Leyland’s Car of the Year - How they Marketed the Rover SD1 

In 1977 i was working at an Austin/Rover dealers (Kennings Rotherham) as an apprentice car body repairer when the SD1 was launched, in my opinion it was such a beautiful fresh design and way ahead of all the competition, it was glorious..

My dad was a Rover man. He worked for BAC later becoming British Aerospace which owned Rover for reasons. He had a P6 used in an armed bank robbery. I hasten to add after my dad had sold it. We got a call from the fuzz one night. My dad had to prove he had sold it. We're still looking for the gold bullion to this day. He also had a light blue SD1 2600.

I worked at a BL dealer in 1985 and the 2300/2600's were always a problem, even when quite new. The main issue was the non return oil valve in the head causing oil starvation and a seized cam. A pity as a good 2600 didn't give much away to a V8. The 2300 was just too slow and thirsty. Build quality went from atrocious to average but even late ones fell to bits in a way Mercs just didn't. Again, a pity as they were such a great design. A good 2600S manual was my favourite, a nice car with a great sounding engine.

I can't believe that I have just watched a video about a brochure and really enjoyed it! You really brought it to life, thanks.

I still have this ( treasured ) brochure from collecting in my early teens, along with a contemporaneous one for the 3 door Range Rover. Remember going into a BL dealer in Bradford with my dad and I came away with brochures for cars that at the time were aspirational to me. The SD1 still has a purity of design nearly 50 years since it's launch.

That 123 win at Silverstone and Tony Pond's magnificent rally runs.

These brochure videos are always a treat and your commentary and narration is absolutely top-notch. Brochures themselves, even though they are mainly marketing, can provide some background facts on the cars they depict. As always, amazing job!

My grandad had a 3500 bought new in 1977 and never once did it break down. All the hate directed at it mystified me because that car was awesome. He changed his car every three years and the next two were also Rover SD1s.

Proud owner of a 1978 3500, and it will be with me til the day I die. I realy enjoyed this video, Thank´s! Cheers from Sweden.

Great review. Makes you wonder what with better attitudes in the workplace what may have been. I knew guys who worked on the production line at the time and most of them couldn't give a toss for it - no pride in their work. Makes me sad listening to your enthusiasm. 👌

Great video and very reminiscent of my second car back in 1985, a Turmeric (yellow) 1979 3500 with a fill length Webasto sunroof. Ran that car from the age of 18 to 21 and got through 2 gearboxes and a rear axle. I was a hooligan though. A couple of years later while running a 1982 TR7 convertible as my main car, I bought a traded-in 1982 2600 manual (series 2) for £200 as winter wheels. Happy days.

Wow remember brochures like that, from a time hen you could pick them up and look before a salesperon was attacking you within seconds and the obvious questions of "Have you made a choice, shall we go for a test drive and will do you have a part-ex?" They were a good looking car, wanted but never had. Great vid, a trip down memory lane 👍

We had the 2400 SD IN 1984 VM DIESEL, awesome car. Blue with that beige velour interior, 5 speed en load levelling system.

Awesome, informative vid! Thank you Twin Cam

My Dad had the 2000cc versions as company cars from new, registered on an A and a C plate respectively. The fleet manager automatically added the power steering option as he considered it a must. Lovely comfortable cars but both had rust blisters within 2 years. His senior colleagues had mechanical issues with their straight six versions. The boss had the Vitesse, what a car!

Every so often a car is built that is timeless, like the 67 XKE, 66 Mustang fastback and the Rover SD1. There are more "timeless" cars but there are to many to list here. Thanks to Twin-Cam for posting.....

I had a 1977 3500 automatic back in 1986, when I was only 21. It had already begun to slowly disintegrate, but driving it gave such sense of occasion. You really felt you were driving something special. The grunt and sound of that V8, effortlessly driving at highly illegal speeds, was quite a jump ahead from the Citroën Dyane I had before. Both are still on my "wish-I'd-never-sold-it list", but I could fill a pretty big garage with that.. 😁

I had a 2.6 SE auto. Bloody loved it.

