Dream cars: Rover SD1 estate

BL's greatest missed opportunity? 

I like estate cars. I don't really know why but I just have a fascination with them and often find them more attractive than the saloon or hatchback on which they're based, with a few exceptions of course. I also like the Rover SD1 for its radical Ferrari-inspired styling, so combine the two and it's highly likely that the result will be greatly appealing to me. British Leyland's troubled history is littered with cancelled projects that might have been great but never saw the light of day for whatever reason, the advanced mid-engined Rover P6BS and Capri-rivalling Triumph Lynx among others. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of all is the proposed SD1 estate, which would have been a formidable rival to the big Volvos, Mercedes and Ford Granada and ranks highly on my list of dream cars.

How I wish I could own one of these...

Although the SD1 was initially conceived only as a hatchback, the estate was added to the plans quite early on in the car's life. Two hatchback development cars, LOE 99P and SHP 549R, were selected for conversion into prototype estates, LOE being done in-house at Solihull and SHP contracted out to Carbodies of Coventry, who built the bodywork for the FX4 taxi. The two cars were largely the same but had different rear end treatments: the latter, like the initial clay mockup also made by Carbodies, has a clamshell tailgate incorporating the numberplate and features a rear wiper, whereas LOE has a much plainer inset tailgate without a wiper and with the numberplate mounted below the bumper. The Carbodies design is the more attractive of the pair, but it is not clear which might have reached production.

This one's back end is the less attractive design and quite Volvo-like

Sadly, BL's troubles meant the SD1 estate project would go no further than these two running prototypes. It was in development during the worst time in the company's history, with rampant strikes and quality control problems, shortages of resources and severe financial constraints in the wake of the Ryder Report, and so many other more pressing issues meant it became a sideline that was never given the attention it really deserved. The sub-par build quality of the early SD1 hatchbacks was having a damaging effect on the new car's reputation, so the estate was put on the back burner while priority was given to ironing these problems out and then quietly dropped from the plans as the hatchback wasn't really living up to expectations and further development of other variants wasn't felt to be worthwhile.

The police loved the SD1 so would they have taken to the estate? This is a photoshop of what might have been by 'markmastro' on Flickr

That wasn't quite the end of the story though, as BL chairman Sir Michael Edwardes developed a liking for the SD1 estate and famously adopted the redundant SHP 549R as his personal car after the project was cancelled. It became a regular sight on the roads of London in the late seventies and attracted a lot of interest, so it must have been a source of great embarrassment for BL to keep telling potential customers that this desirable-looking car was a prototype that had already been dropped some time earlier and there were no plans ever to put it into production. Edwardes had the car kept up to date with the trim upgrades made on later SD1s and it now resembles the 1980 Vanden Plas specification but without the alloy wheels usually found on that model, in contrast to LOE 99P that retains its original early SD1 style.

A rare rear view of SHP 549R showing its different tailgate
(Image: Terry Orchard via AROnline)

Happily both prototypes survive in museum collections, LOE at Gaydon and SHP at the Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford, Somerset. Following the 2016 refurbishment of the museum, the former now has a prominent place near the entrance and every time I see it I think to myself what a great car it is and what a waste it was not putting it into production. That was where my dream died: only two were ever made and they are now locked up in museums so there's no chance of even seeing an SD1 estate on the road, yet alone ever owning one, and all I can do is look at them and wish things were different. Or so I thought...

SHP in its original form, spotted in London when used by Michael Edwardes
(Image: AROnline)

Remember the blue Maxi we tried to buy last year but got outbid on? My dad returned home without the Maxi but with some astonishing information: the seller also owned an SD1 estate! Impossible, thought I, as everyone knows there are only two and they're both in museums, but there were the photos to prove he wasn't making it up and a third example did indeed exist. I believe a previous owner built this himself by grafting the back end of a Volvo 245 to a second-hand SD1, and it is beautifully done and looks like a factory product as it's hard to tell where the Rover ends and the Volvo begins. Having missed out on his Maxi, I sent him an email expressing genuine interest in buying this 'Rovolvo' instead but unsurprisingly he replied that it is one of his favourite cars and he wasn't willing to sell it. Even though I can't own it, I'm very happy to know that such a thing exists and there's someone else out there who appreciates the SD1 estate enough to build his own replica.

What do you get if you cross an SD1 with a Volvo 245?
(from http://forums.mg-rover.org/you-65/dark-red-rover-sd1-estate-426458/)

The 'Rovolvo' only has the basic 2-litre engine, which is a bit disappointing really as so much effort has been put into modifying the least desirable model in the range and would have been better spent on a V8. My ultimate dream SD1 estate would have to be a specification that only appeared long after the project was cancelled: naturally it would have the V8 in the most powerful twin-plenum form and the range-topping Vitesse trim, and would be a post-1982 Cowley-built facelift model, as by that time the quality issues had largely been resolved. That would be the perfect combination of performance and practicality, especially if it was a seven-seater with the extra rear bench that was mooted as an option, and could have been a spiritual predecessor to another of my never-produced dream cars, the MG ZT-T 385. 

 

Just imagine a Vitesse in estate form...

I wouldn't turn down a standard hatchback SD1 Vitesse, but since this is my fantasy garage and I've allowed it to contain things that could have existed but never did, there's a space reserved for my perfect Rover, a fictional Vitesse estate with the more attractive Carbodies tailgate design as found on SHP 549R. It's a shame this body style never made it into production, as following the demise of the big Triumphs in 1977 BL and their successors never again had a large estate car in their range and missed out on this popular market sector. I can dream of what might have been though as the SD1 estate is a tremendously appealing car and I would try to own one if I could.