Clarksons SD-1... Sounding Good!

Clarksons SD-1... Sounding Good!

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Discussion

Waynester

Original Poster:

6,418 posts

256 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
Clarksons SD-1.... Sounding as good as a Wedge! Anyone know what happened to it.. did he kill it??

I had 2 SD-1s back in the day.. a crappy 2300SE, and in '91 bought my first ever V8, which was a manual gearbox ex Police car..purchased purely for the engine. smile


http://youtu.be/WKzCRXdG0yQ


adam quantrill

11,570 posts

248 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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Ha ha - I bought mine purely for the gearbox!!! I did also retain the engine and the alloy wheels, rear light clusters, and some other bits before it went to the scrapper.... Sorry HJ2.

Waynester

Original Poster:

6,418 posts

256 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
My V8 was as rotten as a pear..& slow with the 3.5L, but..it sounded the bks after I fitted Ashley side exit exhausts from RoverTec smile

I drove it to the breakers.. got £20 for it! Poor old YFL 101Y

Edited by Waynester on Wednesday 17th December 22:07

pjac67

2,040 posts

258 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
'YFL' reg is Peterborough where I lived when started driving.
Will forever remeber my grandad having loads of new Rovers inc. a 3.5L in Brown 'ODK 347R' (sad I know).

Remeber seeing a couple of racers this year - Tiff Needell's old one at WingsnWheels and one parked next to my SEAC at Caring with Cars.

Love them and their 'Datyona' inspired shape.

Paul.

Mr WST

479 posts

179 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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I remember my old man having an auto SD1. The glove box filled with water once it rained......
Still a great looking car.

RCK974X

2,521 posts

155 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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I remember a friend driving his dad's new 2600 version. It lasted LESS THAN SIX MONTHS before seizing up all of the valvegear and cam......and then after getting a new engine under warranty (or some type of deal) he sold it ASAP....



Waynester

Original Poster:

6,418 posts

256 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
They were great looking cars.. Just poorly built sadly.

My old 2300SE seized too! I was out one evening, sat at a junction waiting to pull out..all was well. As I pulled out, the car stalled (was an auto) and all the dash lights came on. Turned out the engine had seized solid.. and that was that. It was a bloody long walk home! frown

RCK974X

2,521 posts

155 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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Those straight six Rover engines were a DISASTER !!

A very bad redesign/refurb of the Triumph 6, which was old, but went on forever, albeit with a few weak spots (crankshaft thrust washers....)

But the redesign had a stupid valve which gummed up and then robbed the OHC of all its oil....

adam quantrill

11,570 posts

248 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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... and in contrast the 1950's 2.6 straight 6 in my P4 has 260k on it and still going.... that's progress I suppose...

Waynester

Original Poster:

6,418 posts

256 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
pjac67 said:
'YFL' reg is Peterborough where I lived when started driving.
Will forever remeber my grandad having loads of new Rovers inc. a 3.5L in Brown 'ODK 347R' (sad I know).

Remeber seeing a couple of racers this year - Tiff Needell's old one at WingsnWheels and one parked next to my SEAC at Caring with Cars.

Love them and their 'Datyona' inspired shape.

Paul.
My Grandad had Rovers as well.. A P4 & P6.. his last was a red 214 Vanden Plas, the same model as used in the sitcom 'Keeping Up Appearances' if I remember correctly? I used to wash that car every Saturday in the mid 1980s for £3 pocket money! smile

I always lusted after the ultimate 3.9L Vitesse Twin Plenum...in red, with the deep front spoiler and big rubber boot spoiler. Lovely looking car.




