The Standard 2000 was originally known as Rover SD1 manufactured in the UK by Rover since 1976. It was designed by David Bache and was purportedly based on the stunning Ferrari Daytona. Around 1981, British Leyland sold most of its production jigs & tooling to Standard Motors - Madras, the idea being to produce spare parts & panels for the Rover SD1 for UK & world wide through the Indian arm. Standard Motors committed the fundamental mistake of fitting the car with the ancient 4 cylinder 1991 cc 'wet sleeve' Standard Vanguard engine along with a locally built gearbox and axle assembly instead of the original Rover V8 and tranny. I had the ‘privilege’ & ‘pleasure’ of driving one of these clankers, the gearbox in particular was screaming for help, the less said about the tranny the better, the sounds emanating for it sounded like a music score right out of a Wes Craven movie. All things considered this machine was a champion looser, which Standard Motors managed to achieve without much complexity. Standard motors thankfully quit producing these in 1987.

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