PH Maestro Update

We still own it, it's not sold......not yet.

By Dougieboard / Friday, 26 October 2007 / Loading comments

As the string of comments accompanying the first instalment of our SotW special suggest, our £310 MG Maestro has really divided opinion among PHers.

On the one hand, there are plenty of you who don’t have a good word to say about it and feel it is indicative of what has gone wrong with the UK motor industry, while others have signed up with the express intention of saying how underrated and well sorted these little hatches were. We have even been approached by a specialist MG publication to find out our intentions for it so it has certainly created interest- but they didn't want to buy it.

Top marks to those who spotted the Peco Big Bore 2 on our MG from the original photos, this tasteful addition ensures we get 'respect' from Nova-driving youths across London. Previous performance improvements seem to begin and end there although the air intake running across the back of the front panel suggest that further improvements to the breathing wouldn’t be hard to find. Shed considered breaking out the spanners to do a little home-brew tuning, but we have a minor dilemma here. The car is very original and if someone was of the mind, a bit of paint would turn this into a very tidy car for fans of the marque. On the other hand, as a £500 banger, she could easily be a disposable trackday hound, driven into the ground or a good basis for a 16v turbo conversion. Either way, that won’t be our project- that’s for the next owner to decide.

Since the initial instalment, we have added around an inch to our biceps thanks to the lack of power steering although a few extra lbs in the front tyres has certainly helped there. Around 400 miles of retro hot-hatchery have passed under it’s angular chin and aside from a handbrake adjustment, carried out on Nigels driveway, it hasn’t missed a beat. As the handbrake was a home fix, our £190 kitty for improvements has remained intact but the water leak around the front screen is probably going to account for a fair amount of that- and we are getting very tired of arriving everywhere with a soggy ass, so this is becoming a priority. With that attended to, we hope to have her on her way in the next couple of weeks. We'll will keep you posted.