beaufighter245 well said sir! Couldn’t agree more and I’m continually surprised that people continue to pay to watch that worn-out cliche of a show - even in its new guise!
Little did anyone know, under that sleek beautiful design, performance and comfort, what shoddy quality and workmanship went into the bodywork and paint finish. In retrospect, Raymond was far better off with that beautiful P6.
I worked in the Solihull paint shop on the sd1 between 78 and it's closure in 82 , we could only use the materials given to us by designers and suppliers ,any fault in electrocoat and or paint type wasn't down to poor workmanship.
@@ba55man1000 I can well imagine that the management skimped on quality of materials so I’ll stand corrected if it wasn’t down to actual workmanship. But what about other issues like the famous leaking gaps between door edge and pillar?
@@ba55man1000 it was down to all you bl line workers putting the cars together, they where poorly put together and would fall apart because you where all on your strikes and would just throw the cars together FULL STOP
I had an SD1and the rear passenger side door would open when going round right hand bends, hands down the worst car I've ever owned, I wish I had bought a P6 instead.
I owned various SD1 Rover's, 2000,2300,2600,3500, series one and two. I was the Scotland rep for the SD1 club. No, they weren't perfect, was any car of that era perfect? I could list many faults, the 2litre was underpowered, without power steering they were heavy and the wheel had to be turned too far. The oil feed to the cam on the six cylinder cars could block up with serious consequences, that was caused by infrequent oil changes, 12000 miles was recommended in the handbook. With 70's oil, no wonder they got a bad name! Get a good V8, do some subtle improvements, you have a car which is comfortable, fast, a dream to drive, and a practical family car. I drove, maintained and knew them inside out, not perfect, but my favourite all time car. Someone has to stick up for them! Check out the prices for them now, if they were so bad why the high prices?
xavier colin A truly awful car. Produced to compete in Europe with Mercedes in particular the torque and power curves were all wrong, it was noisy and terrible to drive.
I was born the same year as you mate...Sept 1965. I too remember seeing my first SD1 ..the first ones all seemed to be in that yellow mustard colour. They certainly were different although I would have chose a Ford Granada Ghia over em all day long .
I owned a late series SD1 imported to Australia ...first thing I did was change all Lucas electricals where possible to Bosch. That with regular servicing and keeping it away from "Rover" specialists made it a very reliable and fun car to own.
In 1977 my Dad picked me up from school in the new SD1 it was metallic silver, and looked absolutely fantastic...previously he had BMW...my school friends and the Fathers were so impressed...on the way home the power steering failed...the following week the door trim came away on shutting....then the central locking failed...over twelve months I think at least four were spent at main dealer...we got to drive a vast selection of BL cars...the following year he changed car to a Ford Granada Ghia which ran without fault for 50.000 miles....he then ventured back to Rover SD1 it broke down on the way home....great car in terms of design...absolutely dismal build quality...great shame
@@bluegtturbo I just got rid of my 1971 Crown in November. It was too rusty to keep. Back in '77 we had a Ford Galaxy, from the American Embassy. It was cheap and dad treated it rough. My parents got rid of it as it was expensive on fuel and hard to park. Imagine parking a bus at Tesco.
