1985 Rover 3500 Vitesse
Discussion
ReformedPistonhead said:
Lovely.
My Dad had one when I was 17, I still lust after one now (I am 51!)
This is only here because of the VDP my dad had when I was a kid My Dad had one when I was 17, I still lust after one now (I am 51!)
Bobberoo said:
Those wheels and that stance are perfect!!!
Cheers JeremyH5 said:
Looks ace, well worth all your effort!
Cheers, I appreciate that! CarlosV8 said:
That looks fantastic! Great effort in getting those wheels sorted out!
I saw your car at Goodwood and had a good nose around. Unfortunately you weren't about, but it really is a credit to you!
Cheers I saw your car at Goodwood and had a good nose around. Unfortunately you weren't about, but it really is a credit to you!
yeah I tend to wander off and enjoy shows, but I should probably hang around with the car a little more! Pope said:
Oh I love that, and got both the Minis in too! KelvinatorNZ said:
Good lord that looks amazing! Love seeing the nice wide modern rubber with a decent sidewall on there too.
All that work really paid off.
Cheers All that work really paid off.
I'm also very happy to get the chunky Pilot Sports on it, I'm really happy with how the sizes worked out too.
B'stard Child said:
I think that would only improve the look (whilst I can agree they are motor sports wheels they do look a little unfinished without centre caps)
Needs to be a smidge lower for a perfect stance but with the roads we have to put up with today it's probably better with a little height (it might even settle a bit with some use)
Yeah I can see that, I'll try them with an see what I think. I've already drawn up the adaptors in CAD, just need to have them made. Needs to be a smidge lower for a perfect stance but with the roads we have to put up with today it's probably better with a little height (it might even settle a bit with some use)
Yeah I know what you mean, I thought the -60mm springs would have brought it to a silly level of low, but they really haven't!
The adjustable perches I've put on hold, as they'd only go higher, and would add a minimum of 25mm due to the thickness...
I'll see what the front looks like when they turn up...
bangerhoarder said:
That is naughty, should have NSFW tags posting such car porn.
Haha, I'll add the 18 only marker next time 
nismo48 said:
Incredibly beautiful and an iconic car 
Cheers mercedeslimos said:
So when are you going to bag it and head to Players
Haha called me on that one! I'm still definitely not low enough, bagging it would be fun though...
So the soft deadline in my head was Players Classic at Goodwood.
The suspension went on the car on Wednesday evening, the wheels on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday morning at 4:30 I headed off down to Goodwood!
Nothing like a 200mile journey to test your confidence in new parts!
I'd applied for displaying back in December and was accepted, but Voodoo had also asked if I wanted to display on their trade stand and I couldn't say no.
The drive down was nice and easy, but about half a mile from Goodwood at 8:10 we joined the queue!
The queue to get in was a good hour, but of course the Vitesse didn't have any troubles.
Eventually got in and got parked up.
On the Sunday I abandoned Voodoo and joined the Concours d'Elegance inside the circuit. I was nice and early to get a good spot, and was pointed onto the main lawn
Thought I'd lean into the style of the show and find a Playboy Magazine from 1985 to match the car
One from February for when the car was built, and one from May for when it was registered!
and my new background picture
The show ended a little earlier than anticipated on the sunday with a good rainstorm coming in. But was a damn good weekend. No awards but some really nice compliments and I had a lot of fun.
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Saturday 24th June 23:58
So quite a few people have asked me what centre caps I'm going to put on my new wheels.
My response has always been, they're motorsport wheels and are designed to run without centre caps. And apart from the white spigot rings (I always planned on dying them black) I love the look.
But I then for a joke last weekend I popped the original Rover centre caps out, and offered one up.
The outer diameter is just a teeny bit smaller than the 80mm centrebore, so you can just sit them in, and it actually looked really good. Damn it, putting a spanner in the works for myself.
So I started to work out how I could make them fit.
As I had spent far to much time drawing the centres up in CAD it really wasn't too difficult. I just needed to replicate the shape of the original wheel into an adaptor.
