While I’m the guy that happily plunked down money (twice) for what is arguably the most maligned Jaguar model line in history, I draw the line at Rovers, be they of the Land, Range, or just plain Rover Rover variety. A man must have his principles, dontchaknow, otherwise he won’t have ANY money left at the end of the day. However, when I first saw the Human League’s excellent video of “Don’t You Want Me” back in late 1981 that opens with a scene involving a Rover SD1 at night, I was enthralled. Although that only lasted a few seconds after which a black Saab 99 Turbo also entered the scene, and like the American market as a whole, all thoughts of Rover were cast aside.
But forty-something years later, (specifically Thursday), I came across a remnant of that time, one of the 1,200 or Rover 3500 V8s (SD1 in rest of world parlance) that managed to find homes in the United States back in those heady days of 1980-1981. So let’s take a closer look.
Did they come with that rear window graphic from the factory or is that an owner personalizing his ride? Okay I shan’t be cruel yet, although I am freed of the obligation to provide a deep dive since Eric703 did so ever so thoroughly in his piece on the Rover a few years back, and David Saunders has written a great piece about one as well. So click on those for the whole sordid story of this car’s North American story, we’ll just cover a few of the lowlights here and wonder how long this thing has been moldering in someone’s shed before finally being hauled away for good.
Americans seem somewhat fascinated with British stuff, starting with The Royals and The House Of Windsor in general. Which is a bit curious since George and the boys gave them all the boot about 250-ish years ago. Maybe it’s like wanting to know what’s going on with an ex-girl (or boy) friend…all the latest gossip is hot fodder. The Brits though didn’t play that game as much, instead just shipping their convicts to Australia (well, back in “the day” anyway) and eventually their cars to the United States. Much more subversive. All those repair, maintenance, and parts dollars made their way back to Old Blighty to keep the lights on over there, never mind the initial purchase dollars. This worked for a long while until Britain just up and sold off most of its famed marques to the Germans, the Indians, and the Chinese. And some even to the Americans in between those others. Then all of a sudden Nissan and Honda started building cars in Britain and lo and behold, they were as reliable, inexpensive, and low maintenance as the ones made in Japan, but that’s a different story…
When the Rover SD1 was released in Europe in 1976, it was the new hotness. That launch day got a lot of press, even if part of it was stories about how that was also the day the factory that was building them went on strike. An auspicious beginning it was, but eventually cars trickled out of the factory gates and were honored and won awards, even though quality was always something not in large supply on the standard features list.
Part of the initial attraction was the looks. And in Europe at least it was a looker, of course they got the front end that sort of looked like a (European market) Ferrari Daytona with clear lenses. We got a version that had round sealed beams grafted in place without any covering, giving it a perpetually startled look. Plenty of other 1980 model year cars had rectangular sealed beams which perhaps might have worked somewhat better.
The five door liftback style has always been somewhat popular in Europe, not so much in North America, but at least it was visually pretty much identical to that of the Old World…
With the exception of sticking a little Union Jack on each front fender of each car destined for the U.S. just to make sure that everyone knew from whence this was hewn. And those front lights of course. Well, and the bumpers. Blimey, the changes are adding up right quick. I’m alright with the large bumpers though, they work with the somewhat brutalist shape.
Underhood (front-hinged) featured ye olde Buick 3.5l V8 that Rover made good use of for probably far longer than anyone at General Motors ever figured they would when they sold it to them. Hence the reason why ours was only named the 3500 since it was the only engine on offer. While the same engine was of course offered everywhere else, it was also joined by a plethora of weaker chested motivators, for both cost, fuel economy, as well as ongoing taxation reasons in many markets. This particular one’s engine and transmission were already gone when it arrived here, so one wonders what happened. But when new, it produced between 133 and 148 depending on when produced and which source is referenced. This appears to be a fairly early model judging by the VIN and is tagged as a 1980, which had fewer sales than 1981.
The 14″ alloys are quite attractive and more Italianate than anything else to my eye, shod here with 225/60R14 Toyo tires, a fairly aggressive fitment in its time.
Still, four years had passed since it was new, and most North American gearheads would have read of the car before it finally arrived. When it did it was of course handled by the dealers that handled the rest of British Leyland products with perhaps the Jaguar XJ6 the biggest in-house competition even if the Jaguar was (over here) generally viewed as more luxury and less sporty.
