The production of the Rover SD1 started in 1977 as the successor of the succesful Rover P6. The car was built until 1986. In total there are 303.345 units produced.

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).

The new car's design was done with simplicity of manufacture in mind, in contrast to the P6, whose design 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 while 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 only used drum brakes at the rear.

Rover's plans to use its then fairly new 2.2 L four-cylinder engine was soon abandoned because British Leyland (BL) management ruled that substantially redesigned versions of Triumph's six-cylinder engine were to power the car instead. Rover's legendary V8 was fitted in the engine bay. The automatic gearbox was the Borg Warner 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. This was to aid production in left hand drive markets, the air vent doubled as a passage for the steering wheel column and the display binnacle easily sat on top of the dashboard on the left or right hand side of the car.

While an estate body had been envisaged, it did not get past prototype stage. Two similar spec estates survive to this day and are exhibited at the Heritage Motor Centre and the Haynes International Motor Museum respectively. One of these prototypes 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. This was largely funded by the Government, who had bailed BL out from bankruptcy in 1975. Unfortunately this did not do anything to improve the patchy build quality that plagued all of British Leyland of the time. That, along with quick-wearing interior materials and poor detailing ensured that initial enthusiasm soon turned to disappointment.

This specific car was originally sold to Mrs Signorini from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. The car is still in its original condition, first paint, original interior and only 29.416 KMS driven. All books and documentation are with the car. Of course completely rust-free!

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