1983 Rover 2600 SE (SD1)

1983 Rover 2600 SE (SD1)

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Thursday 16th July 2015
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I am now old enough to have a wafty luxo barge. I like straight sixes, and having already done the V8 thang previously, fancied a Rover 2600.

As I was going off to buy a car in rural East Anglia, many miles from home, on a rainy day, and as the car in question was built thirty two years ago by British Leyland, I did what anyone would do and left my mobile phone at home, only noticing this when on the train. Oh, great. Sometimes you can take period detail too far.

I need not have feared. The car turned out alright. It cruised home to Oxfordshire missing not a beat. There is basically not much wrong with this car. OK, the radio aerial doesn’t retract fully (cue 900 page OMG SOGA thread in S, P and L). Also, if you look closely, you can see that it was almost tea break time one day in early 1983 at Cowley, so the inside bottom of one door wasn’t done properly from the start. The car is to be booked in to that place in Hatfield where they squirt rancid chipfat all over it, as the plan is to use it a fair bit. The engine is to be fed with regular oil changes, and I may have the odd little widget that can cause it to go Kersplode removed (a device intended to stop too much oil getting into the cam box, that could have the effect of stopping any oil getting in).

The car was a demonstrator/director’s ride at a dealership in Grimsby (selling luxo Rovers in Grimsby in 1983? Tough gig.) Then it went to a local bloke, who sold it to his brother in law in Norwich, where it lived, in a heated and carpeted garage, until 2011. It was laid up in that garage from 2000 to 2011, then sold to a bloke in a village down the road from Norwich, who undertook what appears to have been a careful and thorough recommissioning, with much replageage of old bits, and then tooled about in it for a bit. The internet suggests that it was up for auction in October 2013, but it appears that it was withdrawn or didn't sell at that time.

FFS, even the trip computer works, Goddammit! Well, I think it works, unless 30 MPG is a great big fib. All pretty much original, except for a Kenlowe instead of the dreaded (and deaded) viscous coupling fan. As for the engine, well, people say that straight sixes designed by Triumph are smooth, and so they are, but this 2.6 Triumph-cum-Rover unit (nomming its choff via two SUs) takes smooth to a new level of smoooooooth. Imagine the secret love child of Cary Grant, Perry Como, Errol Brown, Lionel Ritchie, and George Clooney attending the International Smooth Guy Conference to give a talk on smoothness and the art of the smooth. That falls way short of how smooth the engine is. Verdict: smooth.

The engine is not very revvy (redline at 5500), and it takes a while to wind itself up, but once established in the cruise this is a lovely mile-nommer that might get you zapped by plod for doing 90 without noticing. You hear a bit of wind whoosh, but hardly any engine or tyre noise while Chairman of the Boarding it along the motorway. (That’s mid-size non-FTSE, keep the shareholders happy, hence not V8 Chairman of the Board). The car handles rather well, albeit in a slightly floaty sort of way. The ride quality is exceptional.

The five speed manual gearbox was designed by Bloke Wot Designs Good Gearboxes, whoever he was. The brakes are a lot better than the (admittedly worn and shaggered oot) ones on my 2001 Alfa 156. The headlamps are mighty (although the car still has enough Lucas to still give that “lights dim a bit at low speed” effect beloved of all followers of the Satanic Cult). The cabin feels classy but still a bit space age. The seats are velvety cordtastic.

The sale advert wasn’t wrong. The car looks, smells, and feels like a 1983 SD1 might have looked, smelled and felt in about, say, 1986. Crikey, I was in my second year at university when this jalopy was built, about three miles from the place where I wasn’t doing any work. I used to drink in the Bullingdon Arms on Cowley Road, especially when my dad popped down from Longbridge in his company Princess to check on the Unipart exhaust subsidiary up the road (a factory that he ended up managing, after initially being sent there to troubleshoot). My dad (who started as a navvy on the M1 and then went to the shop floor at Lucas, so, yes, when you can’t see out of your car at night that really IS his fault) only likes working class pubs. It is not impossible that the bloke who CBA to paint the door properly may have been the bloke playing darts while my dad and I drank our Guinness.

Anyway, I love it!












Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 29th March 10:16

Cupramax

10,469 posts

251 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Thats lovely, love SD1's thumbup

LanceRS

2,171 posts

136 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Always loved these, well done. My uncle was a mechanic for the Bastos racing team in South Africa in the 80s and worked on these when I was a kid. Back as far as the 70s my best friend's father had a succession of them and they really were something special.
I would love a Vitesse, can't see it happening though. I wonder how much you lose out on the V8 in reality?
I look forward to following this and seeing the car at a Sunday service?

hidetheelephants

23,772 posts

192 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Barge-tastic; I harbour an irrational desire to fit one of these with fuel injection and a blower just for sts and giggles. Has it had any mods to the camshaft oil feed? That's the big bork factor on the straight six.

itcaptainslow

3,694 posts

135 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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That's superb, great write up too, made me smile several times. Presume the Hatfield rustproofing place is the one in the middle of nowhere run by the Australian (or similar) chap?

Google [bot]

6,682 posts

180 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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I'm getting a bit sick of these threads that have me dashing off to the classifieds looking for old BL tat that I definitely positively do not want. Much. At all.

theseoldcars

49 posts

144 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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That is beautiful. Top buy!

crostonian

2,427 posts

171 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Excellent write up and brought back some good childhood memories. Growing up on a nice estate near to Leyland (yes, there was such a thing!) in the late 70s and early 80s meant that most of our neighbours worked for Leyland Truck & Bus at middle management level. Compared to the sea of grey nowadays the driveways were a kaleidoscope of the lurid BL palette of the times; SD1s and Princesses for the blokes and all the wives had MGBs, Minis or Allegros on the staff scheme.

The cars seemed to change every 6 months or so and quite often you got to see models before they were officially launched. I still remember my best mate's dad bringing home a black 2600 SD1 to replace his Princess, the ritual was always the same - myself, my pal and whoever else was hanging around would all pile into said car and go for a flat out ride down the nearest 3 lane road and loop round on a very quick country road. The black 2600 held the honour of the first time I saw an indicated 100mph in a car, with no seat belts on and leaning forward watching the speedo creep up and up. Happy days!

dbdb

4,311 posts

172 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Lovely thing!

Dr G

15,159 posts

241 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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That's proper smile

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Wow, lovely looking SD1.

It wasn't long ago I saw a thread from the OP saying he had just bought a Dolly Sprint - wonder what will be next? Vanden Plas Allegro maybe.biglaugh

mccrackenj

2,041 posts

225 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Lovely SD1 OP. Enjoy.

Fond memories of my 2 X 2600SEs (one black, one Moonraker Blue), my early 3500 auto (gold with brown velour!) and of course the Vitesse, which a friend who had been known to build the odd rally engine 'breathed on'.

That revved like a motorbike when he was finished, and what a sound through a stainless system!



Matt Bird

1,450 posts

204 months

PH Reportery Lad

Friday 17th July 2015
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Oh wow, that's fabulous! Great write-up too, that made me chuckle. Enjoy!

Shadow R1

3,798 posts

175 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Great write up. smile

Steff1965

1,128 posts

194 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Very nice. I've always had a soft spot for these.

carinaman

21,224 posts

171 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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I've just spent sometime on the AR online website. Seems the same bloke that did the OHC also did the Dolomite Sprint heads.

Seems there's some detuning done by restrictive inlet and outlet manifolds.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Steff1965 said:
Very nice. I've always had a soft spot for these.
Yes, a patch of quicksand on the Essex coast. But good luck with it OP.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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Cheerze all. I am investigating whether the oil feed mod has been done. If not, that will be a high priority.

Today I drove the car 550 miles or so, and was behind the wheel for something over eleven hours. Mostly motorway driving, with some slow and sweaty M25 traffic, and a bit of country road stuff. The car behaved well, and I arrived home feeling surprisingly untired, such is the car's wafty smoothness and ease of driving.

Sadly, it took only ten minutes stopped at Cobham Services for someone to place a standard issue selfish door-opener's ding on each of the nearside doors, front and rear. Tiny dings, and it's only an old car, but it's sad to reflect on the solipsism of Joe Public.

On a cheerier note, note something cool in this pic that only old gits will recognise.


Cupramax

10,469 posts

251 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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hehe do AA boxes even still exist?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th July 2015
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A few remain for occasional use as Tardises or gateways to Narnia.