What a smart dapper chap Raymond Baxter was.I very much miss his style of presenting, informative , sensible , old school.

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.

The Rover SD1, the most beautiful car ever made!

Never forget seeing the Rover SD1 press car drive pass my school in June 1976. I was 11 years old and I was totally captivated !!!! Love this car!!!

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?

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

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 !

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!

Raymond Baxter, the voice of my childhood, Tomorrows world. Never bettered :)

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."

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.

Raymond Baxter, ex spitfire pilot and F1 commentator, great style. The British Aristocracy of Broadcasting. Why have we not got presenters like him anymore?

The sporty saloon has always been a bird catcher lol Wouldn't get away with that now

That design has aged so well.

Lovely line up of competitors at the beginning, but the SD1 looked like a starship in comparison.

Great documentary but KZfaq ads every five minutes killed it.

Loved these cars. What a pity British Leyland was imploding at the time.

I love this car from my childhood. I miss this car too much

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.

Absolutely fantastic film, thanks for posting👍🏻

I had two of them 2600’s. Great car, with an excellent steering lock. As good steering as a FX4 taxi. Very enjoyable to drive.

When our car industry existed . They didn’t realise what they had until it was gone.

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.

Jolly good! The bonnet light is a must have...lovely video, thx so much for uploading.

Great video, I haven’t previously seen the first 20mins before, thanks for sharing.

I remember my first ride in the SD1.. it reminded me of a plain;s cockpit.. Great car or the engine was !!

As much as I liked the SD1 especially the later models I would much rather have that gorgeous P6 V8 S Raymond is driving at the beginning any day!

My dad had one and it looked so futuristic. An every day car wow, which for me was not to be repeated until the Coupe Fiat in 1993.

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.)

I once owned a 1980 Triumph TR8 5speed, air, Holly 4 barrel, convertible with the same motor as the SD1, what a blast it was to drive!

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. 😂

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 ?

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

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.

It is a great looking car. I remember seeing so many in the 80s wishing my folks would get one!

Love this. I know the UK has bad weather (I should know I live there!), but they really should have chosen a sunny day as it looks so depressing!

Now i finally know where Martin, Medeski and Wood got their sound from!

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...

Goodness me what a lovely presentation, I could happily listen to Mr Baxter telling me about a pile of DOG-MUCK....... oh???

Rover siempre elegante! ❤️❤️❤️

Я очень горжусь,что владею таким авто-лем.Хоть его еще и реставрировать.

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.

Remember these coming out. They were like a space hip compared with my fathers then P6 V8S.

We owned a yellow SD1 A beautiful, futuristic, comfortable vehicle It never ran, mind you ..... just sat on the drive Still, nice to look at

Very cool car.

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)

It has to be said that even in 2021, that looks a stylish car !! Way ahead of its time.

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.

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.

They look fantastic in yellow

Nice Anglo French relations with the old dear in the hat !!!!

'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.

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.

The amount of computers already involved is staggering! Altough "basic" its still a surprise!

For anyone interested the Bell pub at 10:07 is The Bell Inn at Outwood , Surrey, and is frequented by a rather famous Dame (think Bond).

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 had the 2.6 ltr sdi and the 3.5 ltr van den plas in the late 70's loved them...one was for my wife and the 3.5 for me...of course...😊

We had a 1979 3500 our best loved family car Despite the doors falling open occasionally Thanks for posting such a fantastic period piece

It’s spooky how that typically 1970s avant garde background music really brings it all back.

@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.

Raymond Baxter! great presenter, and a Battle of Britain spitfire pilot!

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.

2:05 Good use of the ankle mic.

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.

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.

Raymond Baxter...TV legend and war hero.....

pretty amusing video

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 !

Those side window vents are clever.

My father had the 2.6 litre which I enjoyed very much on the occasions when I borrowed it .

The moderator has a wonderful old fashioned "lord-like" English accent.

15.56 Best bit. Had my VDP EFI to 200kph...

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.

That was brave taking the cover off a Rover on a damp day. A Rover can Oxidize to nothing in minutes. Can fizz away in water faster than a aspirin.

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.

the vitesse was a beauty

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.

love these old sdi rovers. You can still buy them in south america, with a peugeot engine :-)

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.

Great video. People sure spoke better in those days.

Raymond Baxter .......... ww2 Spitfire Pilot...........Legend

The dig at the railways at the start from BL is pot kettle black. Who was on strike more?

Such a cool car, still very relevant in 2021 👍

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.

My best friends dad had a P reg Sd1 in that spec. I wonder if it was that one?

Still a beautiful car. The van den plas was amazing

Rover bird catcher !!! Don't fancy yours much !!!!!......

That “battery” of warning lights sure came in handy

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.

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

I remember thinking this car was the BUSINESS. Some wealthy friends had an automatic one and just seemed amazing.

16:30 brilliant ad!

Nice car

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!

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.

5:43 Well this has to be J3 of the M6, heading North away from Coventry on the A444 (now B4113 off Bedworth Road).