It was good to see Raymond Baxter again no one today is anywhere near his standard of presentation, as for the subject My father brought a brand new Rover 2000 in 1983, my heart sank when i saw it as by that time you could see rust buckets of SD1s being driven around.Two days old and the engine wouldn't start ,dad was stranded in the middle of penzance high street , at three months the car locked him inside, eventually he swapped it for my Ford Granada Mk3 Ghia and i took the Rover over, the local rover dealer in Penzance had wired the lights into the panel lights bang went the fuse i found that out as i drove back to Dunstable on the M5, the car was such a bad starter i come from a mechanical back ground and never cured the problem even changing the auto choke for a manual one ,neither did our MT section none of us could find out what was wrong, it got to the stage where i considered putting in a 2liter ford engine and four speed auto box, , The build quality was appalling for example the drivers door had a gap where it closed with the door pillar , it was so large i could put my fingers through it ! I should add here why it lasted as long as it did was me rust proofing the car. In the end it sat on my Drive for years, still looking good, eventually i scrapped it, i did feel a pang of guilt as by then my father had died, It was a great looking car let down by its build quality and why no diesel until the end of production ? the 2000 engine was ok when it eventually started smooth and reasonably nippy. i live in Thailand, BUT somehow the interior mirror from that old Rover made it here too, i cannot explain that as the last time i saw it, the mirror was in my garage. it sits on the fireplace in my study, So it lives on in my memory a great car but let down by its build quality, sorry its been a long post but the memory does linger. As for Baxter i liked his story as they powered along in his spitfire over France , suddendly a V2 rose in front of his wingman who fired a burst at the V2 Baxter later said he was so glad his wingman was such a bad shot and missed otherwise both of them would have gone up in the resulting fireball .Theres a place just outside Leek in staffordshire overlookig the lake that rebuilds and sells the previous model of rover now that was and is a real classic !
So nice that that mirror from your Rover lives on. I'm in Cornwall and I'm Mousehole there's still a Rover liveried garage there. Selling a couple of used cars I believe. All the best
A real old-school gent at the wheel. Driving gloves and probably a cravat on Bank Holiday weekends too! Look how carefully he closes the door of the P5 in the opening scene! (An early SD1 door might well have fallen off!)
My dad has one slowly rotting away in his garage, in the 30 years he’s owned it,virtually every part has been replaced. Hence the reason why it’s nickname is Triggers Broom!
Loved the SD1. First ride was in a later Vitesse Vanden plas top of the line, looked good from every angle, lots of power and fun. Was only a kid then, but remember thinking "THIS is how all cars should been."
Raymond Baxter, ex spitfire pilot and F1 commentator, great style. The British Aristocracy of Broadcasting. Why have we not got presenters like him anymore?
Because people find that stuffy public school way of speaking too elitist. We also live in a society that's not so bigoted towards people who have not had life on a silver plate. I bet this guy simply opened his plumb filled mouth and they threw the contract at him.
@@hunterluxton5976 Opps. Is that your ignorance showing there? He earned a place in Grammar school was expelled for smoking. Never went to college. Flew Spitfires in the war . Not quite the chinless upperclass wastrel you believe.
In the 70s we had been eagerly awaiting the new 3500 for what seemed like ages. Finally, in 1976, I was walking to school one morning and there it was in the window of the Rover showroom - the SD1 - but still under wraps. The shape was astonishing, and I couldn't wait for the big reveal which happened a few days later. My schoolfriends and I were awestruck by the beautiful futuristic design. Compared with the boring boxy cars of the time it looked like something from outer space. At that moment I knew that when I came of age I would have to have one!
It's the twin speakers to the push button radio for me. But I did own a cranky 1981 SD1 V8 VP in 1992 (ish) and it was very nice. Problematic but very nice. My enduring memory was one of hapless ventilation, alarming gearbox shunt (hard to describe) and the sheer sense of occasion from the leather and V8 burble. No regrets.
Except that three of the cars shown were older models that had already been replaced at the time of the filming. The Audi 100 C1 was replaced by the C2, and Mercedes W114 was replaced by the W123, both a year earlier than this film in 1976. And the Ford Granada Mk1 was replaced by the Mk2 right around that time.
A pity it didn't perform like one. It was designed to resemble a Citroen - a British equivalent to the Citroen CX.....except the CX was better built, more fun to drive.....and had pneumatic suspension. In hindsight, the SD1 was the beginning of the end for Rover. It couldn't really compete with BMW or Mercedes on any front. It looked great, but that was all it had going for it.
I remember this car as a kid growing up in Cornwall and this was a very powerful machine. Even gave my dad's Ford Granada Ghia 2.8l a run for its money.
