"S"

keynsham1 said:
I don't thinkthe 'S' really stands for anything. It just suggests a sporty model. Other cars have been L,GL, GLS, especially Fords. I was told this was Lux and Grand Lux etc. but what about XL and XLS? Jaguars have XJ and XJS. We also have GLI, GTI, GTJ, LS, CD, CDR, SE, SEi, HDi, RS, SL, SLK etc, etc. I'm sure some have a meaning, but not all!
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As to the 'S', I agree with the others who have expressed a view that it probably was just a useful way of identifying the manual V8. I recall discussions when they were first anounced and both Sport and Syncromesh were mentioned then, but nobody could be definite. More tended to 'sport' than 'syncromesh', and I think that was more in line with Rover's advertising for it.

With regard to the P4, Michael Bobbitt states in his book that, with repsct to the 105 R + S, that R stood for Roverdrive and S for "syncromesh, and not speed or sport as is often quoted". However, there are a few errors in that particular book , so whether that is 100% accurate, who knows! Certainly, the general view amongst P4 people in the late 60's and early 70's was Syncromesh. That doesn't really fit with the P6 though, because, as Chris says, the 2000S was being considered long before the 3500S 'syncromesh', and the then-current 2000 already had a manual gearbox.

I agree that many are made up, although many do imply a 'specification', of sorts, even if in the original language; ie. Merc SL = Sport Leicht (sport light), SLK almost certainly = Sport Leicht Klasse (whether that is actually true is a different argument), GT = Grand Tourer, RS was Rally (or Rallye) Sport for Ford, XJ for Jaguar originated from eXperimental Jaguar (originally an engine code).

Were there any DLs (I can't recall), which, if it did exist, might have originated from DeLuxe (when there used to be DeLuxe, Super etc), so maybe GL was 'GrandLuxe'!!
 
I'm going to go with the practical on this and say that Rover expected the 3500 S to be a much bigger seller in the U.S. than it was, and ordered trim from suppliers, including those beautiful "3500S" badges in quantity.

Then they needed to do something with them.........
 
I'm going to go with the practical on this and say that Rover expected the 3500 S to be a much bigger seller in the U.S. than it was, and ordered trim from suppliers, including those beautiful "3500S" badges in quantity.

Then they needed to do something with them.........
Click to expand...

Nice theory but the US 3500S badges are not the same as the later UK 3500S badges. The US ones are cast while the manual 'box ones are printed.
 
I'm also of the opinion that it doesn't really stand for anything beyond being a differentiator to denote a higher-spec or performance model. I say "or performance" because the UK 3500S as launched was deliberately specced to be cheaper to buy than the 3500, which presumably needed to remain as the range-topping model in terms of price in order to satisfy marketing's desire to retain Rover's traditional reputation for smooth, refined and generally understated motor cars.

R, S and T have always been popular suffixes appended to performance models - presumably they sound smooth, snazzy or sporty in some respect (MG Z- series is a good example, Jaguar type-R, etc) - and this was nothing new in 1971: Jaguar were the kings of concocting arbitrary alpha-numerical titles to denote variations in model, and an equally big question among XK enthusiasts is what the 'S' in XK150S stands for - sport, special and straight-port seem to get equal backing, and I think it's the same story with the 3500S. Each to their own, but at the end of the day, it just sounds 'good' - I'd rather have a TVR 3000S than a 'three-thousand'.

Michael
 
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