RE: MG Metro Turbo | Spotted
Discussion
V8 FOU said:
The Crack Fox said:
Stick your supercars, your DSG gearboxes, your EVs, your MPowerAMG dullness. Stick your AWD, your willy-waving BHP and your future classic garage queens. Stick ‘ring times. This is what it’s about. Buy it and drive it like a t
t. Like the good old days. By any metric, it’s crap. But my head still contains enough of the 17 year old me, my heart thumps at the thought of that screaming old engine, and my wallet is fooled by the white backdrop pricing. I fking love this. £17k? Pah! It’s a small price to pay to being transported back to my spotty, lairy youth.
What he said ^^t. Like the good old days. By any metric, it’s crap. But my head still contains enough of the 17 year old me, my heart thumps at the thought of that screaming old engine, and my wallet is fooled by the white backdrop pricing. I fking love this. £17k? Pah! It’s a small price to pay to being transported back to my spotty, lairy youth.The gearboxes are fixable these days. Real fun thing.
untakenname said:
...but its under 100hp which is on par with 1.0 shopping car power these days and has no protection in the event of a collision...
There's always one, isn't there? And it didn't take long to arrive.Do you think that 300bhp hot hatches and 5-star NCAP ratings suddenly arrived via Amazon Prime? Manufacturers built up to the instantaneous performance and guardian angel-like safety of today's cars, but they had to start somewhere and went through a long evolutionary process to get there. Cars like this were a step along the way: not perfect (even at the time), but effective enough to sell and rare enough now to be appreciated by anyone who can remember them (and many who can't).
Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen from the 1880's looks spindly now, but without it we might not have cars as we know them.
Turbobanana said:
untakenname said:
...but its under 100hp which is on par with 1.0 shopping car power these days and has no protection in the event of a collision...
There's always one, isn't there? And it didn't take long to arrive.Do you think that 300bhp hot hatches and 5-star NCAP ratings suddenly arrived via Amazon Prime? Manufacturers built up to the instantaneous performance and guardian angel-like safety of today's cars, but they had to start somewhere and went through a long evolutionary process to get there. Cars like this were a step along the way: not perfect (even at the time), but effective enough to sell and rare enough now to be appreciated by anyone who can remember them (and many who can't).
Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen from the 1880's looks spindly now, but without it we might not have cars as we know them.
1) Once you're used to a given level of performance, it's the other aspects of a car that matter. 90% of the fun in a Caterham is the same between an R300 and R500.
2) Quite often, performance lessens a car's driving pleasure. More power means fatter tyres and bigger wheels, which often dullen responses and feedback. Those fatter tyres, whilst fitted for traction, also give higher cornering grip, which require stiffer springs, often messing up the ride and usually the feel of a car. The bigger engine will be heavier, as will the components to cope, and more weight is never a good thing in a driver's car. I could go on... I think it's unfair to say these changes will always make a car worse to drive, but it narrows the possibilities and makes tuning the car's characteristics harder.
Were they really that bad at the time? I've been a passenger in a mates brother's one, but never actually driven. Of its vintage I thought they had a relatively plush interior, and anything of that era with a turbo was exotic. However by the time I could afford one, I bought a 1983 Mk1 XR2 instead.
It's almost the ultimate evolution of the 1275cc Mini Cooper S as a road going car
It's almost the ultimate evolution of the 1275cc Mini Cooper S as a road going car
Drekly said:
Were they really that bad at the time? I've been a passenger in a mates brother's one, but never actually driven. Of its vintage I thought they had a relatively plush interior, and anything of that era with a turbo was exotic. However by the time I could afford one, I bought a 1983 Mk1 XR2 instead.
It's almost the ultimate evolution of the 1275cc Mini Cooper S as a road going car
Reliability killed them at the time. They popped Turbos and gearboxes with painful regularity. They were pigs to run.It's almost the ultimate evolution of the 1275cc Mini Cooper S as a road going car
An XR2 gave you the same power (in mk2 form anyway) with a lot better reliability.
£16k!!!! 
I shared one of these with my mum when I passed my driving test. It was a '88 E plate in white, with a colour coded bodykit and wheels. Compared with anything else I'd driven at the time it seemed unbelievably fast and effortlessly cool (probably due to the fact that it had red seatbelts!!!)
I remember it spending plenty of time back in the dealership having things fixed, although that was probably due to being ragged to within an inch of its life by a 17 year old idiot with no mechanical sympathy. A quick check on the DVLA website suggests it hasn't been taxed since July 1993, so I suspect the next owner either crashed it or gave it up as a lost cause.
Even with my rose tinted glasses, I don't think I could justify spending half the money being asked for this one.
I shared one of these with my mum when I passed my driving test. It was a '88 E plate in white, with a colour coded bodykit and wheels. Compared with anything else I'd driven at the time it seemed unbelievably fast and effortlessly cool (probably due to the fact that it had red seatbelts!!!)
