I have always wanted an SD1 ever since I was about eight and my uncle had a blue 2600SE. I'm not sure what it is that I have always liked about them, all I knew is that one day, I had to own one. Fast-forwarding to Janurary of this year, I am now a 19 year old university student with a real interest in classic cars. I'd had my license for a few years and was looking at finding myself a car, to replace my father's Triumph 2500TC that I had been driving. I wanted something big, fast, classy and most importantly, different. I'd spent several months searching fruitlessly, with a distinct lack of anything that grabbed my interest.

Then, while browsing TradeMe (NZ's equivalent to eBay) I came across a grey-green 3500SE with a fantastic personalised plate: "GR8DOG". It looked like an 'honest' car - well looked after, but with no pretentions of perfection. I gave the owner a call, which reinforced the feeling - he'd not been afraid to spend money on it, having recently had the engine rebuilt and fitting good quality tires. I really wanted the car, but it was in Wellington, ***km away, and there was no way I was going to be able to take a look at it. However, irrationality and risk-taking prevailed, and within 24 hours I was on a plane to Wellington, cash (and a large toolkit) in hand.

Seeing the car for the first time, I knew that I had made the right decision. It was fantastic, in a way that only something you have always wanted can be. I parted with $2800 (roughly £1000) and the car was mine, along with a fair amount of spares and a Kenwood CD changer that the owner had never got around to fitting. Admittedly I made the discovery that there was more bog than steel around the lower edge of the windscreen, but the rest of the bodywork and paint was extremely sound, and mechanically it was top-notch, so for that price (the cheapest I've seen a roadworthy V8 SD1 go for) it didn't bother me too much.

The drive home was fantastic. It was just as an SD1 should be - fast, civilised and effortless, and I completed the drive in a day, feeling none the worse for wear. Nothing broke, and it performed like a champ, gobbling up the miles with ease, burning next to no oil and with plenty of get-up-and-go (too much, really - got myself pinged for speeding). Since then its been a reliable daily driver. Sure, plenty of little things have gone wrong, but nothing disastrous, and definitely nothing a box of parts and some elbow grease can't fix. A bigger problem is the rather large amount of water that enters the front footwells. I'm contemplating having the windscreen out and resealed, and having the scuttle welded up at the same time. But for now I've just removed the front carpets and put up with wet feet.


Here are some pictures:

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awsome looking machine. Very good buy! Always good to see more young kiwis like myself into older cars like this. Manual or auto?

Love the skirts it has... saw it when it was on trademe and and did look very well looked after.

You will REALLY enjoy the car. Even through the hard times it WILL give you, you will still love the feeling when you eventually get to drive it again.

Man i dont want to sell my car

- Kelvin (with a VDP EFi in Christchurch)

Nice and straight, unusual colour. Is that a locally produced body kit?

Great looking sd1 matey

Cheers . The body kit's a bit of a mystery - I can only assume its a locally built one - I haven't seen any others with them. As far as the paint goes, it seems original - maybe it was an NZ-only colour (they were sent here CKD and assembled locally) - the service handbook calls it "Executive Grey".

As far as it being nice-looking and well looked after, its a bit of a mixed bag - bodywork-wise it is very straight, and the interior isn't too shabby either - the seats look like they've barely been sat in, and apart from some discoloured carpet and a few bits screwed down where clips have broken, it is very good. However, just last night I pulled the screen out (got it out without breaking it - yay ) and found masses of rust in under there. But since the rest of its so good, I'm getting it all fixed up and should be back on the road in a few weeks.

cool, your quick off the mark in getting stuff sorted out! Hope it comes back together as quickly and easily

Haha, I got sick of the footwells filling up with water every time it rained. Managed to plug all the leaks except for the screen (it was coming through the heater intake and various other places too). I knew that it was rusty around the screen when I got it, but there was basically nothing between the screen and the bodywork on the lower edge - no wonder the water was coming in!