I vividly remember my uncle taking delivery of a blue T reg 2600 in May of 1979 as his company car. A new car was a very big deal in 1979 , and loads of the neighbours came out to see it . Always had a soft spot for the 2600 over the 3500 since then . They are almost as fast , but oil changes had to be very frequent on them .

Really enjoy these old brochure reviews. It would be interesting to know what the price list of the range was at the time.

It was, and still is, an utterly beautiful car. This and the equivalent Granada Ghia models made upper management company car choices an absolute joy back in those days!

I had 3 Rover SD1s. The first was a richelieu red 3500 a nice car but too much rust. The 2nd a gold 3500. The last one was a 1984 Vitesse. Because of the emission regulations in Germany I sold it in the 90's. Selling it was a big mistake. I loved this car so much and it drove so wonderfully smooth but also with good road holding very safe. Now I drive a Rover 75 but my heart has a Rover SD1 Vitesse.

Such a fresh design back then, loved them.

81 V8S OMG ❤️ Nothing has ever come close.

My Dad ended up with his aunt’s 2600 that she had bought new in, I believe, 1978. It was mustard yellow and I drove it when I was 18. The clutch and gearshift and non-assisted steering were so heavy and clunky I have no idea how my great aunt ever managed! It was not an S and had no electric anything. I agree that the base models with no extra exterior trim looked better. Ours had the same wheels as on the S in your brochure. The other thing I remember about it was that my Dad was always worried I would lose the back end on wet roundabouts and that the centre console was unfeasibly wide and the seats pushed out towards the doors, making it feel much wider than it was. I now drive a 2002 Mercedes S320 and it doesn’t feel wide although it’s 10cm wider. The Rover felt wide. Or perhaps it’s because I was coming from a BSM Rover 111…

Great video yet again! Quality commentary!

One of my dreams car this and i wish when i visit england i could spotted one 🤩

I bought the Rover SDI V8 back in 1982 in beautiful metallic blue. Stunning car, and loved it.

Fascinating. Thanks!

Most people avoided them not coz of the V8 but because the straight 6 became known as unreliable. My brother-in-law had a 2600 and the engine seized on that too with horrendous rebuild costs - it really needed to be serviced at shorter intervals than recommended though it was a nice motor

Best brochure video ever.

Brilliant Ed, loved this catalogue flip-through. I was 15 when the SD1 was introduced and I instantly fell in love. My ardour for the P6 didn't diminish but, oh...the lines of the SD1. Thanks for a great vid.

The 2 litre O series engine fitted in the SD1 was surprisingly good and went really well.

Great review, many thanks.

Wonderful car. My mum had two three fives. And I have to say: they were never "thirty five hundreds", they were "three fives" or "three thousand five hundreds". They were a handful if you got carried away round a corner, and I remember a white knuckle corner in my mum's three five on the way to Manchester Airport when I overcooked it round the corner. But it had an innate stability that meant that the idiotic teenager that I was managed to rescue himself from what could have been a serious crash. Loved those cars, and so beautiful - even by today's standards.

Another great and well presented video Ed - well done. I used to collect car brochures and remember this being a favourite. I also was at a dealership collecting my new Triumph Spitfire when the launch of the SD1 was taking place. The Vitesse was my favourite. If you ever get the opportunity, read Michael Edwardes book "Back from the brink". It really takes you through all the difficulties and problems that BL was beset with had and how he set about trying to resolve them. It's a very big read.

The SD1 was a fantastic car & I’ll never forget seeing my first one, it was on the lake road at Ambleside. 6mo this later my dad got his which was a 2300 then 2 Yrs later a 3500SE 👍

Amazing to see someone not only offset testing this early (outside the typical safety focused companies), but actually having the confidence to put the post crash image in the brochure. I'm shocked however that they show pictures of the rollover test, there is quite a lot of intrusion/roof collapse.

One of my favourite cars I have owned was a red Rover SD1 2600s automatic it had plush blue velour upholstery and carpets. I loved that car.

