[Rovernet] British barn find - incredible survivor V8 Rover SD1 Vitesse - YouTube

[Glen R. Wilson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xexTiqiDSZY

What a nice example.

So sad that we never got these updated second series SD1s in the USA.

Brought back nice memories of my SD1. What a great driving and practical 
vehicle this was. With the back seat down and with that hatch, it was 
like an estate. Build quality and interior materials of what we got in 
the USA in 1980 were atrocious. These later cars were a real upgrade.

Still, a great driving car. I always thought it felt as light and 
tossable as an MGB but was really planted on the ground. When I got it, 
there was a Holley 390 on it which tended to only work well at full 
throttle, but boy did it scoot. 5-speed manual. I replaced it with a 
very tractable and simple to adjust Weber which was a wonderful 
appliance but didn't deliver that punch.

I towed a white automatic parts car all the way from south of Richmond, 
VA to Philadelphia and stripped it of all its parts. By the time it was 
just a unibody on 4x4 timbers, I decided that I should have gone the 
other way and used the parts car as the keeper since it had zero rust. 
Removed the engine in my driveway by releasing the front subframe and 
jacking the body up in stages with 4x4 blocks until I could pull the 
engine forward and out. One of the hairier things I ever did, but it 
worked and no one was killed.

My wife actually used this SD1 as a daily driver to commute back and 
forth to work. She actually liked it and enjoyed all the questions and 
comments she got.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rovernet.org/pipermail/rovernet_rovernet.org/attachments/20221126/a3f936b9/attachment.html>