The Poor Man’s, Aston Martin - Rover 3500 SD1 Vitesse BSCC 1984

One man had the idea to take the car you go to the market or work with to the track on the weekends and show what you know in a national championship. This idea received support and in 1958 the British Saloon Car Championship was created, which would later become the British Touring Car Championship (1987). That man was Ken Gregory and in the world of racing, he is better known as the manager of Sterling Moss.

The first year ended impressively. Both drivers had the same number of points at the end of the season, so two suggestions were made to solve the champion. The first suggestion was tossing a coin. The second proposal was also unusual. They put two drivers in two same cars and gave them 5 laps, and then to make everything fair the drivers switched cars and drove 5 laps again. In extremely wet conditions, one of the contenders, Tommy Sopwith won by 2.2 seconds. In the second race, Jack Sears won by 3.8 seconds and became champion.

Today, BTCC is a championship that has a tradition of over sixty years and is attended by over 30,000 people per race. It is a championship in which everyone can win, so it is not surprising that in 2018 there were 17 different winners in the season.

Over the years, this championship has become interesting for manufacturers, because they realized that success in BTCC is a good marketing move. The subject of today’s story is Rover 3.5 SD1 Vitesse from 1984. His story begins much earlier in 1967 when Rover was merged along with all the other famous British companies (Jaguar, Austin, Triumph, and MG) into the British Leyland company (BL). Later, we will see why this is important.

In 1971 BL wanted to replace the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000, so they hire designers from Triumph and Rover to make a successor. David Bache and his design team are designing a car that the British Telegraph would later call " the right car made by the wrong company". A car, that according to Bache, was inspired by Ferrari Daytona. The model was originally called the RT1 (Rover Triumph No. 1) but later changed its name to SD1 (Special Division No. 1) because Rover and Triumph were part of a special division within the BL company. BL set very high expectations from this car, so high that they built a new factory that will produce only SD1. Production is accompanied by various problems such as workers' protests and various lawsuits. Sometimes it went to nonsense. So once, several workers protested because they wanted to wear brown uniforms instead of white.

In 1977, their SD1 3500 won the Car of the Year award. The designation 3500 represented an engine that was a former Buick. That engine was paired with a gearbox from the Triumph TR7 that participated in the rallies. Despite the award, sales were going badly because SD1 had problems with finishing and with poor electrical installations.

In September 1981, the factory moved to another city. That was an opportunity for a new beginning. They came out with three new models, Rover 2000, the SD turbo, and the Vitesse. Vitesse was a model that one car magazine will later call "The Poor Man’s, Aston Martin". The best opportunity for advertising was BSCC. In 1983 with the new rules, BSCC adopted rules from Group A. This was an opportunity that BL waited. Rover wins in all races of that season. But only six months after the end of the championship, the title is taken away from them after an objection from BMW. As a result, Andrew (Andy) Rose in Alfa wins the title. Next year BL leaves the BSCC as a factory team, but Andy Rose wins the title in his private Rover. It wasn't until the third race in 1984 that a non-Rover won the race. In that 1984, there were 11 races and Andy Rose had 6 wins, 4-second places, and one race that he didn't finish.

The model, that I today present to you is a champion model from 1984. Behind the wheel, was a man who was the most successful BTCC driver with sixty victories and four titles until 2011. The model was produced from the Atlas (Corgi) in the size of 1/43. The model was a part of the BTCC models, the edition of Champion Cars. A model that I got myself without a box, but the price was only 5 Euros.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this model, but. The model is free to compete with an older Minichamps. All the details are there. The interior is quite good and it's in two colors. Roll-cage, details on the dashboard everything looks decant. Color quite ok, I didn't notice any mistakes. I have no objections, especially when I remember that I bought it for the price of one Bburago.

Besides Atlas, which produces this model on the scale of 1/43, there is also NEO, whose price varies from 35e to 80e. If you want maybe, a model from the DTM, Minichamps it’s going to be your choice, as well as for the road car. If you prefer more 1:18 scale then your choice will be again Minichamps.

The Conclusion

If you come to the end of this article, congratulations, I have recognition for you. This model was never on my wish list, and I bought it impulsively. Something I don't recommend anyone, because you will probably end up with a bunch of models that means nothing to you. And in the end, that bunch will drown you. Believe it, I know what I'm talking about. But after researching for this post I’m glad it became part of my collection. It carries a lot of history, with it, and introduced me more with BTCC. When everything with COVID 19 stops I am planning to start watching BTCC and maybe adding some more models.