When Leyland Australia shut down, the tooling for the Marina and the four- and six-cylinder E series engines were shipped to Leyland South Africa. The local Marina, replacing the previous model made from UK-sourced kits, was a failure, but the 2600 E series engine found its way under the bonnet of the local Rover, launched in early 1978. Three models were offered: the six-cylinder "SD" and "SDX" and the V8 "SDE", which was expensive with its imported engine. The V8 was automatic-only until the 5-speed "SDS" was added later. The facelift model in 1982 saw the addition of the "Vanden Plas". Production ended at the end of 1983. The 2600 E series engine was used in the locally-made Land Rover from 1981 to 1985.

I have a 1981 SD1 2300 without the rev counter etc . Lovely old car

Ed, Another tour de force. Thanks.

This brochure shows the series 1.5 before the launch of the face lift model, Rover did produce a V8s version, which was a very rapid car. The 2300 and 2600 were great engines. However, people people didn't service the engines properly, which meant cams seized due to the oil feed becoming blocked. I have a passion for the SD1, and that's why I own a 3500, The Met Police stock piled SD1s when Rover announced the end of production, which gives you an idea of how versatile the cars were.

Growing up in the 70's this was such an exciting car to see on the road. I'd love a comparison with this and it's 800 replacement. Great video as always Ed.

I’ve almost always had 6 cylinder engined cars (couple of T5 Volvos and a Mazda RX8 excepted) starting with a March ‘79 Ford Granada 2.8 Ghia (FPU 606T) when I was 18 in 1984. That was followed by a 2.8 Injection Auto (VRK 282X) and then a couple of BMW 528iAs which sounded great - this was all in the late Eighties. I then had a Alfa GTV6 2.5 (which sounded sublime followed by a 164 3.0 Auto. My last two cars have been BMW straight six engined though, a 2018 440i Coupe and current 2020 M340i.

Icon of the 80s, and it still looks svelte today. Nothing European or Japanese had a V8 engine in this sized car, and it was quite high geared and so reasonably economical for its time. Funny that no-one objected to the fitting of the handbrake on the "wrong" side, or commented on the slightly squared steering wheel, perhaps a nod to the much ridiculed "Quartic" design that was an USP of the early Allegro. Yet look at how many steering wheels are squared off top and bottom nowadays!

In the mid 80's, I swapped a MK2 escort for an ex rover development mule. It was a 1979 3.5SE with a whacking great rayjay turbo charger on it. Apparently Rover had been working on Turbocharging as a possibility for the Vitesse. These were the days before intercoolers or fuel injection so it sucked air through a carb. Pretty much the same set up as the MG metro turbo but just on a grander scale. It was definitely quick for the day but had a tenancy to melt pistons. This leads me on to its party trick. If you remove the spare wheel to give you the depth, the tailgate opened high enough so as to allow you to put a complete rover V8 engine in the boot and still close the hatch. Very useful when you were changing them every month for second hand Range Rover units. I loved the car but she was high maintenance. I ended up swopping it for a 2 door mk1 Cavalier 2lt GLS. They guy who I did the deal with wanted the engine for a MK2 Escort (by this time the Rover was blowing through a modified Webber set up.

Love the SD1. So futuristic and still looks modern. Would like one one day……. I have always thought that the series 1 was the most pure design but then again looking at those pics. of a VDP….🤔

Excellent!

Loved this, great video Ed. I am a big fan of the SD1 sixes too and I would happily have one. The V8 sounds great, but so does the straight 6. In portugal, the V8 wasn’t available, only as special order and therefore the SD1 was simply known as the Rover 2600. The 2400SDTurbo found many costumer there too). I like the bold colours, but I would love a facelift 2600 in Oporto red. Not only it’s a nice colour, it’s the name of my hometown 😅

I did several 2600 head jobs where the cam had seized and snapped the belt, I left out the little oil restrictor and never had one come back. The cam would pinch up and snap the belt but it could always be freed up again and ran fine on the ones I did. Very basic cars that looked more advanced than they were. My mate worked on the line and he said they were chucked together with awful build quality.