Sporting looking car* but yes was a highlight. Didnt even say attracts the ladies but used a more Terry McCann form of language. Bird 🤣🤣. Some gems in here the dig at the railways at the start and later what qualifies a country that demands sophisticated looking motoring? The most priceless looking back though has to be the Rover hallmark of quality. A name associated with precision engineering.
@@KillianoC they played a very significant part in the demise of the vehicle industry in the UK. Look up the strikes of the 1970s for starters. Then compare the productivity of a uk vehicle worker versus Japanese or German. Then look at the crap quality they were responsible for.
River never recovered from the strikes in the 1970s. I worked there from 94 until 2000 and it was the same then. The Unions & management we’re constantly at loggerheads with each other, it’s was a battle ground, with the workforce in the middle scared stiff to say anything to either side. There’s a good documentary on RU-vid called “ Rover, the Long GoodBye” i Recommend you watch it👍
I'm impressed that they got down the road while filming, without bits falling off. If only the owners had had similar reliability, it might have sold. (One can only smile at the comparison with Mercedes, BMW, etc.)
Raymond Baxter at his best and a P6 owner of considerable years. Wonderful film but give me a P6 any day over the SD1. Thanks for sharing this great review
I used one as a company car ..it was great and trouble free ..was sad to lose it after 9 months ...I worked for Leyland International ..I did have a later car with chrome around the headlamps..
This car neatly sums up our country. We really do need to stop kidding ourselves, accept where we are in the world rankings and put some work in to build a future for our children.
We had the SD1 2600..in Black..it got nicked an later engaged in a Bank robbery in Glasgow , they picked the right Car for the job , it was Bloody quick..Luv'd Raymond Baxter great presenter.
Always been a Rover fan ever since I bought my Dad's 3500 V8 P6 but I never liked the SD1. I always thought they were poorly built. However, that didn't put me off the marque as I bought a new Rover 75 back in 2003 and it gave me 17 years and 300,000 kilometres of luxurious and trouble-free motoring.
I had a 3500 Vanden Plas and it even had plush carpet under the spare wheel. Lovely cream leather and burr walnut everywhere - was however a rust bucket and spent more time broken down at the side of the road than on it. I forgave all of its faults due to that lovely V8 which I had tuned - sounded at tick over like an American muscle car - absolutely loved it
Thanks for a great video V8 auto was magic Great towing car Had 6 over 20 years towing across Europe to northern Italy. Enjoyed every mile in our V8 SD1's They all had amazing econmy compared to our Granada's Volvo's and a Audi . Never understood why the British were so negative about a great car ?
It was the rust problems on the early models but by 1982/83 the lated models were made with a far superior metal & paint, which got rid of the bad rusting. Apparently within 6 months the early models were getting paint bubbles and rust!
Its 2023 - As an engineer who has a little experience with CFD flow calcs - today armed with a souped parallel processing top of range PC - or supercomputer - you can do some genuinely useful fluid flow calcs that will save time and money on real world testing, and give useful feedback and pointers. But regardless, you still need many Gbytes of memory and GHz clock speeds to make this practical. The idea that you could do anything useful in the 1970s to optimised car windscreen heating and wipers is hilarious. Good for your PR show though. Smoke and mirrors.
18:42 - you can clearly see her face expression says "Why the f**k you had to buy this brittish sh*t when our country produces Mercedes and BMW??" Although, frankly. this design of interior (after facelift) and exterior is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen...
30mpg at 50mph was only with 3 auto gears. The braver geared 5 speed manual was officially rated at 39mpg at 56mph when the 957cc fiesta mk1 did no more than 48mpg.
Very nostalgic. Not at all misogynistic. Wonderful to see the little lad with his head between the front seats with his dad doing 120 mph. Nothing wrong with that. They were simpler times. 😂
'Dirty Yellow' was that colour. Who else but Rover would launch a car with that choice of colour? And the woes of the car are now legendary. But I still wished I had one in the garage just for a giggle ride of a Sunday.
