I had the pleasure of driving this Rover a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with it. Such a cool car!

Good Morning Sir!! If only this wonderful piece of design had been built with the quality and precision it deserved.

Love that instrument panel.

Thank you very much for this amazing video! Great car and history. Memories of 1980s toys brought me here.

Just gorgeous….and the noise. 😍

This is a car on my bucket list - looks like another visit to Drive Dad’s Car then!

Excellent MR Lloyd, my father had a 1986 Vitesse EFi TP manual in Moonraker blue, with a grey leather interior with the rear headrests and air conditioning plus a sunroof.

Great looking car, lovely colour 👌 😍

It IS an impressive looking car, particularly in that sea-green colour. You were right to point out how light it is inside. Far preferable to most modern cars.

The SD1 was ahead of its time when it came out and still looks a mean looking car today. An excellent review as always Sir.

Rover really did well with the ergonomics, regardless of quality issues, didn't they? A lot of these cars came to New Zealand and they always looked sophisticated. Unfortunately the Police there never used them.

I had a 2.6 on which the cambelt snapped and an mk 1 3500. Fab cars.

Would so love an SD1. Funny how the dash and steering wheel now look less old due to the modern Chinese suv interiors with the long led screens. I'm thinking Haval. Another great review Sir 🫡

Armrest articulates like a garage door, it was so they could make it thinner and just trim 1 side of it. Brilliant design IMO. 12:19 Button top-left of the four is to isolate the rear window switches. Quite a clever design having the vents go through to the door and so get a better side glass demist. Interestingly, the Triumph 1300 and Toledo had a boot lid that opened from the boot floor level but most (all ?) later Triumphs didn't. IIRC, the Rover 200/SD3 changed its bootlid mid production.

Now that’s my kind of car !

Great watch mate. I have a sd1 vandan plas 3500 here in australia currently restoring it such great cars

What a great sound it makes. Completely different to the P6 it replaced.

A great looking example of an SD1. And a manual to boot.

European Car of the Year. Moonraker Blue, as seen here, is, in my opinion, the best colour.

Good evening. That car has a great sounding engine, one that matches the looks

The mysterious 2 litre ones would have still had reasonable performance by early 1980s standards. Their relatively light weight for a large car and aerodynamics would have helped. The shape certainly influenced too many modern saloon and even SUV designs to mention. My old workshop teacher drove one and said that it was the best handling car ever - he drove it full speed on a straight piece of road with his hands off the wheel!

The Vitesse Twin Plenum was very accurately described as the Poor Man's Aston Martin and the 3500 SD1 was much faster than the Capri 3 litre. The 3500 Vanden Plas EFi is the one to have though. Hopefully you will be offered a drive in a Vanden Plas EFi Sir for comparison. These cars party trick was covering very long distances fully loaded without breaking sweat while cosseting driver and passengers.

I went there today.x £19 to get in . And apparently way more to drive the rover. Dad cars. .x

Can we call it the great white hope?, every single SD1, was always spectacular, a missed opportunity for sure,

Oooo a lovely example. Dad's waa chocolate brown. Very comfortable to sit in.

I recommend the experience of being ‘chauffeured’ in the back of an SD1 - it makes you feel like a Thatcher cabinet minister rather than a criminal (although that’s perhaps a fine distinction nowadays)

Anton Rodgers drove a Rover SD1 in the sitcom French Fields - not sure if that’s one you’ve already covered in any of your excellent TV-car episodes? The Ferrari Daytona-esque design is aging admirably. Thanks for another top notch review!

These things were a bit of a performance legend back in their time - although power outputs have increased so dramatically since then a younger driver today might find them rather underpowered I suppose. At a time when German luxury cars didn't dominate like they do now it often came down to a straight choice between one of these or a 2.8 Granada. The SD-1 is undeniably a handsome car, the hatch makes it more practical and it has a V8 rather than a mere six cylinder motor of course. The big Ford on the other hand might be a better long term ownership proposition ( I recall that neglected and tatty looking Rover SD-1s were a commonplace sight in the early 1880's) and in Mk2 Ghia form at least the Granada looks to be a suitably imposing looking executive express too. A tough choice for the wealthy motorist of the era ... I'll just have to have one of each in my dream garage then! By the way Joseph - have you ever seen that great Rover Vitesse action in the Micheal Cain movie 'The Fourth Protocol' ?

I wish British Leyland built that car in Japan, Sweden or Germany. They will have an ABSOLUTE winner on their hands!

I believe most of the car was developed by the triumph devision. I am sure there are black and white internal photos with a proud triumph emblem on the boot.

No car has a better road presence than the SD1 and I include things like Lamborghinis in that claim. The shape is astonishing. It still looks contemporary today. It's a proper man's car and if anyone's offended by that, tough s**t!

I remember it being released and my jaw hitting the floor. Compared to the P6 that came before it this looked like alien technology. I actually prefer the series 1 because it was more contemporary. They got away from the walnut & leather and the Rover badge was even stylised. Unfortunately (for me at least) buyers wanted the traditional Rover qualities and the walnut and leather returned along with the old style badge. Such a shame because Rover and Rover buyers should have been embracing the future but they were all stuck in a pipe and slippers world. I think this along with terrible build quality is what started Rover's demise. Other marques looked to the future whereas Rover rested on their laurels. Beautiful cars though.

Much maligned back in the day. This should have been a world beater. Personally I would choose the automatic with the V8. Either way that engine is saying “let’s go”. Part of the problem having a V8 range topper, especially from launch is that if you were in the market for a lesser SD1……you would always be wishing you had bought the V8, and other people would always look and point at your poverty spec 2.0 4cyl manual and say “the only reason you bought that is because you couldn’t afford the V8” ….porsche had a similar thing going on a few years ago when they introduced a more affordable model. It looks surprisingly modern inside, considering it’s a 1970s design. Had no idea they had a “computer” on board. It’s a bit odd because I don’t remember these being especially popular during the 1980s….it was like other brands from Europe (BMW being the most obvious at that time) & Japan were or had largely taken over. I have to say this, unlike now as a classic, back in the 1980s the majority of us would not have even considered it and would have picked say Golf GTi, XR3i, 6cyl BMW 6 series, instead. I also had absolutely no idea it was available with a “different sort of engine”……..with the tech of that era, wouldn’t be suitable for this type of car?