I looked at a few options to secure them to the wheel, grub screws, expanding rings, but I settled on chunky o-rings with an interference fit, (74mm ID 4mm thick) time will tell if that was a sensible decision.
.
Sadly my work is in-between printers at the moment, so I thought I'd try one of the bureau services.
For £48 delivered I received these! (order placed Monday, recieved Wednesday, that's good service)
Very happy with my guess work as the original centres snapped in beautifully.
They didn't need to be pretty so FDM printed PETG sounded perfect. Strong, chemically resistant, and good up to 85 degrees.
Should be perfect for what I need.
If I wanted them pretty I'd have gone for SLS nylon, but it was over twice the price!
Sadly I don't have the wheels sat in my living room any more, so I'll see if they fit on Friday.
Joe
My response has always been, they're motorsport wheels and are designed to run without centre caps. And apart from the white spigot rings (I always planned on dying them black) I love the look.
But I then for a joke last weekend I popped the original Rover centre caps out, and offered one up.
The outer diameter is just a teeny bit smaller than the 80mm centrebore, so you can just sit them in, and it actually looked really good. Damn it, putting a spanner in the works for myself.
So I started to work out how I could make them fit.
As I had spent far to much time drawing the centres up in CAD it really wasn't too difficult. I just needed to replicate the shape of the original wheel into an adaptor.
I looked at a few options to secure them to the wheel, grub screws, expanding rings, but I settled on chunky o-rings with an interference fit, (74mm ID 4mm thick) time will tell if that was a sensible decision.
.
Sadly my work is in-between printers at the moment, so I thought I'd try one of the bureau services.
For £48 delivered I received these! (order placed Monday, recieved Wednesday, that's good service)
Very happy with my guess work as the original centres snapped in beautifully.
They didn't need to be pretty so FDM printed PETG sounded perfect. Strong, chemically resistant, and good up to 85 degrees.
Should be perfect for what I need.
If I wanted them pretty I'd have gone for SLS nylon, but it was over twice the price!
Sadly I don't have the wheels sat in my living room any more, so I'll see if they fit on Friday.
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Thursday 29th June 20:33
mercedeslimos said:
This is just getting better and better. To the average person, nothing out of the ordinary on that old SD1. To the wheel w
e, that's just the icing on the cake.
Cheers e, that's just the icing on the cake.
It certainly wasn't what I was expecting it to turn into when I started, but I'm very happy that it's what I've ended up with!
Getting back from Players was a little bit of a comedown, especially since the weather was so gross. The car was absolutely filthy, and I really had in the back of my mind that I'd done all this work on the wheels for them to be ruined after one show. (They were all matt on the lips etc)
Of course I was just being dramatic, and the next day using the special auto finesse split rim cleaning shampoo I'd bought (I know I've gone too far) they came up beautifully. The ceramic coating doing it's thing!
There is a little niggle in the back of my mind though that it's finally the thing that in my head "makes it too nice to use" , something that hasn't really bothered me before...
Hopefully something that I'll get over!
Joe
Mr Tidy said:
I hope you do!
There's a show tomorrow at East Kirkby, so I'll drag it out for that! Bobberoo said:
You could always give it to one of us to use in so you don't have to worry so much!!! 
Haha you are funny Bobupndown said:
Your car is absolutely stunning, I am very jealous.
Personally I'd prefer the stock wheels, your split rims a little too blingy for me but hey it still looks amazing.
Cheers Personally I'd prefer the stock wheels, your split rims a little too blingy for me but hey it still looks amazing.
They are very jazzy, the centrecaps I think mute them a little bit...
bolidemichael said:
I came here to say this.
Alternatively, save these as show wheels?
Alternatively, save these as show wheels?
I'm not finished yet...Yeah I think I'll definitely chop and change between them. It doesn't get used for mundane stuff as much these days though.
So I popped over this afternoon and tried my new centre cap adaptors.
The fit was almost perfect, nice and tight but with a little lube popped right in.
I think they make the wheels look a lot less racey, which i'm not sure I love.
But they do make them look more finished, so pros and cons!
Happy to hear opinions!