I owned a£500 SD1 in the 1980s in Yellow, I was a young lad working for Laskys the HiFi company everyone thought it was great with its big windscreen as it was like piloting an aircraft.I then went on to own several and even a Black 3500 Vanden Plas.
Funny my Dad had the "sister car" to the 245 Volvo saloon featured here. His was a 76 on an R plate(which it never wore) it beige with a light brown vinyl roof a 245 DL estate uncannily similar we wonder if ours was also a press car originally.The vinyl roof came with the car as standard it was about 12 months old when we bought it. Vinyl roofs on a Volvo were not common ( as we understand it).It went on to be driven all over the world bearing the reg TUB 2 (from a 58 series 1 Landrover Safari it was transferred from that to a 145 Volvo estate on to many Volvos.My sister owns it now). We were die hard caravaners with the Caravan Club and The Caravan Club of Sweden where we had family. It was driven many times to Sweden, France (2000 mile round trip to Canne were the family vans would gather every year)Italy and Monaco. Dad said he considered an SD1 but found them far too unreliable. Then again even with tip-top maintenance, the Volvo wasn't super reliable either (including the 265 and 740 saloons and estate all broke down after extensive servicing before a mammoth trip to France with a big Lunar heavy Caravan)
Ad s p6 v8 and rangey owner I've enjoyed watching this.I remember my first ride in an sd1 as my QS in the army had one.much more room the p6 but not as technically advanced as the p6 eg drum brakes instead of inboard rear disc's. Thanks for posting.
The rover 800 fast back was a much better looking car i.m.o and I do love these sd1's it seems they were just living on the glory of the p5b and the 69s p6's.
It was the 3500 V8 that was launched first in 1976, the 2300 and 2600 came the following year. There was a facelift about 1982 with a 2000 that wasn't very good and a 2400 diesel. One thing I don't think I have ever seen an SD1 used as a taxi.
Raymond Baxter (the narrator on this video) was a class dude. He flew Spitfires in the Second World War and was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He was the main presenter of the BBC's 'Tomorrow's World' when I was a kid, and I loved his style and obious enthusiasm.
These looked like something from another planet, when I was a kid. Then came the Ford Sierra, and that confirmed I was truly living in the future... The SD1 still looks futuristic in 2021...... As for the Sierra 🤷♂️🤔🙄
I think it is a beautiful-looking car. I was 7 when they first came out and I entered a competition in the newspaper (via my parents' surname) to win one, back in 1976.
A ps, not only did the mirror make it to Thailand but its ignitions keys made it too, along with their factory ident number, ( see below) The SD1 had been in production some 5 or 6 years when my dad brought one new, one would think all the defects and build quality issues would have been cured alas no such thing happened , the basic design was good but the build quality and reliability were bloody awful, having said all that i like old cars and wish i had never let the car go, it was in good condition no rust !
When I first saw this car i thought it was achingly beautiful. Like something from the future. Modern with some heft to it. Ithought it to be the most stunning car I had seen in my life, Later on I felt similarly regarding the Porsche 928. It is tragic that the SD1 fell victim to shoddy workmanship and strikes. It coud have revived the ailing UK motor industry. Instead it handed it to Germany.
@12:46 Looks like this part has been filmed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Dutch licence plates on both the Mercedes and the Rover SD1 were issued between 1973 and 1978.
Neighbours had one, think it was a 2600. Lovely looking car but they quickly replaced it with a MK2 Granada. Over heard them saying the Ford was much more stable on the motorway and didn't make them feel sick.
I know the looks and appearance are a matter of taste, but to my eyes the SD1 was at least a decade ahead of its time in terms of safety engineering and styling. The interior looks like something from 1988, not 1976, and the smooth rake of the nose (something that was improved with the early 1980s facelift) is unlike any other car from its era in its class. It oozed sophistication but in a different way than previous Rovers, which were known to be far more traditional. I'm sure a lot of potential Rover buyers were turned off by the SD1's looks - my grandparents included - but I always liked them. Of course, the fact that the car was so poorly put together is another matter. Early SD1s rusted badly and they suffered reliability that would be unimaginable in any new car today (modern Alfas are like Lexuses compared to 1970s Rovers!) It's a shame because the basic recipe of a good, decent and exciting car all existed, but the lack of quality control and indifferent workforce doomed this and all British Leyland cars, no matter how competent they might otherwise have been. Kids today, driving their Hyundais, Nissans, Fiats and Fords, will never understand how big (and bad) BL was in 1970s Britain.
