The car
The Rover SD1 was an executive car produced between 1976 and 1986 with 303,345 units built. The car was only released in liftback form, 2 estate car prototypes were made but the type never went into production. The SD1 was never marketed as such, it's model numbers were mainly based on the engine size ie Rover 3500 had a 3.5L engine, Rover 2600 had a 2.6L engine etc. The range initially consisted of the 3500 V8 and 2300 and 2600 which were V6's.
The car won Car of the Year for 1977. In 1980 Rover got US Type Approval to sell the car in the US with some modifications. In 1982 the SD1 underwent a facelift with new headlights and other minor external changes, the major changes were to the interior and 2.0L petrol and 2.4L diesel 4 cylinder engines added to the range on offer aimed at company-car fleets and as a competitor to the Ford Granada.
The kit
This is the earliest boxing of this kit which was produced around 1979 and supplied in a lid and tray type box. There are 4 sprues (2 blue, one chromed and one clear) plus the bodyshell making up 52 parts in total.
The kit represents the early production model and can be either of those models (Rover 2300, Rover 2600 or Rover 3500) since very little can be seen of the engine supplied when built. External detail is both raised and engraved as on the real car. Internal detail is just the usual seats, dashboard, steering column and wheel which is ok for this scale.
Decal sheet supplied has plates for front and rear that read Rover 3500, no other decals are supplied.
Paint callout is in Heller enamels.