No, by 1980 (as compared to a few years earlier) there was formidable European competition, of course the aforementioned Saab Turbo, also Audi was introducing its 5000 Turbo (not diesel) during the same summer as the Rover, BMW’s 5 and 7 series were no slouches, and though the lower end performance wasn’t necessarily there, nobody ever had to explain a Mercedes purchase. Volvo and Peugeot were more outlier competition without the performance but certainly better known in most areas of the continent.
The interior was a little, uh, interesting. Of note at first is that central air vent on the passenger side, in combination with the instrument binnacle it made for a less expensive LHD/RHD conversion as that’s where the steering column went on RHD cars. And the instrument box just sat on top. Very smart from a production cost standpoint, but perhaps more than a little odd for what was considered (and priced as) a premium vehicle, of a class not usually associated with penny pinching.
A further interesting detail and no doubt off-putting to some was the decision to only fit all-velour interiors for North America. Now, I love to drape myself in velvet/velour as much as the next guy, but Americans generally equate even the cheapest leather with the height of luxury and it (or a good facsimile thereof) is pretty much de rigueur for anything remotely premium. Velour was available in the car the hired help drove.
I didn’t realize the extent to which the velour was integrated though before I saw this door panel. It’s literally slathered in velour to the exclusion of virtually anything else. Extra points for the large individual ashtray high up on the front of the door panels of every door.
The seats look quite comfortable and have held up well (we shall see why in a moment), the standard power window switches are on the console next to the handbrake and this one had a genuine 5-speed manual transmission which was standard and likely one of the items very much appreciated by the sporting driver.
The three-spoke steering wheel is more attractive than the European unit which is more like a block of Bauhaus-inspired plastic, and while I kind of like the gauge cluster it does look a bit like a hobby kit.
I might be able to build this from all the leftover Lego pieces we have in the bins under the boys’ beds…
I presume (hope) the clock and gear pattern swapped places on the RHD versions, and the HVAC controls are a different take on the usual. I kind of like the big paddles but the up and down orientation surely took some getting used to, never mind that it seems like the paddles would block the view of the descriptions. On a cold winter day though I suppose you just slam them all to the bottom (Hot, Hi Fan, and Defrost). The rest of the time I don’t see anyone adjusting much of anything without taking a long deep look down there.
I somehow hope that Smiths Gauges’ odometers are as fragile as those of VDO of the era to explain this, but realistically can face that this car may have stopped running around the time I entered the 11th grade and has been sitting since 1985 or so. With an apparent base price of $15,900 (in 1980) that would mean a depreciation to zero (ok, scrap) costing around 28 cents a mile. That has to hurt, I doubt this buyer went to the Rover, excuse me, I mean Sterling dealer in 1987 when Rover tried yet again…probably for the best seeing how that turned out
About that boot…it actually does not seem that spacious, certainly nothing like a Saab of the same vintage with the same format, albeit not RWD which is likely partly the culprit. In the end, even with all of the labor issues affecting the manufacturer along with unreliability affecting the purchaser, Rover still managed to build over 300,000 SD1s. However with only about 1,200 or so finding a home this side of the pond, it seems like the public took the Human League to heart and made their feelings very clear.
How fortunate I am – I was never wowed by the looks of these, and so have completely avoided the temptation to seek one out. Which is a good thing, given their rarity. Really, was there a worse time to import a British V8 car than in 1980-81 when fuel prices were really high and the economy was in the dumpster?
I loved that video, though. And we can see from an open-door shot in it that the British got that odd central A/C vent (or fresh air vent?) where we yanks got a steering column, so everyone was treated fairly.
Great article. The concept and practice of adapting cars from Right Hand Drive to Left Hand Drive (or vice a versa) is fascinating to me and I often wonder about the calculations a manufacturer goes through in deciding whether it’s worth the cost of creating two different versions or better to just make whatever portion of the world (sans Mailmen) that doesn’t use your version just suck it up. Well, except if you’re a Japanese manufacturer that sells more product to the LHD world than domestically…or apparently the designers of this Rover who seem to have opened the door to making the transformation a DIY project. Heck, with a dash arrangement like that, the owner could practically change it over at will.
I too love the Human League video. I recall it well. It was the soundtrack of my 2nd year of college. Back when I first discovered MTV, clubs, and everyone wore too much eyeliner and mascara.
This is a truly stunning find. I don’t think you’re likely to run across another in the junkyard or on the street anytime soon. I had no idea these cars were so esoteric. That interior especially doesn’t meld with what an American would expect an expensive car to look like in the early 80s.
Great find. I really pined for one of these, and a Jaguar XJS, in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Both were in one of my UK TV faves – The Return of the Saint. Thankfully youthful desire turned in to middle age judiciousness – and I never bit.
