VA09015 Corgi Vanguards Rover 3500 SE SD1, Oporto Red

The automatic Rover SD1 V8 modelled was completed at Rover's Cowley factory on July 14th, 1982, and despatched to BL dealers Caffyns, Brighton. It was then transferred to Henlys central London branch in Golders Green, who sold it to Hitachi Denshi (UK) Limited as a company car. Hitachi retained it for 4 years before it entered private hands. The current owner, Oxfordshire-based Gareth Hopkins, purchased it in March 1996 for £425 when it had already completed 142,000 miles. His father, a former RAF aircraft engineer known as 'Hoppy', had owned a straight-six 2300cc SD1 manual for many years and Gareth grew up travelling in it giving him a life-long affection for SD1s.

The car was in quite a poor state, but Gareth used it as his daily driver, christening it 'Bob', before fitting many new panels and having it resprayed in July 1998. In 2000, Norfolk-based Rover V8 specialists RPI converted it to LPG, halving the fuel costs and making Gareth's regular trips to Europe more affordable. He retired the car from daily duties in 2010 and, after finding a manual V8 SD1 from which he could get the parts in a local scrapyard, converted it to manual transmission at the same time as rebuilding the engine. In late 2012 it received a high-quality respray and now wears its 260,000 miles lightly. Gareth has been an SD1 Club committee member for over two decades.