First off look at the Crich 2007 pictures on here and there are a couple of KOW 576 P which is the ex Steve Walker car. On the S2 page there is a nice one of OAA 472 R. MPF 291 P is on the Bleinham 2003 page. I haven't found a picture of a Brasilia car, although I have seen one (being broken up!), or any off this site.
The P registrations are a clue that the VIP's were far from the last of the breed. There are P6's registered all the way through to S. This was partly because the SD1 was built in a completely new factory building, leaving the P6 line intact after SD1 production had started. Fitfull assembly of P6's therefore continued to use up stocks of parts (well done BL ordering department!!), make cars for Italy where the P6 filled a particular niche that SD1 didn't address, and to put together CKD kits for NZ assembly and Australian sale where the SD1 had some way to go before it met local build regulations.
The interior in the VIP was very 70's. The seats were in Brown ("Nutmeg") velour and so was the headlining! The headlining was also attched to a fibreglass former as SD1 rather than the normal coachbuilt stringing. Another special item was the sun visors, which were more robust than the squishy standard item and in quite a pleasant shade of mid brown to go with the dark brown velour headlining. Biggest problem though was the paint. Rumour has it that they were the first cars to use the new SD1 paint facility and certainly the survival rate reflects the appalling paint adhesion that resulted from that process! The number built apparently resulted from an alocation of one car to each Rover dealership. The brown ones ("Brasilia" - 30 cars) look pretty normal externally and the colour was briefly a standard offering. The silver ("Platinum" - 47 cars) ones (like the Steve Walker car) look absolutely stunning, and was the only metallic ever offered on the car. The Platinum cars also have a very red brown shade of vinyl for the roof and 1/4 panels which I haven't come across elsewhere. The Brasilia cars seem to have a more normal Huntsman shade.
I'm not sure it is true to say that they carried all available options. They all got A/C but not electric windows, NADA style side impact beams in the doors, continental boot mount kits, rear seat belts and laminated screens. I don't think they got either the NADA door pockets or the NADA style centre console, which were still cropping up on (particularely German) export cars in the latter stages of production along with the electric windows. I have seen some with the dash rail passenger grab handle though.
Why were they built? No idea! The obvious conjecture is to test the reaction to the velour in preparation for SD1, but the one per dealership feels more like a swansong celebration for the old company before the BL SD1 took over. Certainly they were never advertised and I don't think there was even a press release. So there wasn't a serious attempt to sell them. Similarely the "use all the special bits up" rationalle doesn't stack up. That honour really belongs to roughly contemporary German and perhaps Swiss market cars which were much heavier dippers in the NADA bins.
Hope that gets everybody started!
Muppet. I had a look round Steve Walkers VIP when I was up there spending money one day. Apart from the paint I only really remember the velour seats & the headlining & I didn't particularly like either. The factory fitted aircon was of course a lot neater than the one ours is fitted with.
