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I like the Mk1 SD1 - it is a cleaner, purer design than the Mk2, especially in the interior with its rather minimalist instrument pod. It has smaller, neater bumpers and no rubbing strip on the sides. And I also like the rather odd recessed headlights.
I was going to hot rod this a bit but only got a part of the way there before I realised I had too many projects and not enough life and it had to go.
Anyway, I had a Vitesse (which is a Mk2 SD1) which I bought as somebody’s unfinished project which I used to upgrade the Mk1. I fitted the 4-pot ventilated front brakes which worked much better on this car than they seem to on my white Mk2 Vitesse. This is possibly because I didn’t fit the complicated splitting Vitesse front/rear proportioning valve and stuck with the Mk1’s standard version. I also replaced the rear brakes with Rimmer “India” stock.
I had the Vitesse’s wheels painted gold, fitted the Mk1’s door mechanisms into the Vitesse’s doors fitted them ( apart from of couple of holes they are identical) and fitted the chin spoiler from the Vitesse (but resisted the temptation to fit the tailgate spoiler). Then I had the car re-sprayed and it looked pretty good.
I then turned to the engine. My intention was to use the T-Series 4 cylinder twin-cam unit which I had re-built to suit a front to back installation. It would have been 200hp and about 35mpg on a run! (Perhaps).
I modified a front sub-frame to take the motor and sorted out the engine management and wiring. None of this got done, unfortunately for the above mentioned reason.
However, I did install the cooling system. It involved a Davies-Craig electric cooling pump and a Rover 820 turbo radiator and electric fan. This worked very well with the SD1’s V8 and I later installed a similar system on my white SD1 Vitesse and on the TR7 V8
The next page describes how the system worked.
More pictures and details of work carried out follow: