Land Rover Car Plant, Solihull (Solihull)

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In early 1940 Rover were approached by the government to support Frank Whittle in developing the gas turbine engine. Whittle's company, Power Jets had no production facilities and the intention was for Rover to take the design and develop it for mass production. Whittle himself was not pleased by this and did not like design changes made without his approval but the first test engines to the W2B design were built in a disused cotton mill in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, in October 1941. Rolls-Royce took an interest in the new technology and an agreement was reached in 1942 that they would take over the engines and Barnoldswick works and in exchange Rover would get the contract for making Meteor tank engines which actually continued until 1964.

After the Second World War, the company abandoned Helen Street and bought the two Shadow Factories. Acocks Green carried on for a while making Meteor engines for tanks and Solihull became the new centre for vehicles with production resuming in 1947 and would become the home of the Land Rover.

Experimental cars
In 1950, designer F. R. Bell and Chief Engineer Maurice Wilks unveiled the first car powered with a gas turbine engine. The two-seater JET1 had the engine positioned behind the seats, air intake grilles on either side of the car and exhaust outlets on the top of the tail. During tests, the car reached top speeds of 140 km/h, at a turbine speed of 50,000 rpm. The car ran on petrol, paraffin or diesel oil, but fuel consumption problems proved insurmountable for a production car. It is currently on display at the London Science Museum. Rover and the BRM Formula One team joined forces to produce a gas turbine powered coupe, which entered the 1963 24 hours of Le Mans, driven by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther. It averaged 173 km/h and had a top speed of 229 km/h.

Golden years

1962 Rover 80
1985 Rover SD1 Vitesse (post-facelift). The 1950s and '60s were fruitful years for the company, with the Land Rover becoming a runaway success (despite Rover's reputation for making up-market saloons, the utilitarian Land Rover was actually the company's biggest seller throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, as well as the P5, the P5B (Rover Coupe) and P6 (Rover 2000 and 3500) saloons equipped with a 3.5L (215ci or 3528cc also known as 3500) aluminium V8, the design and tooling of which was purchased from Buick, and pioneering research into gas turbine fuelled vehicles. The P5 and P5b were used by the queen and government ministers up until the 1980's, long after they were out of production, as they were so comfortable. In 1967, Rover became part of the Leyland Motor Corporation, which merged with the British Motor Holdings to become British Leyland. This was the beginning of the end for the traditional Rover, as the Solihull based company's heritage drowned beneath the infamous industrial relations and managerial problems that beset the British motor industry throughout the 1970s. In 1970, Rover combined its skill in producing comfortable saloons and the rugged Land Rover 4x4 to produce the Range Rover, the first car to combine off-road ability and comfortable versatility. Powered by the ex-Buick V8 engine, it had innovative features such as a permanent 4 wheel drive system, all-coil spring suspension and disc brakes on all wheels. Able to reach speeds of up to 100 MPH, yet also capable of extreme off-road use, the original Range Rover design was to remain in production for the next 26 years.

The Rover SD1 of 1976 was an excellent car, but was beset with so many build quality and reliability issues that it never delivered its great promise. A savage programme of cutbacks in the late 1970s led to the end of car production at the Solihull factory which was turned over for Land Rover production only. All future Rover cars would be made in the former Austin and Morris plants in Longbridge and Cowley, respectively.

Was the birth place of the Rover SD1:

Rover SD1 is the code name given to a series of large executive cars made by British Leyland and its successor the Rover Group from 1976 to 1987.

History
In 1971, Rover, at that time a part of the British Leyland (BL) group, began developing a new car to replace the P6 and the Triumph 2000/2500. The designers of both Triumph and Rover submitted plans for the new car, of which the latter was chosen. David Bache was to head the design team, inspired by exotic machinery such as the Ferrari Daytona and the late 1960s design study by Pininfarina for the BMC 1800, which study also guided the design of the Citroën CX. Spen King was responsible for the engineering. The two had previously collaborated on the Range Rover. The project was first code-named RT1 (for Rover Triumph No. 1) but then soon changed to the now familiar SD1 (for Specialist Division No. 1) as Rover and Triumph were "put" in the new Specialist Division of BL.

The new car's design was done with simplicity of manufacture in mind, on the contrary 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 have shown that while the automotive press was impressed by sophisticated and revolutionary designs the general buying public isn't, as long as the results are good. However, with the live rear axle came another retrograde step — the car only used drum brakes at the rear.

Rover SD1 from a 1976 sales brochure Rover's plans to use its then fairly new 2.2 L four-cylinder engine was soon abandoned because BL management ruled that substantially redesigned versions of Triumph's six-cylinder engine were to power the car instead. Of course for the top-of-the-line version Rover's legendary ex-Buick V8 was fitted in the engine bay.

This car was launched in June 1976 in liftback form only, with SOHC 2.3 L and 2.6 L sixes following a year later, these were derived from the Triumph straight six engines (2000 and 2500). The car was warmly received by the press and even received the European Car of the Year award for 1977. It was only offered as a Rover, as the TR7 was to continue the Triumph line. While an estate body had been envisioned, it did not get past prototype stage. A prototype estate (which was utilized by BL chairman Sir Michael Edwardes as personal transport in the late 1970s) still survives to this day.

Rover SD1 Vitesse at the Nürburgring, 1985The 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 baled BL out from bankruptcy in 1975. Unfortunately this did not do anything to improve the spotty 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.

Between 1976 and 1981 there were some very minor updates to the car including new badging (front and rear) and chrome wing mirrors. 1979 saw the introduction of the high-performance V8-S model, available in metallic green with gold-coloured alloy wheels — many years before the Subaru Impreza would make famous the same styling idea!

In 1980, Rover obtained the very expensive US type approval for the SD1 and re-entered the US market, after a ten year absence — 800 units were sold.

Major restructuring of BL following the infamous Ryder Report saw the SD1 production line being moved to the former Morris plant in Cowley in 1981. The Solihull plant was turned over to produce Land Rover models, following on from that marque's separation from Rover in 1978. The hugely expensive extension to Solihull that was built specifically for the SD1 and Triumph TR7 was closed, and only in recent times with Ford's takeover of the plant have there been discussions of it re-opening.

Annoyingly for enthusiasts, many people refer to the SD1 as the SDi. The "SD" refers to "Specialist Division" and "1" is the first car to come from the in-house design team. "i" (commonly used in car nomenclature to identify fuel injection) is simply wrong in this case.

TV appearances

In The New Avengers, John Steed (played by Patrick Macnee) drives an early mustard yellow Rover 3500, which replaces the Bentley he used in the original series of The Avengers.
A mustard yellow Rover 3500, looking very similar to the New Avengers car, was used in 1977 episodes of The Professionals, driven by CI5 boss George Cowley. As a reference at Cowley's name, its registration in the series was "MOO229R" (actual registration "MOC229P").

The Rover SD1 appeared on the 1995 Police, Camera, Action! episode The Liver Run about a liver transplant from Essex to Central London. All versions were 1986-model year 2400 SDTurbo or 3500 V8 police-specification models. In episode 8 of series 4 of the BBC's Top Gear programme, presenter Richard Hammond pays tribute to the Rover SD1.