Apart from the "smooth rake" of the Citroen CX. At least David Bache was sensible enough to keep the rejected BMC Pininfarina design in the back of his mind.
Whilst a agree they did rust where they really any worse than their contemporaries, I was in the motor trade at this time and i well remember seeing four year old Granadas with small blisters on the front wings and i think the VX 4/90s left the factory with corrosion as standard and the Renaults and the Citroens of the time were terribly prone to rust. I think we tend to forget how quickly cars used to rust back the in these days of 7 and even 10 year corrosion warranties. Even twenty years ago cars were generally scrapped because they were too rotten to be repaired, now most cars are scrapped because a component costing many thousands of has failed rendering it uneconomic to repair so a structurally sound car ends up as scrap because of economic reasons.
30:57 Nicholas McArdle as the car owner. Clearly the man ad companies called when shamelessness was called for as seen by his commercial for Harvest Crunch. The ideal actor for trying convince people about the...interesting products coming out of British Leyland in the 70s.
The SD1 was my favourite car. Midas gold with gold alloys. Unfortunately it rotted around rear wheel arches and the B pillar. I ended up selling the engine to a banger racer.
I have a real soft spot for the SD1 , did a lot of work on them when they first came to Australia I would have one in a heartbeat. Fit a modern engine in one and it would be a world beater even today . A Aussie Ford Barra motor would be a perfect match of power and reliability
@@matty6848 the 3.5 is a very good engine but they do have there problems especially in Australian conditions. I have had them in land rover, Range Rover and Leyland terrier trucks . They also went surprisingly good in the BTCC considering the weight of the SD1 and size . They were years ahead of any other comparable vehicle in its class . I would still have one in a heartbeat but they are very rare in Australia now
@@randomoldbloke their rare in the U.K as well. Yes I can imagine in the harsh desert like conditions especially in the outback the V8 would suffer especially with the extreme heat in the summer months period. Obviously SD1’s were developed in cold old Blighty. Nice to see there are still some fine examples on the roads though👍
The car may have been spacious to a 5 foot 8 inch person, I always found it cramped being 6 feet 2 Inches. I loved it anyway!! Very solid apart from rust!
@@bluegtturbo How does "S D One" sound anything like "S T eye"? You are clearly confusing `One' with 'I' - which suggests you don't even know the car's name, hence are not really able to pass comment on its provenance.
The one thing that the SD1 lacked was a front centre armrest like the Jag XJ6s which swept up from the centre console. I was forever going to lean on it and it was not there.
I still think it's a good looking car today. On the test car driven by Raymond Baxter one thing summed up the problem with BL at the time, the steering wheel was off centre. Presumably when they gave him the car they knew it was to be used for a TV documentary and they couldn't even be bothered to make sure the steering wheel was straight. I loved the bit about the computer doing in hours what used to take weeks and the size of the computer. We now do in minutes what used to take hours on a tablet. It was also interesting that everything was transferred onto hard copy whereas today we keep it all on a database. It's a shame that poor quality ancillary components made the early cars so unreliable because it should have been a world beater, it was one of the first cars in this class with a hatchback and folding rear seats as the hatchback Granada was still some five years away. I do think cars were more interesting in the '70s the cars in the lineup at the start were all so different not like today's offerings that all look so similar it is difficult to tell one make from the other.
Even worse Phil stop the video at 4:07 and look at the rear panel just below the light cluster and where it meets the bumper it has been welded in place totally misaligned ! you actually won’t believe it until you look closely!
