To Reece Morden, born in the 2000s, his 1987 Rover SD1 Vitesse is a genuine classic he's unlikely ever to part with.
"I love the car and its 1980s styling and, in particular, the powered aerial... I have no plans to sell it," he says.
He admits he hasn't driven many old cars but is impressed by how modern the Vitesse feels. "There's no dual-mass flywheel so it can be a bit juddery from low speeds but it easily keeps up with traffic," he says.
"It's the suspension that feels its age. The Vitesse is supposed to be a sports hatch but the suspension is relatively soft compared with today's cars so it feels more like a grand tourer."
Reece first saw a Vitesse at a car show in 2018. It was love at first sight and, following an exhaustive eight-month search for his own, he spotted his future SD1 advertised online.
"Most Vitesses sell very quickly within the owners groups so I was lucky – or so it seemed," he says. "I immediately went to see it, and during the two hours I was with the seller, he took six calls about it.
"It looked immaculate but, as I was to discover, it had been thrown back together to sell. Lots had been rushed, with the result that the past six years since I bought it have been spent just restoring it. It needed lots of tuning work while lots of parts were either missing or the wrong ones. It's let me down many times."
Reece vividly recalls the time all the lights failed at night miles from home and the two occasions the fuel pump failed. Someone had rebuilt the engine in the past and not very well either, leading to all sorts of complications. And then one day, Reece noticed rust bubbling from the resprayed body.
