Rover SD1

Rover SD1 is the code name given to a series of large executive cars made by British Leyland or BL through its Specialist, Rover Triumph and Austin Rover divisions from 1976 until 1986.
In "SD1", the "SD" refers to "Specialist Division" and "1" is the first car to come from the in-house design team. The range is sometimes wrongly referred to as "SDi" ("i" is commonly used in car nomenclature to identify fuel injection).In 1971, Rover, at that time a part of the British Leyland (BL) group, began developing a new car to replace the P6 and the Triumph 2000/2500. The designers of both Triumph and Rover submitted plans for the new car, of which the latter was chosen. David Bache was to head the design team, inspired by exotic machinery such as the Ferrari Daytona and the late 1960s design study by Pininfarina for the BMC 1800, which also guided the design of the Citroën CX. Spen King was responsible for the engineering. The two had previously collaborated on the Range Rover. The project was first code-named RT1 (for Rover Triumph Number 1) but then soon changed to SD1 (for Specialist Division Number 1) as Rover and Triumph were "put" in the new "Specialist Division" of B.he new car was designed with simplicity of manufacture in mind in contrast to the P6, the design of which was rather complicated in areas such as the De Dion-type rear suspension. The SD1 used a well-known live rear axle instead. This different approach was chosen because surveys showed that although the automotive press was impressed by sophisticated and revolutionary designs the general buying public was not, unless the results were good. However, with the live rear axle came another retrograde step – the car was fitted with drum brakes at the rear.

Rover's plans to use its then fairly new 2.2 L four-cylinder engine was soon abandoned because BL management ruled that substantially redesigned versions of Triumph's six-cylinder engine were to power the car instead. Rover's Rover V8 engine was fitted in the engine bay. The three-speed automatic gearbox was the BorgWarner 65 model.
The dashboard of the SD1 features an air vent, unusually, directly facing the passenger. The display binnacle sits on top of the dashboard in front of the driver to aid production in left-hand drive markets. The air vent doubles as a passage for the steering-wheel column, and the display binnacle can be easily fitted on top of the dashboard on either the left or right-hand side of the car.An estate body had been envisaged, but it did not get beyond the prototype stage. Two similarly specified estates have survived, and are exhibited at the Heritage Motor Centre and the Haynes International Motor Museum respectively. One was used by BL chairman Sir Michael Edwardes as personal transport in the late 1970s.
The SD1 was intended to be produced in a state-of-the-art extension to Rover's historic Solihull factory alongside the TR7. It was largely funded by the British government, who had bailed BL out from bankruptcy in 1975. Unfortunately this did nothing to improve the patchy build quality that then plagued all of British Leyland. That, along with quick-wearing interior materials and poor detailing ensured that initial enthusiasm soon turned to disappointment.

United States

.

Further range expansion

1982 was also the year when SD1 buyers could finally opt for a four-cylinder engine, since the two-litre BL O-Series engine of the Morris Ital was offered. The engine was particularly aimed at company-car fleets where its size enabled it to beat a taxation threshold.
Another four-cylinder engine became available in the 90bhp 2400 SD Turbo. This was the only diesel-engined SD1, utilising the HR492 motor from Italian VM Motori also used in the Range Rover Turbo D model, chosen for its petrol-like smoothness. BL had intended for a diesel version of the Rover V8 engine to be used in the SD1 (as well as other models) but the problematic development programme was cancelled in 1983 in favour of engines bought-in from outside manufacturers.

US exposed headlights on top

In 1980, Rover obtained the very expensive US type approval for the SD1 and re-entered the US market after a ten-year absence, but only 800 units were sold and no 1981s were brought in. Under US legislation (that first applied to the Citroen DS), the headlamps could not be enclosed in glass. The federalized SD1 also received larger, heavier bumpers and power sapping de-smogging equipment. While the press release claimed 148 hp (SAE),^[6] the car as sold produced only 133 hp at 5,000 rpm.The crown of the SD1 model line-up was created when Rover introduced a 190 bhp (142 kW; 193 PS) fuel-injected version of its V8. Borrowing from technologies pioneered in the US and Australian markets (where strict emissions regulations meant the inclusion of high compression carburetted engines was not feasible) the new derivative was originally only available in the Vitesse model, but from 1984 onwards it was also offered in the luxury Vanden Plas range, badged as the Vanden Plas EFi. To meet the demands of the luxury executive car market, where automatic transmission tended to be preferred, Rover first offered an auto box as an option in the Vitesse, but later withdrew that check-box on the order form and lured the customers to the plush Vanden Plas EFi instead.

Using the same automatic box as the Vitesse which although only possessing three ratios was very responsive kicking down at speeds around 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) in top directly to first giving unsuspecting passengers and following GTi's a surprise, this car had all the standard comforts of the Vitesse, such as electric mirrors, windows and locks, a trip computer, headlight washers, an adjustable steering column and a four-speaker stereo (something special at that time). Additionally it added as standard leather seats (velour cloth was a no-cost option), an electrically operated sunroof (available on all models) and cruise control; the only option being air-conditioning. Very rare indeed are the "Twin Plenum" Vitesses; these had two throttle bodies mounted on the plenum chamber instead of one, and were produced in very small numbers as homologation for the twin plenum racers. Today they command a premium over the standard Vitesse although many "Standard" Vitesses have been converted to "TWIN" status.God Bless Wikipedia for existing.