Salim Khan Sadly I would and do believe it the front panel on these early cars behind the front bumper was the same, I was a mechanic in a BL dealer when these cars were new and you wouldn't believe some of the things we used to have to correct. I remember one SD1 I did a PDI (pre delivery inspection) on went down for cleaning as they used to come covered in wax and the interior promptly filled with water because the sunroof drain tubes had not been fitted. The rest of the range was little better I was given a PDI on a Princess when light interiors were a new idea and three out of the four door cards were different colours, I had a Dolomite Sprint with Sprint wheels, trim and decals on one side of the car 1850HL wheels, trim and decals on the other and a 1500 badge on the boot and finally I got a series two Marina 1.8 HL which was the top of the range Marina at the time badged as an HL with HL interior trim but base model exterior trim i.e. no side rubbing strips, chrome wheel arch embellishers and no brightwork around the window frames but it had HL wheel trims and when I lifted the bonnet instead of the 1.8 twin carb I was expecting there was I 1.3 engine. It's all a great shame really because the cars weren't bad and the interiors in my opinion were much better than the Fords,Vauxhalls and Rootes Group products of the day.
@@philnewstead5388 Same here phil I used to work for Austin Rover local dealership in Brighton 1982 21years old I was! I actually love the job but the poor quality was horrendous On the minis are used to use a block of wood jammed in the door lock to bend the top part of the doorframe into shape otherwise it wasn’t touching on the seal and would leak! The launch of the SD1 back in the 70s was extremely exciting not like today’s modern cars coming out they are changing every year the Rover launch was a massive event and I secretly always wanted that to be a world beating car have you seen the video ‘Longbridge the end of days’ I found it quite interesting, I always remember the red Austin marinas with the lovely beige velour trim , Yes much better than any Ford Vauxhall or roots products at the time
The design of the car was excellent for that time. There where only many technical issues with many British cars. Abd the Roover SD1 was no exception. But neighbours always complained about leaking issues of oil on our parking area. So I asked my neighbours politeness; Tell me also when my cars DON'T leak oil" Reason: possible EMPTY or low on oil. So I have to refill it 😅😅😅
I inherited, as a company car, a 2 year old 3500S Manual which replaced a Citroên CX2200. Great Engine, great performance but iffy handling and rubbish fit and finish. The bonnet paint really was orange peel when I received it and the brown vinyl roof (yuk!) was coming away at the edges. The Citroen with the Rover’s Buick V8 would have been my dream car. I was relieved when the chairman got an Aston DB6 and gave me his Granada Ghia X Estate.
@@stuartwilkie4887 a small company in puerto rico bought the last 85 body shells and have been hand building about 3 or 4 a year to special order , its in a US car magazine I have somewhere.
@@marshalllucky How funny! It's amazing that a lot of cars from France and England have ended up being made much later in China, India, Iran, Africa and South America. This is a different case - but its quite amazing nonetheless. In some ways I think rural nations have been sold a dummy recently with the deletion of these models - especially the rear wheel drive ones. I believe where the roads are uneven and potholed rear wheel drive is actually a very good choice. Front drive cars carry a lot of weight over the front wheels and are much more sophisticated in set up, therefore being more prone to disintegrate. The idea now is SUVs for the world wide market - which cost much more than older designs, but save the makers lots of money!
What a fantastic little movie. A wonderful pastiche of 70s elegance and style and ipso facto the car which the desirable people drove. Lovely. Of course we look at it today through our new politically correct views. The SD1 was both great and in Australia really flawed. I loved mine however in 1979 they fitted stromberg carburettors instead of SU which killed both fuel economy and performance. The air conditioning system was appallingly retro fitted the switch gear cheap and broke. The rear suspension was structually weak and broke! Nevertheless after rebuilding, repainting and fitting a new dash I ended up with a wonderful car. Love the early computer design segment. One of the best examples I have seen of the use of early paper tape computer technology I have seen. Good to see the film has been preserved. The is unique footage. (Not fairly unique lol!) Thanks for sharing.