I love this car’s looks but the federalized headlights detract from the appearance. If only I lived on the same continent and within trailer distance I would take that car and make it my own. I’m sure the aluminum block engine and gearbox can be sourced and with just a bit of work it would be back on the road.
Or actually fodder for another curbside classic 30 years down the road as it would sit abandoned in a shed somewhere as I realize the impossibility of the task before me.
No doubt that aluminium V8 found it’s way into an MG, a very popular conversion here that the Abingdon factory themselves finally did with the MGB/V8 for a couple of years in the mid-’70s. Had quite a few “B”s and would have loved to do one of them that way myself because the Buick/Rover engine weighed about the same as the ancient 1798 “B” series 4 cyl engine but made about 40% more power… a no brainer if ever there was one.
“…more than a little odd for what was considered (and priced as) a premium vehicle, of a class not usually associated with penny pinching.”
Not just the interior was obviously designed to be cheap to produce, the live rear axle (a set backwards from previous Rovers, big Triumphs and all the European competition including Ford and Vauxhall/Opel) the high boot lift over and massive panel gaps. The euro headlights weren’t remotely flush with the bonnet.
People raved over it’s looks, but to me it didn’t look like a Ferrari, more like a Vauxhall Cavalier/ Opel Ascona that someone had put a picture of on a photocopier and scaled up.
My enduring memory of these Rovers is one of my neighbours trying to locate where the water was getting into the boot so he shut himself in there and had me spray the hose on the car.
They really were dogs.
I had a high school English teacher buy one of these as his daily driver around 2006. His was blue, and he had it shipped from California I think. He seemed pretty excited about it, and even tried to tie in the River viking badge with some book we were reading to be able to take the whole class out to see it. He had it for a couple years before he left the school and then I did. I appreciated that it was weird, but it really doesn’t do much for me. The interior comes off as bland and boring, the looks are only so-so, and much worse in the US version. I would also bet someone took the power plant for an MGBGTV8 conversion
An unusual car even back in the day and certainly now, I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these, a great find.
A rare find for the US indeed. Though perhaps there are more in junkyards than on the road. 20-30 years ago there was a house in Palo Alto not far from where we lived, that had at least one SD1, a P5, a 2000 and a Sterling parked curbside and in the driveway. But nothing of the Range or Land variety. I never saw any of them move.
Great find, the hood being askew makes the sealed beams look even more startled, like it was woken up from 40 years of slumber to find itself in a junkyard.
And if someone were to sit in that car wearing an 80’s velour tracksuit would they become impossibly stuck? As I recall the coefficient of friction with velour on velour was about 4.0
Also interesting that the doors have not fallen off, proving yet again that everything on Top Gear was intentional, especially the accidents.
I recall seeing a few of these in the wild back in the ’80s; one several times in the local grocery store parking lot, and years later got to sit in one that was on display at a British car show I attended about 15 years ago that was in excellent condition. I thought the velour looked and felt luxurious, and it was roomy and comfortable. Yeah that symmetrical dash is a bit cheap though with that odd steering column/air vent setup. Whether you live in a RHD or LHD country, your SD1 provided no airflow to the driver except from the center vents. I much prefer the futuristic single-spoke wheel to the 3-spoker the US got.
The changes made to the US version go beyond the obvious. The front fenders had to be redesigned to accept the 5mph bumpers, and do not interchange with rest-of-world SD1 fenders.
I recall Rover’s last new car, the 75 (which was considered for US sale and engineered with US regulations in mind, but never made it here) in 1999 had an introduction day that again was overshadowed by some labour dispute or factory closure issue, or some such.
No, the 75 was “launched” in ’98, and then, incredibly, at the very launch, shat upon by none less than the head of parent BMW. It was a crazy move to get the govt to cough up money for plant refurbishment. The re-launch happened 6 months later, it of course sold nothing like it was meant to, and within 6 months of that, BMW had offloaded the entire company for nothing.
So this time, it was The Germans (admittedly in big conflict with Rover management), and not the workers who dunnit.
You’re right; I couldn’t remember exactly what happened but remember *something* bad did. It undermined the intro of the car itselfCorrect it was launched in Oct 1998 but didn’t become available for sale until June ’99.
What a great find! With only 1,200 of these sold in the US, there can’t be more than a few handfuls of them left.
This car’s condition reminded of the Rover I wrote up back in 2016. I’d found that car at a car show, and talked to the owner quite a bit. He had found that car abandoned in a field, sunk nearly up to its axles in muck. After he bought it from its (probably gleeful, at that point) owner, he somehow got it running and drove it home, where he restored it. A Herculean effort – and pretty remarkable.