I remember the launching period of the SD1 particularly well back in October 1978 as at that time my wife was one of the organisers of the renowned Dunlop Masters Golf tournament set at the St Pier golf course in Chepstow that year. We had arrived from London by train and Rover actually sent two courtesy cars and uniformed chauffeurs to the station to collect various visitors. As it was just “us two” we got a car each and a front seat drive back to the tournament - and got to meet Sevi Ballesteros as well ! Happy days! 😊

I had a white 3500 Vanden Plas in the early 90's. Awesome to drive. It pulled like train and sounded amazing. Sadly, it was a martyr to oil leaks and rust. I'd love a refurbished one now.

i bought a 2300 when i needed to transport my racing MGB on a tralier. the rover gave me 19 mpg, and that was when it wasn;t towing!

I’ve always said with BL products , if you had a good one , you would sing it’s praises to the skies , but if you had “ a bad un “ you wanted to throw it in the river! My father was a company director , the chairman of which, who always made a point of having a British cars , had 2 Rover SD1 models but was extremely pleased with both. When the directors went to Germany on business they went in the Rover one of the early 1st series models. The amount of admiration it got whist abroad was truly enviable. Sad really such a design , should suffer such variable build quality.

I had 3500 in 1983, when I was a wealthy 21 year old 😂, loved it, no trouble at all...now I'm riding a push bike

At the age of 25 I unwisely bought a 7 year old red 2600, auto, if you lifted the carpets in the back you could see straight through to the road. On one of its last long trips I overdid it a bit and the engine went pop, limped home with clouds of white smoke. I seem to remember getting 100 quid for scrap. I hadn’t learned and then bought a Fiat X19 which was as rotten as a pear and also spent more time off the road than on it, ahhh the 80‘s

Familiar story here, I had a 1977 v8 in 1984, at only 7 years old it had extensive rust and most of the electrics had stopped working. It was sad that a design with so much promise was ruined by the way it was put together. I didn't realise they made the bodies in a different factory from where they were painted which explains a lot. How could they have been that stupid! Anyway as always a nice trip down memory lane, thanks

I would love a 1976 3500 V8 in yellow 😻

The Rover SD1 was a fantastic car, it was the build quality at the time that let the car down. And as I’ve always said, if the local police authorities used these cars back in the day to catch criminals and speeding motorists, then it was a fabulous car to own and drive…. I have this exact same sales brochure in my huge car brochure collection which I kept for many different vehicles of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s era . Just a pity all these sales brochures are non existent at all car dealers now, it’s all on line to view cars now.

I used to visit Rover & saw the first SD1 body being assembled in the engineering workshop in 1972, incidentally the replacement for the P6 was to be the P10 which did not advance beyyond the styling prototype stage. I did not drive an SD1 until after I came to live in South Africa,when a friend loaned me his Van den Plas,which quite honestly felt like a bit of a land barge after comparing it to my P6B (which I have owned for 49 years). We had 6-cylinder SD1’s here but they used a 2.6 litre Australian version of the BMC 6- cylinder E- series ,generally regarded as a disaster. The P8 was stopped as BL did not have the finances available to overcome the safety shortcomings,I saw both the P8 protype as well as the P9 ,which suffered the same fate , on my visits,interesting times. It should be noted that the SD1 project was government funded.

I remember seeing a pre launch SD1 parked , late evening, in my local pub’s car park. A very interesting review . What a brilliant catalogue. So dad it’s quality was poor . The SD1 made the BMW 5 series look like a Morris Minor .

I didn't know about the influential "aerodynamica" stud, that shaped many 1970 cars. It's just impressive the aerodynamics of said cars actually were. The SD1 looks very dynamic and its hatchback certainly was more practical than the shallow boot of the P6, many owners of which evacuated the spare wheel onto the boot lid to have at least some space left inside. However, despite the SD1's modern looks, it had a drag coefficient of around 0.4, roughly the same as the edgy P6. I doubt they really spent much time in a wind tunnel...

