover-sd1-at-40-the-right-car-made-by-the-wrong-company/
I saw one on the M8 between Edinburgh and Gkasgow a few weeks ago. Same 70s yellow, Andy comfortably keeping up with the traffic. Looked good!
These were a very fresh and modern design when they came out, and still look good today. Kind of a British take on the Citroen CX. Too bad it suffered the reliability and quality gremlins all to common of British cars at the time.
Arguably the Pininfarina BMC 1800 of 1967 influenced both this and the Citroen CX, though the SD1 has a good helping of Ferrari Daytona at the front too.