early NADA 3500 S
- Thread starter Rudiger Wicke
- Start date
That's right Graeme - so it's a proper, original S, not that nasty subsequent model with the weak manual gearbox! All NADA 3500S were automatic - which rather gives the lie to the contention that S stood for syncromesh! This particular one is a non A/C car. There were really only two options on the NADA's - vinyl or leather trim and A/C or not. You couldn't really offer any other options as they already had the lot, including those electric windows the switches for which you can see on the speaker grille.
Chris
Chris
Rudiger Wicke
Member
early chassis number - new on my database now, fine 
Rudiger
Rudiger
Perhaps a small element of truth, but yes, nicely tongue in cheek!
Bear in mind the UK "S", or "EI", was intended to have fuel injection and a ZF five speed box, not to mention all the USA spec upgrades. So, knowing what it could and should have been like, I remain underwhelmed by what actually got made! Mind you, I hugely enjoyed driving ours back when it was new and I was 19!
Chris
Bear in mind the UK "S", or "EI", was intended to have fuel injection and a ZF five speed box, not to mention all the USA spec upgrades. So, knowing what it could and should have been like, I remain underwhelmed by what actually got made! Mind you, I hugely enjoyed driving ours back when it was new and I was 19!
Chris
I see what you mean . Did people know what a compromise it was when it was new , or did this info leak out later ?
A brand new 3500S must still have been quite a car in 1971/2 when compared to it's British competition
Us Brits wouldn't have known what to do with a 5 speed box in 1973 and mechanics would never have mastered fuel injection ( look at the Triumph 2.5 PI ) . I'd make an exception there for Harvey !
A brand new 3500S must still have been quite a car in 1971/2 when compared to it's British competition
Us Brits wouldn't have known what to do with a 5 speed box in 1973 and mechanics would never have mastered fuel injection ( look at the Triumph 2.5 PI ) . I'd make an exception there for Harvey !
There was a simply huge level of excitement in our, very car orientated, family by the time the 3500S came out. From the minute the first V8 had landed on our shores, we had been fed stories of what they were producing on test, care of Grandad's freinds in the experimental department where he had worked. And we knew all about the round dial dashboard instruments from way back in '65 when we'd heard about the pre-production 2000'S's going down the line.
Then the P5B came out and road tests of the day were simply ecstatic. I particularely remember one test back to back against the small 420 Jag where the P5B simply blew it into the weeds, not only on performance, but also on handling!
The three Thousand Five being announced with the auto box only was a huge disappointment to my father. Like most reasonably enthusiastic drivers of his day, he simply wasn't prepared to entertain an auto, to the point of refusing point blank to have even a test drive.
Our grape vine had more or less dried up by the time the series 2 came out, as all Grandad's mates had also retired by then. So we never realised at the time how good the top of range P6's should have been. When the 3500S arrived with a top speed just north of 125 mph, even that put it into Italian supercar territory. We never knew of the 3500EI's high speed crash on the banking at MIRA at 135 mph. Dad always waited a decent interval after a car first came out to allow all the bugs to be ironed out before he ordered one. (does anyone remember the catastrophe of the early Maxi's; or the Triumph 1300?). In fact we finished up with JOT 7 L which was a special order Diplomatic car passed on after 6 months from his best freind and fellow Rover apprentice Jimmy Harrison, who had had it shipped to and from the UK embassy in Washington. (Jimmy died young from cancer - I remember him bringing me home a fabulous timplate model of a Merc 300SL Gullwing after he'd been to witness the UK atom bomb tests on Christmas Island....). JOT was specced to the nines, with leather and the light coloured huntsman full roof over Mexico Brown. It even had a radio - the first car we'd owned ever to have one. but of the three P6's we'd owned it was by far the worst to drive. A fabulous engine and transmission, but it was really nervous on the road, where our first '65 SC had been arrow sure. The intervening '72 TC had been somewhere in between.
Knowing what I know now, I could make JOT just as arrow sure as the '65 car. But we didn't then and Dad let it go when he retired in '78 and bought smething rather less thirsty.
Chris
Then the P5B came out and road tests of the day were simply ecstatic. I particularely remember one test back to back against the small 420 Jag where the P5B simply blew it into the weeds, not only on performance, but also on handling!
The three Thousand Five being announced with the auto box only was a huge disappointment to my father. Like most reasonably enthusiastic drivers of his day, he simply wasn't prepared to entertain an auto, to the point of refusing point blank to have even a test drive.
Our grape vine had more or less dried up by the time the series 2 came out, as all Grandad's mates had also retired by then. So we never realised at the time how good the top of range P6's should have been. When the 3500S arrived with a top speed just north of 125 mph, even that put it into Italian supercar territory. We never knew of the 3500EI's high speed crash on the banking at MIRA at 135 mph. Dad always waited a decent interval after a car first came out to allow all the bugs to be ironed out before he ordered one. (does anyone remember the catastrophe of the early Maxi's; or the Triumph 1300?). In fact we finished up with JOT 7 L which was a special order Diplomatic car passed on after 6 months from his best freind and fellow Rover apprentice Jimmy Harrison, who had had it shipped to and from the UK embassy in Washington. (Jimmy died young from cancer - I remember him bringing me home a fabulous timplate model of a Merc 300SL Gullwing after he'd been to witness the UK atom bomb tests on Christmas Island....). JOT was specced to the nines, with leather and the light coloured huntsman full roof over Mexico Brown. It even had a radio - the first car we'd owned ever to have one. but of the three P6's we'd owned it was by far the worst to drive. A fabulous engine and transmission, but it was really nervous on the road, where our first '65 SC had been arrow sure. The intervening '72 TC had been somewhere in between.
Knowing what I know now, I could make JOT just as arrow sure as the '65 car. But we didn't then and Dad let it go when he retired in '78 and bought smething rather less thirsty.
Chris
The Rovering Member
Well-Known Member
chrisyork said:
Any more information on that?
chrisyork said:
My partners father was there too, on HMS Vanguard I believe. He's still with us fortunately.