I had two of these. A 2600 straight six and a 3500 V8. Sadly, both virtually fell apart. But I loved them more than any other car I've ever owned.

Neighbours had an 84 3500 SE in blue with grey leather, friends had a 2600 S in white with brown (?) interior. Nice cars back then.

Never knew I would be watching a video ABOUT A CAR BROCHURE - but here we are. More than that, I couldn't get my eyes off - and because of that, almost stuffed my mom's apple pie in the... eye. Jesus that sounded better than ever expected. Anyway. As much as I want to say anything about the disaster that British car manufacturing was - until it was taken over by the Germans, the Chinese and the Indians... oh, and the Americans for a long time... and the Japanese for some time - I won't. Have almost never seen a Rover SD1 in flesh - except for maybe 5 cars - during all my 40 years here in Latvia - and probably 3 of them in car exhibitions here. Have seen massive numbers of them in videos of Touring Car Championships. Neither was this car featured in the late nineties video-game, the under-appreciated TOCA by British Codemasters - as the SD1 was too old for that game. However, I remember that a former classmate who was hugely into cars - the guy had two rusted out Alfa 33 at one point - was over the moon about the "Vitesse" and would probably have sold his liver - and his freaking cat on top of that - for one. Anyway. Thanks for the video - and the reasonable production quality - and RIP Rover, Leyland and BMC. Wasn't the V8 in those cars developed from a stone-age GM design originally made in early sixties for the Buick?

Almost Top Gear-like review, thanks. The car itself was really futuristic even for 1984. Such a shame that saloon/estate prototypes never went into production.

That car has similar things with Volvo. They tested it 1/3 width front angle crash which was modern way of thinking. The seats look almost exactlylike Volvo seats. That’s really beautiful car.

The Paasat startet also only as a saloon car in 1973. It became the choice able hatch later on in 1975. And you got the choice inbetween a saloon (2&4dr), a hatch (3&5dr) or an estate version (only 5dr). At least for the Code 31 (from 1975 to 1981). It was based on the Audi 80 from 1972 (B1).

I read its review in the good the bad the ugly car magazine of 1977. I've to choose between TR7, Spitfire, and fiat x1.9. I finally bought 1977 Fiat X 1.9, imported for me from Germany, and used it in the UK for six months and then exported it to Saudi Arabia.

Great video

My dad was a 6 cylinder fan- Triumph 2000s as far back as I can remember, mum had a Vitesse- then a 2600 manual- only problems in my memory were a leaky front screen and 'rust', where I stuffed the holes with newspaper and filler to sell- embarassingly to a college friend of mine ! ! then a BMW 525eta (perfect) and a later BMW 5 something or other- not so perfect . .. My dream: a 6 cylinder E type : )

A dream car in my early 20s; sadly six months nightmare ownership of an already terminally declining four year old 2600 then left me very disillusioned and embittered. Almost every weekend was spent fixing something, usually serious, including head gasket failure. Apart from routinely coping with the paint falling off, dealing with the rust and endlessly emtying the water from the glovebox. I remain convinced the thing was designed at Triumph based on its front suspension turrets, but apparently then assembled very poorly from shoddy parts made by the lowest bidder. Still, it had surely the world's largest choke knob in the form of something that could almost be mistaken for the handbrake lever.😂

These Rover v8’s were gorgeous. We had them in India manufactured by Standard Motors in Madras. They were called the Standard 2000. But they put a wheezy old standard van petrol engine into that utterly beautiful Daytona like body. And it absolutely did NoT have any Go to support the Show! So most people who bought these (and in the 1980’s and 1990’s it was only a rich person who could afford one), put in Nissan Diesel 2 litre small truck engines and power steering units into these cars and made them far more driveable and useable.

My first introduction to the SD1 was in the original “The Getaway” on PS2. I’m trying to remember what gang uses them, but I also recently learned upon a replay that the Yardies drive boy-racer Rover 200 coupes!