Edited by Waynester on Thursday 18th December 03:02

pjac67

2,040 posts

258 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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A couple of lovely Wedges:

mrzigazaga

18,586 posts

171 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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I just remember getting chased by them whilst trying to escape on my friends Yammy X7 that i borrowed...I can still see it an inch from the back wheel at 70mph...hehe

gmw9666

2,739 posts

206 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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and who can remember the "merlin" engine slotted into an SD1 on Firth Gear.......27L lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BnhZsS8a0

jon haines

953 posts

252 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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My dad got a 3500 auto brand new in 1977 and kept it till round about 2008. we went everywere as kids in it was as reliably as anything but rusted like a barsteward. we once had 9 people in it! 3 of us sat in the boot, can you imagine doing that now? he replaced all 4 doors, tailgate, bonnet and sills but still kept it. eventually the auto box packed in and he scrapped it which was a sad day. Always wanted a vitesse but the rust always put me off so my 350i is as close as i will get to one.

ElvisWedgely

2,715 posts

171 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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I also used to have a 3500 SDI auto back in the seventies, which I kept and used for about a year in my early days of experimenting with cars. My one was bright yellow (my favourite colour) and was very reliable, but the back shelf used to rattle and no matter what I did it wouldn't stop rattling. Unless of course I ripped it out. Otherwise it was a nice powerful car.

Tony, TCB

adam quantrill

11,570 posts

248 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Waynester said:
My Grandad had Rovers as well.. A P4 & P6.. his last was a red 214 Vanden Plas...
I went through the whole set from P4, P5, P6 x 2, then over to Wedges as anything after the P6 wasn't "classic" enough for my liking.

My parents both had P6 2l's but I went for the V8S of course, driving my mum around was funny because she couldn't understand why I could overtake so easily... until she spotted the V8 badge on the boot lid!

red tasman

295 posts

205 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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I remember being 18 or 19 and studying 0-60 times and top speeds in the early 1980s, decided the fastest and cheapest was a Rover 3.5 V8 sdi manual. Bought a gold one it would do nearly 70mph in second and over 100mph in 3rd, Awesome!!!!! and bit more solid than my previous Avenger GT.

Edited by red tasman on Thursday 18th December 22:05

Waynester

Original Poster:

6,418 posts

256 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
adam quantrill said:
Waynester said:
My Grandad had Rovers as well.. A P4 & P6.. his last was a red 214 Vanden Plas...
I went through the whole set from P4, P5, P6 x 2, then over to Wedges as anything after the P6 wasn't "classic" enough for my liking.

My parents both had P6 2l's but I went for the V8S of course, driving my mum around was funny because she couldn't understand why I could overtake so easily... until she spotted the V8 badge on the boot lid!
My parents separated in 1980 when I was 9.. but I always remember my dad coming to visit & pick up me & my sisters in his dark blue P6 Rover 3500, which at the time I thought was a supercar! smile Thats my earliest memory..& influence with the Rover V8 engine. Now I can't imagine 'not' having the old aluminium 8 pot somewhere in my life. Great cars.. legend of an engine!

RCK974X

2,521 posts

155 months

Friday 19th December 2014
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Funny how life turns out - I went from my first car ever, a Cortina mk1, to a *proper* car, a Triumph 2.5 PI, and then spent ages trying to get the injection to work, and then gave up and put carbs on - and then had another 2, each one with faulty injection, bought cheap, and converted to produce a sweet running car - all manuals with overdrive. A great cruiser.

Then I built a kit, Spitfire/Vitesse/etc based and I put a 2.5 engine in there too.

So I bypassed the glory of a V8.

But dare I mention the most impressive car I ever drove was a BMW M535i Alpina twin turbo....I can only say WOW in every respect. A true 'Q' car, it was even that BMW maroon that was so common, but a true 350 (as I remember) horses.
I, and the cars I drove, were never the same after that.....

MrPicky

1,233 posts

273 months

Friday 19th December 2014
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I bought a 1986 VandenPlas EFi V8 because it had the same edu and other injection bits as the 390. A very comfortable car but a 3 speed auto-box didn't help its performance and the old girl didn't lift her skirts up until about 5,000 revs.

The average consumption was around 11 to 13 but it had a real-time consumption meter in the dash. I remember once with 4 of us in (including DavidY from the classics forum) going up hill full throttle on kick down in first it showed 0.7 mpg - shocking!

In the end it was so difficult to sell so I gave it away to an SD1 specialist who drove it away.