Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of cars built by British Leyland, under the Rover marque.
In Motorsport, Steve Soper and René Metge won the 1983 RAC Tourist Trophy driving a Rover Vitesse
Andy Rouse won the 1984 British Saloon Car Championship driving a Rover Vitesse.
Jeff Allam and Armin Hahne won the Group A class and finished 12th outright at the 1984 Bathurst 1000 in a Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) Rover Vitesse. Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy won six rounds of the 1985 European Touring Car Championship driving a TWR Rover Vitesse. TWR Rovers won three rounds (Monza, Donington and Silverstone) of the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship. In touring car racing, the 3.5 L Rover V8 engine produced approximately 340 bhp (254 kW; 345 PS) by 1986.
The Rover SD1 was also popular with the UK police force.
The Scalextric models cover a mix of race, street and police cars. The more desirable cars are the Greens-Tuf livery which was only released in Australia. C0141, was also used for a green Palmer Tube Mills/Dick Johnson livery as a donor car and paired with the C0140 Marlboro 05 Escort and released only in the Australian market. The yellow Marshal car is very sought after.
Main range releases pre-2000:
Non-main range releases and pre-production:
The National Holidays coach company livery, which was not a main range release, is very rare and approximately twenty are known to have been produced at the factory. It is probably the amongst the rarest of Scalextric production models.
Between 1981 and 1984, the Rover 3500 SDi factory hand-made models with a flip-over mechanism built into the underpan were made for testing the idea of a car, possibly the Rover 3500 SDi police car, chasing the ‘baddies’ car and tipping it over when it caught the car and hitting the rear bumper. This would then activate the spring loaded flipper in the ‘baddies’ Rover 3500 SDi! However, perhaps this was a bit too much for Scalextric to make a police car seem like the aggressor. The mechanical flip-over mechanism was transferred to the Datsun 4×4 Pick-Up Truck and used in the Track Buster set of 1984.
Rover 3500 SDi releases post 2020 with new tooling:
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