As a policeman's son who grew up in the '80s, the SD1 will always be THE police area car to me ☺️

Rover was a luxury brand ,so this cars were high-end compared to the 5 series of BMW of the same years ,this was bigger but more confortable and better finished ,i had also a early 80´s 535i from BMW .very fast sedan ,like the sd 3.6 V8 from rover

Where in the SD1 range did the Vitesse variant sit, and was it mechanically different, in any way, to its base model? Many thanks!

I test drove the 2600 back in 1982, but ended up buying the BMW 5 series instead. The interior was more austere than the Rover but it had a feeling of solidity which the Rover lacked.

Had a 2600s, on a s reg , nicknamed the Brown bomber with it being brown and the first 3 letters on the reg was BMB,

Ferrari Daytona front and DeLorean rear! Still looks super cool.

So we in the US didn't really get these. I have never actually seen one here. Was there a coupe?

I remember as a teenager getting promotional tickets from a friend's father who worked for the BBC to attend a British Leyland open day at Goodwood. It was 1976 and the SD1 had just been announced. We were driven around the track in a pre-production prototype and although dynamically the car seemed pretty impressive, especially to a kid who hadn't much experience of riding in cars of that class, I remember being appalled at the interior. The design was OK, the quality and drabness not, especially in the brown colour of this car. It is amusing that the brochure shows pictures of the fascia with perfectly straight gaps between it and the glove lockers/"shin bins" underneath. I wonder if those pictures were of mock-ups rather than the real thing because in this prototype they were warped and looked awful. It then became a bit of an obsession of mine to peer through the windows of every parked SD1 to see if they were all like that; for a long period they were. How owners put up with looking at those mis-fitting items I don't know, as they were right in your face. I guess we just put up with poor quality like that without complaint. Trouble was, it appears to have been indicative of the poor quality of the whole car, certainly in the early years.

Beautiful car, maybe (white with orange stripes of the 70s 80s) the most beautiful police car in the history

Omg i remember my dad bringing this brochure home and i read it cover to cover. He was considering the 2300S but i begged him to get the 3500. What did he do? Bought a Renault 20 ffs

Out of curiosity - were the SD1s on police fleets mostly 2600 or 3500 engined? I believe the "Liver Run" Rover was an Essex Police 3500, but I'm sure I read somewhere that there were far more 2600s, mostly automatic in the Met.

Straight 6 best engine ever

Amazing back then people had to get the V8 to get the cassette player. How times have changed. Very futuristic looking car….but, ahhh, there’s always a problem.

I only ever saw one in Jamaica back in the 80's.

Such a beautiful car. Just a shame that BL weren't able to build quality cars which didn't rust or fall apart. You mention the cost saving from using a simple rear axle, but why on earth did they then spend money on developing the new 2300 / 2600 engines which were only ever used in the SD1? Why not just use the existing E-series 2200 and 2600 variants. The 2600 E-series was in fact fitted to some SD1's outside Europe, so mechanically it should have been no issue. With management and quality this poor it is no wonder the company went down.

My dad had an (SD3) 213S as a company car

Nothing stopping JLR bringing back the Rover name at a future date with a new generation of buyers, but using the traditional thinking of the Rover brand. (JLR own the Rover brand).

Ed you're getting better and better, a great video. 👍🙂😎 onward and upward.

Central locking the would unlock if you have it a good hit to the front middle 😅

In the the 1980s-90s my late parents owned 3 secondhand executive sized cars built around the same time as the SD1's production cycle. Unfortunately, my dad wasn't too keen on the Rover. I think it must have been down to the perception of quality and reliability. 😟

I bought a 3 year old Sd1 in 1982 with the v8 on Lpg. Had several troubles with the alternator and starter,and relais of the electric windows So i did chance them al after a couple of failures,with bosch tech. After that it was a great car. Sad that lucas the king of darknes,did that bad job for that car.

Speaking of your BMW - when can we expect to see more content about it?? 🤔

People in the know avoid the 2.3/2.6 straight six because they weren't any good? The 3.5 V8 was a very hard act to follow!

After last summer I think we can say we definitely need air conditioning in the UK!

Rất đặc biệt và lôi cuốn!.