Joe
bolidemichael said:
Opinions? A little lube goes a long way.
amen to that! wormus said:
Looks brilliant but then I love the whole car. Still very jealous!
miniman said:
Caps in for me (and personally I’d take off the BBS decals but YMMV)
I know what you mean, I think the stickers and the caps together maybe are a bit too much...JeremyH5 said:
The car looks great in its current form. I think the centre caps link the racy wheels nicely to what is clearly a road car.
Yeah that is exactly the vibe I'm going for! So yesterday morning I was up at actually quite a sensible hour to drive to East Kirkby to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. It used to be the Rover Rally, but now it's just a slightly Rover themed car show. Still fun.
SD1's are dumped in the field at the back with the general classics away from the sea of Rover 75's & Sibling ZTs.
6 SD1's in attendance, 4 Vitesse's, 3 Targa Red!
Nice catching up with JJ and his lovely Vitesse, definitely the one mine gets mistaken for the most! & now fun to see the difference a few modifications make
It's always further away than I remember but a good day out.
Took a few pics when I got home, I really like how it's brought the front track out, gives it a lovely aggressive stance
I also think that the centres being flush is the best look. I had them initially sticking out a little like the original wheels, but it didn't work.
Joe
Alfa Pete said:
This is looking amazing and testament to all the work you’ve put in.
I’ve always wondered , what are the side decals on the lower front wings ?
Cheers I’ve always wondered , what are the side decals on the lower front wings ?
really appreciate that. So the helmets on the side are the Austin Rover Racing logos.
A fun little homage to the Vitesse being the homologation model for the Group A touring cars.
They're an evolution of the British Leyland Racing Logos which were red and blue.
The history is quite interesting around the colour changes etc.
https://www.aronline.co.uk/facts-and-figures/histo...
I really like the design so I also had it not so subtlety like the Challenge cars on my 1275GT.
So good job the Vitesses were a little more subtle
Now both my GT & Vitesse are sat on period correct racing wheels
a nerdy fact that makes me very happy. bolidemichael said:
I think that it'd be nice to see the wheel centres coordinated with the blue/green of the racing helmet decal.
Haha yeah I could see that looking good, of course would required something a little more custom...Joe
So in general I haven't managed to do much with the Vitesse. The weather has been awful!
But I did manage to get out for the Festival of the Unexceptional. Now of course I consider my car exceptional, but when a friend had to pull out with his fire engine, I thought I'd bring the Vitesse.
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53107631268_8b940c06ed_z.jpg[/img
Such a good show with an amazing variety of cars. The Vitesse is pushing the spirit of the event, but the SD1 is a bit of an unloved diamond...
I also was accepted to display at RollHard, which the Vitesse fits more in with now it's got jazzy wheels...
And of course most importantly it was excellent practise for the Pistonheads 25th Anniversary event this weekend!
So I'll see all of you when I'm on display on the readers rides stand!
I've also bought a jazzy new steering wheel just in time...
a Jaguar Sport Momo... definitely period correct.
The colour is all wrong but it was NOS! and some dye will fix that
See you guys on Saturday!
(I'm also gonna be at Mallory Park on the Sunday for Retro Rides Gathering...) I do like a car weekend!
Joe
But I did manage to get out for the Festival of the Unexceptional. Now of course I consider my car exceptional, but when a friend had to pull out with his fire engine, I thought I'd bring the Vitesse.
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53107631268_8b940c06ed_z.jpg[/img
Such a good show with an amazing variety of cars. The Vitesse is pushing the spirit of the event, but the SD1 is a bit of an unloved diamond...
I also was accepted to display at RollHard, which the Vitesse fits more in with now it's got jazzy wheels...
And of course most importantly it was excellent practise for the Pistonheads 25th Anniversary event this weekend!
So I'll see all of you when I'm on display on the readers rides stand!
I've also bought a jazzy new steering wheel just in time...
a Jaguar Sport Momo... definitely period correct.
The colour is all wrong but it was NOS! and some dye will fix that
See you guys on Saturday!
(I'm also gonna be at Mallory Park on the Sunday for Retro Rides Gathering...) I do like a car weekend!
Joe
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