Can’t get browner
The Rover SD1 has been an icon for years, especially for lovers of British cars. And they’re lucky, because it says now AutoWeek.nl a handsome example for sale with a clear history for a relatively modest asking price.
The Rover SD1, the Car of the Year 1977, was given the honorable task of Rover to make the then very old Rover P6 forget. And that worked. The car looked completely different and downright modern for the time; something that you can still see in 2023, even if it is a car completely in brown. The straight-lined design and fairly streamlined overall shape could have been introduced ten years later. That is without a doubt one of the reasons why the SD1 remained on the market for about ten years.
This was partly due to an interim facelift in 1982, which prepared the car for the last four to five years of its life. With that facelift, the Rover received, among other things, a different bumper party, with both the front and rear bumpers running around the corners of the body. The copy that has recently been for sale in the AutoWeek used range does not have those bumpers and is therefore one from before the facelift. It dates from 1979.
The wheels of the Vitesse version, the sporty one with V8. They may also have been available as accessories.
Six cylinders, three gears
All the more special that the car has only had two owners to date, the first of which kept it until 2021, and the second took it seriously. According to the advertiser – a car company in Zeeland – everything has been replaced, including the lower block. That is also linked to a three-speed automatic transmission, which sends the maximum 131 horsepower of the 2.6-liter six-in-line to the rear wheels. It’s not the best-loved powertrain that Rover delivered in the SD1 (that was the one with the 3.5-litre V8), but the car’s other looks make up for a lot.
The brown color, the brown interior, the cross-spoke alloys and the otherwise original appearance take you back in time, while – again according to the advertiser – this is not accompanied by an overall condition that would suit a (British) car of this age. The SD1 is said to have some ‘patina’, but no rust, and the list of replaced parts is extensive. The asking price of just under €8,000 therefore seems reasonable to us, even if the powertrain is not the preferred one. The question is, who will collect this Rover and get it to its 50th birthday (and beyond) in good health?
Under the hood of the SD1 it generally looks neat.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl