Just discovered your channel and subscribed. I pass the SD1 almost everyday walking the dog and it brought back memories of my own V8 version. Sadly I have bitter sweet memories of this car as it is the only car to leave me stranded in the middle of the night in a Dorset nomans land! Look forward to following your adventures. 👍
Hi Sheldon First time seeing your RU-vid channel, loving it. My dad had a police blue p6 2200 sc, but it had a 6 cylinder merlin engine under the bonnet, I can remember one day me and my dad was out for a ride and a young man in a sd1 3500 tried to race my dad in his automatic 2200, my dad's car took off and left the sd1 standing. We come to find out that there was a kick down button under the gas peddle that altered the early electronic points and timing, plus the engine had 6 or 8 valve's per cylinder as it had 8v molded into the cast aluminium valve rocker cover. I could be wrong on the amount of valve's but I do remember that the cam shafts had nearly twice as many lobes than a 4 valves per cylinder, 6 cylinder engine plus it had a adjustable cam gear too. I have found that the merlin engine is a very rare engine firstly and secondly being used in a rover with a automatic even rarer still with a manual gearbox. Loving the video's on keeping old classic cars alive and on the road. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
My mates 2000 managed 80mph with out a sweat , i only done it for a very short burst but they do run sweet as a nut the 2000 engines and an advanced car for its time or even many years after with its all around disc brakes. My mate also had a 2.0 4 pot sd1 and for a auto with a 100 bhp that drove fine as well .The other surprise when my mate bought a 2.0 sd1 with a manual box this drove really well and the engine had bags of torque and really pulled well up a steep hill ,my mate put an mot on this and sold it on .
My God , Sheldon is old enough to remember ' The Gaffer ' ? , that can't be right ! Not as funny as ' Selwyn Froggitt ' though , Bill Maynard , starred in both.
Differences were down to the looser tolerances in construction of cars in the fifties and sixties in particular. Friday cars the bane of BL unionism. Those Rovers were well respected when new but if you want a suprisingly good car that feels modern, try a Riley RM series.