RE: Rover SD1 at Goodwood: Time For Tea?

[Lowtimer]

Indeed: yet another example of the mega-bloat of today's cars.

[aeropilot]

skyrover said:

Waynester said:

Owned 2 SD1s back in the early 90's.. the 2nd one purchased was an ex Police manual 3.5 V8. Big old bus, loved it!

You say this but they aren't that large by today's standards.

Indeed not.
But they were a big old thing back then, compared to other cars on the road, and even when compared to it's P6 predecessor.
It's almost comical to think back now at the fact they were quite popular as rallycars.
Two guys in my rally club back in the early 80's campaigned SD1's in rallying - and quite successfully too.

And yes, less it definately more when it comes to grip in motorsport.

[skyrover]

It's interesting in that if built today it would be classed as borderline C-segment/Astra/Focus territory

Edited by skyrover on Tuesday 22 July 08:25

[ode]

Fantastic. I could watch that all day

Now for a third viewing.....

[braddo]

Awesome noise and the handling seems to be nice and benign.

[CAPP0]

Oh dear - something else to add to the Lottery List!

[Ruffy94]

CAPP0 said:

Oh dear - something else to add to the Lottery List!

There is an ex Tim Harvey SD1 for sale on carandclassic at the moment, sounds like a good enough excuse for a Euromillions ticket tonight

[scottos]

We used to look after a TWR one for Jeff Allam a few years ago when i was mid teens and ill always remember it being fired up after an engine rebuild. It was fired up inside and even with the shop doors wide open the fumes from the race fuel had all our eyes streaming. The noise on tickover vibrated in your chest enough to almost make you sick. Never heard or experienced a noise like it since and i've been around many a fine machine. Fond memories indeed.

[Digga]

Good to contrast the two drivers - the latter was tending to use lower gears into the corner, rather than hold a higher gear and preserve momentum. I always thought most corners at Goodwood rewarded the use of longer gearing and it certainly looks to be the case.

Superb commitment through Fordwater though, by both.

[Jerry Can]

I love a bit of Roverness.

A question tho (for the nerds) Pond's rally Vitesse had a dog leg first gearbox, but the race Vitesse's of Walkinshaw, had a dog leg 5th ( i.e. conventional H pattern) Yet they were both prepared by TWR. Any one know why the difference?

Also in that Austin Rover vid, is that clapped out datsun still parked up by the side of the road ( @ 3.33)

[michaelcolby83]

I always loved SD1s.

[firebird350]

Coatesy351 said:

I thought I'd add this here if you didn't see it in the you tube thread. Murray walker and SD1 action.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvl3lLguUuY

Well done for posting this - hugely enjoyable.

[loose cannon]

I miss my twin plenum very much
Thanks for posting very much enjoyed both vids

[fatboy69]

Argybargy said:

Crikey - it doesn't get much better than that.

On a geeky note, it seems to be based on a 2300 model, as it has wind up windows. Clearly the 2300 6 has been replaced...

I can assure you, from personal knowledge, that it is not based on a 2300. It was/is a pure 3500 V8.

I know - I worked for the Patrick MotorSport team when we raced them & have also driven all three of the team cars at some points back in the day.

[43034]

Anyone with deep pockets? http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C521600

Also, this is worth a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7cKTIQKUpQ&lis...

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__1YI0av8YM&lis...

[Hooli]

Now that is what tintop racing should be like.

[chevronb37]

fatboy69 said:

Argybargy said:

Crikey - it doesn't get much better than that.

On a geeky note, it seems to be based on a 2300 model, as it has wind up windows. Clearly the 2300 6 has been replaced...

I can assure you, from personal knowledge, that it is not based on a 2300. It was/is a pure 3500 V8.

I know - I worked for the Patrick MotorSport team when we raced them & have also driven all three of the team cars at some points back in the day.

I think most of the SD1s at the Members' Meeting were built up in a hurry from road cars, weren't they?

[firebird350]

An old SD1 favourite of mine - with Tony Pond the last to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NbG3RynL2k

[pit5top]

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/r...

Nice 4.6 litre vitesse here

[fatboy69]

chevronb37 said:

fatboy69 said:

Argybargy said:

Crikey - it doesn't get much better than that.

On a geeky note, it seems to be based on a 2300 model, as it has wind up windows. Clearly the 2300 6 has been replaced...

I can assure you, from personal knowledge, that it is not based on a 2300. It was/is a pure 3500 V8.

I know - I worked for the Patrick MotorSport team when we raced them & have also driven all three of the team cars at some points back in the day.

I think most of the SD1s at the Members' Meeting were built up in a hurry from road cars, weren't they?

I don't know about all of the other cars however I can assure you that the PMG liveried car was a genuine race car built by SRG for us back in early 1980. I think that 3 cars, possibly 4, were built during the season however I cant remember exactly how many cars were built.

I was lucky enough to be allowed to do some shakedown testing of the cars before they were raced. Believe me when I say just how brutal they were. Scared the crap out of me!!!!

We decided to move up to the big class in the hope that we could get some overall race wins as whilst we had won the British Saloon Car Championship outright in 1978 & 1979 with the Min 1275GT we wanted to go for race wins.

However we came up against TWR........ So we were screwed as they were the full works team whilst we were considered an upstart privateer team. Which, to be honest, we were.

I think that the car featured was the last car built so its race history was sparce. Two or three races at most.

The PMG liveried Mini is a replica as the championship winning car still lives in the old Patrick Collection Motor Museum buildings in Birmingham along with one of the other Rover SD1 race cars.