@@JohnButler-iq8rlthe only British V8 that the Ford is related to is the Jaguar AJ133. Same deck height, bore spacing, water pump, but different block casting, different firing order...
@@_Professor_Oak There are a lot of cars from the 80s that look their age. This vehicle, a design drawn up in the mid 70s, looks modern. Look at vehicles like the Ford Scorpio that came out over a decade later. They look like they're from the same time period.
If only the trade unions and workers hadn't been such arseholes maybe build quality would have been what the car deserved. Crying shame what happened to the British car industry. The cars were shite, but they needn't have been that way.
I used to know a guy in the late nineties who had a sd1 2600, he made a very cool car out of that even without the V8. He lowered it on vitesse cross spokes, de trimmed and de badged it , mile deep straight black paint and a vitesse boot spoiler, the 2600 sounded alright with a Jan speed back box too. Made a nice cruiser .
Indeed it is 1 of 86 that Mg rover completed before they went under that particular one has done less than 6k miles and is becoming very desirable.. beautiful car designed by Peter stevens
SD1 Vitesse sounds awesome. A neighbour had one of these when I was a kid back in 1983/84 and always loved the looks and the sound even if not the most reliable 80s car.
Still looks and sounds epic. What a beast. I was a kid when the SD1 appeared. We couldn’t believe BL had actually made a cool car. And it’s still cool!
The one car in my life that I wish I had never sold is my SD1 V8. I converted it to manual trans and completely rebuilt the engine to a 'fast road' spec, can't remember all the details except it ran on quad (that's four, 4) 1 1/2 inch SUs on a specially fabricated manifold. It had enough torque to pull a house. At the time I had it, the Golf VR6 was new out and when the local VW dealer was demonstrating them, I could make themlook silly slow. I once came round one on a large roundabout on the outside, tail out, V8 bellowing and then left the VR6 for dead on the dual carriageway exit. On the one hand it was like driving your lounge sofa around, on the other it was an animal. In truth, my current Saab is probably slightly quicker (see it on my channel) but nowhere near so much fun. I miss it.
Such a nice story....... Probably here's another one. My 1st car was, back in '81, a '77 Opel Kadett 1.2. After that, I wanted to have a fuel injected, 6 cyl. or a turbo car. I drove a Opel Commandore 2.5, Ford Taunus 2.0 v-6 ghia, an sdi 2.6. It all ended up with the Opel Ascona 2.0E in my profile. I started rallying in '89. The car ended at the scrap in '93.
I couldn't agree more.. that mach 1 is my best friends, but he raves about the sd1, such an iconic British car which should have done better than it did, in saying that such a good car to drive an a definite head Turner... trouble is mustangs are 10 to the dozen these days but still lovely motors with a great reputation 👍
My stepdad was obsessed with SD1s back in the early 1980s. He started with a 2600, which was a great car. Then he got a slightly second hand 3500 which wasn't so nice, so he bought a brand new Vitesse. It sounded truly awesome, not fast by today's standards but brutal back then for an executive expressmobile. Trouble is, it spent nearly as much time at the local Rover dealership as it did on the road. He gave it back to them after a while, in disgust, and got a brand new Honda engined 825 and that was even worse! He persevered for a while then ended his love affair with BL! He bought a nearly new Merc S class and never looked back 😉
I had the regular SD1 3500 V8 VP, 1981 ish, and the low rev grumpy lumpy gargle was to die for. A shame, then, that the hatchback never opened, the ventilation systems was foobarred and the transmission was violently suicidal.
The Mustang driver thought he was cool, nobody show him this video because he was definitely shown what cool is by the sound of that Rover, the MG was second
Back in the day I was stationed in Berlin. My Mate had a fastback and it was christmas eve. We had to make the Calais Ferry and hit the Autobahn.. Boy did we shift. Awesom car.
Modern V8's don't sound quite as nice as the old Buick 215ci based Rover SD1 engine. Always admired the Rover SD1, currently peaked out my cars I've ever owned with the Audi TT 3.2 single cylinder head "V6". That sound brings a smile to my face every time i take it out, especially with the DSG paddles gearbox.
A shame Rover didn't fit the twin plenum Vitesse engine into the Rover P6 as well as the standard ex Buick engine. That would have been an awesome car.
@@richardharrold9736 yep, I knew that .. I was referring to the initial comment from Geoff Crabbe about a “good set of SU carbs, well set up”. You do know that until 1982, SD1s came with twin SUs?
Sd1 sounds bad ass. Looks cool af too. We got a 3.9 with stainless exhaust, love em, sick! Yank tank bore off, no class. Would rather take the flake n a 99. And the red franc shed..... lol!!!🤡🤘👍
