The Buick 215 V8 didn’t have a long shelf life at General Motors. Sure, the aluminum engine was a proper V8, and an all-aluminum one at that…exotica for the early 1960s. But ultimately, it wasn’t going to happen. Buick dropped it in 1963, and ultimately sold the design to Rover in 1965 after J. Bruce McWilliams and William Martin-Hurst pushed GM to sell the tooling. After that, it became the Rover V8, an icon that ran in production until 2006. The engine is an icon in the U.K., similar in vein to the way the small-block Chevrolet was used since it’s introduction in the 1950s. If you wanted a bent-eight, you got the Rover mill and were happy with the result.
One car that benefitted from the Rover V8 was the Rover SD1. Arguably the last real Rover model, the SD1 is probably the brightest-shining gem from the horrifying days of the British Leyland era of the U.K. motoring industry. Looks that were blatantly stolen from the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, an American-sourced V8, and a chassis that just plain worked. Sure, the earlier cars had problems…paint that abandoned ship, a vent that didn’t do jack-squat, and some door seals that were as pointless as diet soda were common issues…but by the 1982 facelift, the Rover was a solid machine that stood proudly. Models like this twin-plenum Vitesse were the ones you wanted, this one especially. Who knew a British “saloon” could sound this rowdy?
Design wise yes it had some Daytona to it, but Pininfarina’s Berlina Aerodinamica is really the inspiration. In fact if you put a Citroen CX next to a 3500, the profile line is extremely similar and so does the Citroen GS, but the Berlina Aerodinamica resemble more of the Citroen. There were other cars inspired by the BMC but the CX and 3500 are the closest proportion wise I think. Growing up in Europe I had never heard of the SD1, I just knew them as 3500.