RE: MG Montego Turbo: Time For Tea?

[leedsutd1]

I found the advert for the montego complete with stunt driver !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8tahVJ9aSEhttps:
plus this video of young lads with there mg montego"s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYB0TOVMjiU

Edited by leedsutd1 on Tuesday 22 April 17:44

[V8 FOU]

Best fun in one of these was to floor it on a damp day in 2nd and hang on....
You never knew which way the torque steer was taking you!

Fun car with pretty decent handling.

[kambites]

I never understood why the Montego and Maestro get so many derogatory comments while the mk2 Golf gets gushed over, even in dull 1.6 form. My parents had a 1.6 Maestro back when I was first learning to drive and whilst it certainly wouldn't set the world on fire, it was a perfectly respectable car and I think on a par with similar-engined Golfs of the time.

[AndyBrew]

leedsutd1 said:

not sure of top speed etc for the turbo
but the MG maestro was pretty quick ,with the early one having a talking dash(I think?) very rare now

Correct the early MG Maestro was a 1.6 on carbs and sound bloody lovely had these really nice finned alloy wheels my mate had one I was so envious of him!!

The Montego Turbo was my first FAST drive, a salesman at work had one I was tasked with collecting someone from the airport, anyway cut a long story short I never picked up the chap but came back down the M69 and hit the little bend at the end near Leicester doing a recorded 125 and spent the next few days recovering from a severe case of stting ones pants!!

[loose cannon]

I keep having this re occurring dream were vag group is thrown into a hot vat of stinking sulphuric piss and out emerges from the mess a beautiful new company called
United British autos

[J4CKO]

Bryans69 said:

I had one of these. Very fast, probably due to the fact they were built out of thinnest metal known to man. Nightmare to drive on the motorway, as you were either doing 60 or 100, when the turbo kicked in. At which point you may as well have connected the fuel tank straight to the exhaust. Efficient it wasn't. Fun though.

I never thought the metal was any thinner than any other car of the time, a bit rust prone but then wasnt everything back then ?

I had a Montego "GTI", Rover group felt left out with all the other manufacturers having a GTI in the range so it was a bit of half arsed attempt to cash in on the badge, it was basically the MG 2.0 non turbo model from what I could tell.

I actually quite liked my Montego, was better than the Manta GTE it replaced in most areas, faster, better handling, better brakes, comfier, it just didn't look half as good.

My grandad had a nearly new one in 1986, a B reg 2.0 HLS, was really quite taken with it aged 15, was the poshest, fastest car anyone had in our family, it still smelt new until he bathed the front passenger footwell in milk. I remember him demonstrating the "Smooth Effortless Surge of Power" (as was his catch phrase) up until about 115 mph on the M56, exciting as had never really been over 100 back then, until I remembered his track record of angina, strokes and heart attacks. When he died my uncle had it, then my cousin, it was around for a good few years getting progressively doggier but nobody could bear to get rid, until it was really knackered, it had no discernible damping left and was decomposing rapidly, plus it still smelt of sour milk.

Not many Montegos left, I think they were alright really, it isnt like the competition was awesome, a 1.6 Sierra was a lumpen, turgid thing in relation to the Montego 1.6, the Cavalier didn't ride or corner as well but had the best engine of the lot. The all rotted for fun back then.

Funny how 150 bhp sounds feeble these days but its still actually fairly quick.

Part of our motoring landscape, like any old car, a few need to be saved for nostalgia, you know, that time when we used to make our own cars, however average they may have been.

[RSgeoff]

Had an ('86) 2.0EFi MG Maestro from '89 to '93 and did 100k miles in it - great / underrated car but as previously mentioned, rust killed it.

The 152bhp of this was soon blown away by the advent of the 16 valve engines, albeit with the power at the other end of the rev counter.

[DeolTheBeast]

"This is slow Steve?!"

"Well...fairly"

[shoestring7]

Yeah, but what was its 'Ring time?

SS7

[loose cannon]

5.47 but the Germans blew it up and stole the evidence, but the French resistance found it and passed on the info to renaultsport

[turbo-ww]

I had a Mk1 Astra GTE at the time (That was a special car, another story, another time)

Admired the Montego Turbo that kept parking in our road. Seemed to remember the motoring press fawning over it because it was so fast. I nearly jumped...

[Pickled]

I bought a 3 year old MG Montego EFi as my first car when I was 17, seemed a lot more car for the money (elec windows, c/l sunroof, and the later digi dash) than my mates XRs, ran it for a year, it had stupid trx tyres that only Michelin made and they were £145 a corner back in '88! then bought an ex demo Maestro turbo, loved then both, but was won over by a nice 2.8 Capri and have never had a fwd since (wife's cars excluded)

[otolith]

By the magic of marketing-speak, "torque steers like a bd" becomes "You can feel the power through the steering" - and you will get used to it

My dad had all of the contemporary repmobiles, he preferred the Montego to the alternatives. I did go through a phase of coveting the MG Maestro Turbo.

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Absolutley class, the best Time for Tea yet!

I love the way it's wallowing about whilst they're praising it's superb handling?!
And it'll go up hills. In 5th!

[Motorrad]

"Then it's time to screw the arse off the not yet worn in Montego Turbo on the way to it's new owner"

I enjoyed the video.

[Liquid Tuna]

My dad had a Montego as a company car back in the 80s when I was kid. He did about 80k in 3 years and it never missed a beat. I remember it being more reliable than the Sierra at the time, based on nothing more than the number of breakdowns in my road when the winter came

[dbdb]

The Montego was a good car when compared to the competition, in its day.

[s m]

cerb4.5lee said:

Enjoyed that vid as I always enjoy looking back at older cars, I always thought it was a very decent motor in its day and the performance was very impressive.

mtbo8 by sm,

[CO2000]

At the countryside panning shot where there is a playback waver I was just waiting for it to merge into a hamilton water break commercial

[Pickled]

CO2000 said:

At the countryside panning shot where there is a playback waver I was just waiting for it to merge into a hamilton water break commercial

The voiceover was pure Partridge! and Ogilvy didn't he smoke around in XJ-S in Return of the saint? Surely that was more comfortable than the Monty.