One for all you early and pre-production SD1 fans....

Whilst in the attic trawling through my vast magazine collection, I came across an article in the November 1993 issue of Popular Classics.

In Fleet News where staff write about their own cars, the Assistant Editor Mark Dixon wrote a very interesting piece about his early SD1 cars.

He had just purchased a 1976 Turmeric Yellow 3500, VRN: PWK 880R

Manual gearbox
"Honeycomb" yellow carpets
Brown velour seats
chrome cloverleaf hubcaps
US-Spec steering wheel
A retro-fitted "V8-S" badge which was fitted by it's 2nd owner in 1979
single strap rear parcel shelf

The car looked in lovely condition, the seller was the late owners daughter who had cherished the car since 1980.

Also in the same article Mark has a dark red 1975 Series 1 on a trailer, being towed by a classic Land Rover, at the time being reversed into a lock up.....it too has cloverleaf wheels and the door bottoms look rusty, but unfortunately the front number plate is missing hence unable to identify fully.

Wonder if these cars still exist.....???

I'm looking through some more mags now, and when I come across more articles, I'll let you know

Jay

Said 1975 Car is JYF227N chassis number 5, Mark Dixon sold the car to Bill Draper who restored it, then sold it on to that idiot from birmingham who broke up the top gear car to refurb it again. Then tried to sell it for £10000 on ebay this year.

PWK880R dead most likely - last taxed according to DVLA before 1 April 1997. I'd
be after that one if it were still around - 1976, single strap parcel shelf, manual box
and mad colour.

Yeah, JYF227N. Now for sale via Country Classics at £5450. I've heard that the
restoration wasn't particularly well done, and of course it's totally NON original
now and has lost all it's pre-production aura. I'd still like it on my drive though!

Agreed Chris theers not alot left of the original car but worth every penny of the £5450, strange that it reached £7000 on ebay and the seller didnt sell it! (reserve not met)

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum business so excuse any mistakes in protocol! Had an email from Chris Powell to say there was some discussion going on about my old pre-pro N-reg SD1 and the yellow R-reg, both of which appeared in Popular Classics mag. Interesting to hear about the subsequent fate of the N-reg. I felt that Bill Draper did lose some of the car's originality (I remember the boot floor panel was a unique shape to clear the exhaust, presumably because they hadn't quite decided where the pipe would exit, and Bill replaced it with a standard panel) but at least he did restore the car and deserves credit for that. I'd be surprised if the R-reg has been scrapped. I sold it to a guy who ran a bodyshop down in the Bristol area and he sent me a photo of it after he'd tidied up the bodywork. It did look very good and he said it had won a local concours. I wouldn't be surprised if this car is languishing in a garage somewhere. All the best, Mark Dixon (now deputy editor on Octane magazine)

Hello Mark, welcome aboard, I was a good freind of Bills at the time of the rebuild and remember meeting you (and your red Esprit) at his farm, but havent seen him for years since he sold his lot off and his wife became ill. I remember how rotten JYF was when he first bought it so its a credit to the man that he saved it, any other car would have been scrapped.

Yes, the N-reg car was widely publicised for sale at the time, for not much money (from memory, Bill paid me £350 for it), and no-one else showed any interest. Same happened with the very early white P-reg that went to Belgium. Hardly anyone seemed to appreciate early SD1s in the early 1990s. The same was true of early Range Rovers until quite recently, and we're now in the same situation with the first Discoverys, which are worth pennies. I have a press launch 200Tdi, a hugely significant model for Land Rover, but its market value is almost zero...