That car’s owner did have a photo of his car from while he was getting it roadworthy. I took a picture of that through the windshield – not the best quality photo, but still you can see the car was in pretty sorry shape.
I had a couple of customers with Rover 3500s, both had me remove the SUs and Lucas (prince of darkness) distributors for early Buick 215 4 barrel intakes, Rochester 4GCs and Delco breaker point distributors.
I had gotten very conversant with the BOP Aluminum V8, as I owned an Oldsmobile Jetfire (Turbocharged 215).
The other oddities were the modified DeDion rear suspension with the siliding joint cross beam elimibating the need for slip joints in the half shafts. The rear brakes boggled your ming, inboard mounted like a Jaguar, but with a tiny hydraulic piston that applied the pads to the disc through a lever rather than a straight forward piston on the back side of the pads.
Then there is the wiring, all the wires inthe dash (and maybe the whole car) are white with coloured (might as well use British spellings) bands at the ends. This meant tracing an offending circuit usually ended up by me running a new coloured wire replacing the either shorted or open one.
These SD1s (3500 V8) had a very simple live rear axle, not a DeDion. You’re probably thinking of its predecessor, the P6.
I believe the SD1 in the US also had fuel injection to replace the euro carb setup but the P6 did have SU’s (as did the euro SD1).
This was a surprise this morning; did not see it coming, or going. Just wow.
There were a surprising number of these on the streets in Innsbruck and Vienna when we were there in 1981, although all 2600 sixes. Back then in the pre-EU era Austria and the UK had a very favorable tariff arrangement, making Brit cars quite common; lots of Minis especially. But it was a bit surprising to see so many SD1s. Helps to explain where all those 300k went to.
Yes, by the time these made it to the US, they had lost the visual impact that the SD1 had made in Europe when it arrived, and then of course Rover was a genuinely toxic brand here. DOA.
I’m debating which federalized version of a short lived European car is worse; these or the Citroen SM. I’m sure there wasn’t the budget for this and I can only imagine how well engineered they’d be by BL but pop up headlight doors like the US spec Ferrari Daytonas may have gone a long way in the looks department rather than this cobbled appearance. That or something like Mercedes did on W123s where the round headlights are blended into an acrylic housing.
What we had in the UK. https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/3855967235/in/album-72157622018258743/
Another https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/3855967235/in/album-72157622018258743/
Correct one https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/3706695099/in/album-72157621100706557
Considering the size of America, and the climates, and the vastness of the economy, and the 45-odd years of all those things since the import of this car, the chances of Our Man In The Junkyard finding one (and, at that, finding it before its inevitable ensquashment) simply do not exist. Incredible stuff, Mr K.
Note the paint in the close-up pic of the Brit flag: probably says all that needs to be said about quality.
Sir, that paint is rich, creamy, and the consistency of a delicious Midlands Custard that you pour over your Christmas pudding, how dare you besmirch it.
Having the fuse box at the end of the instrument binnacle (carbuncle?) is a brilliant, forward thinking, user-friendly design. The cover probably needed to be removed within the first week of ownership and never went back on again.
I recall seeing one of these in my neighborhood growing up in the mid 80s. Whether or not it made it into the 90s we shall never know. The velour was right of its time too, leather was a much later addition to luxury cars. Look at any high end toyota or Oldsmobile of the era. Not to mention every piece of livingroom furniture.
I always liked the look too, but it was used on many other cars of the era. To see this car done right look no further than the 83 Toyota Camry. GM was also a huge fan of this basic idea. For all the hate they get, the 78-80 Cutlass/Century are basically GM’s take on this car, or at least an Americanized version of it.
I’m reminded of the TV show Leyland Australia sponsored in the early seventies (I forget the name) where the winning contestant would climb into their choice of five (IIRC) different Leyland vehicles glittering on the set. Only one had the coil wire connected. If the car started, they won it. If it didn’t, the thing just cranked and cranked, the audience went ‘Aww!’, and they came back the next night to try again.
Kind of says it all.
The Rover (it was a P6B) made a glorious noise when it started. But I always held my breath and wondered – what if none of them start? Auntie Grace’s Morris 1500 was always in the shop for something or other, and she was the last of the tribe to buy a British car.
Another oddball I never knew about .
Proving yet again that rare doesn’t equal valuable .
Sadly, quality never was job 1 in England .
I actually am very fold of older British cars but one simply _must_ go through them tip to tail and correct all the little things that made them unreliable, then they’re generally fun drivers and easy on the petrol to boot .
-Nate