I remember it spending plenty of time back in the dealership having things fixed, although that was probably due to being ragged to within an inch of its life by a 17 year old idiot with no mechanical sympathy. A quick check on the DVLA website suggests it hasn't been taxed since July 1993, so I suspect the next owner either crashed it or gave it up as a lost cause.
Even with my rose tinted glasses, I don't think I could justify spending half the money being asked for this one.
Positive vibes about a Metro ? on Pistonheads ?
I have gone one about them for ages, they werent perfect but they hark back to the seventies design wise, always thought the Mini got all the praise and the Metro was treated a little unfairly.
After all, for many it was a step up on a Mini and better in most ways except it wasnt cute like a Mini.
My Mum had a normal MG, I had a Mk1 Golf GTI at the time and still enjoyed nicking that Metro, gruff little 73 bhp A series and really quite decent handling.
I think familiarity bred contempt for the Metro, that and they could be prone to being a bit rusty/crap whatever, but I think a bit of time passing and them not being a regular sight makes you a little nostalgic for them.
I ran a 1.0 Clubman when the kids were little and money was tight and it never let me down, pretty practical being basically a box on wheels, did 40 mpg plus and only mildly oiled the drive.
I have gone one about them for ages, they werent perfect but they hark back to the seventies design wise, always thought the Mini got all the praise and the Metro was treated a little unfairly.
After all, for many it was a step up on a Mini and better in most ways except it wasnt cute like a Mini.
My Mum had a normal MG, I had a Mk1 Golf GTI at the time and still enjoyed nicking that Metro, gruff little 73 bhp A series and really quite decent handling.
I think familiarity bred contempt for the Metro, that and they could be prone to being a bit rusty/crap whatever, but I think a bit of time passing and them not being a regular sight makes you a little nostalgic for them.
I ran a 1.0 Clubman when the kids were little and money was tight and it never let me down, pretty practical being basically a box on wheels, did 40 mpg plus and only mildly oiled the drive.
Shewie said:
£16k!!!!
I shared one of these with my mum when I passed my driving test. It was a '88 E plate in white, with a colour coded bodykit and wheels. Compared with anything else I'd driven at the time it seemed unbelievably fast and effortlessly cool (probably due to the fact that it had red seatbelts!!!)
I remember it spending plenty of time back in the dealership having things fixed, although that was probably due to being ragged to within an inch of its life by a 17 year old idiot with no mechanical sympathy. A quick check on the DVLA website suggests it hasn't been taxed since July 1993, so I suspect the next owner either crashed it or gave it up as a lost cause.
Even with my rose tinted glasses, I don't think I could justify spending half the money being asked for this one.
Thats in line with my memory of them. I shared one of these with my mum when I passed my driving test. It was a '88 E plate in white, with a colour coded bodykit and wheels. Compared with anything else I'd driven at the time it seemed unbelievably fast and effortlessly cool (probably due to the fact that it had red seatbelts!!!)
I remember it spending plenty of time back in the dealership having things fixed, although that was probably due to being ragged to within an inch of its life by a 17 year old idiot with no mechanical sympathy. A quick check on the DVLA website suggests it hasn't been taxed since July 1993, so I suspect the next owner either crashed it or gave it up as a lost cause.
Even with my rose tinted glasses, I don't think I could justify spending half the money being asked for this one.
Honeywell said:
If I win the lottery I’d buy that as part of the collection. I popped my cherry in a Metro and I used to covet a black Turbo that used to be owned locally. He sold it for a Honda CRX VTEC and stole my girlfriend and I’ve loathed CRX’s ever since.
Sounds like both of them had better taste than you! 
I had one of these in the late 90's, albeit a later model. I got if from a car auction as stolen recovered. It was on steelies as the original wheels where missing. I paid £50 for it. It had only done 30k miles and was rust free, which for a 8-10 year old metro, was unheard of.
Anyway it was rubbish. It's only saving grace was at the time, we where going through some sort of fuel strike and there was a mass shortage of unleaded. This had no cat so I could run it on 4star which was still available at the time. Probably the last car I ever put 4star in.
I replaced it with a Honda CRX (although I don't recall stealing anyone's girlfriend). I sold the Metro to a lady who wanted the engine for a mini moke.
Im not sure I would buy another for £50, let alone £16k.
Anyway it was rubbish. It's only saving grace was at the time, we where going through some sort of fuel strike and there was a mass shortage of unleaded. This had no cat so I could run it on 4star which was still available at the time. Probably the last car I ever put 4star in.
I replaced it with a Honda CRX (although I don't recall stealing anyone's girlfriend). I sold the Metro to a lady who wanted the engine for a mini moke.
Im not sure I would buy another for £50, let alone £16k.
My Mum had one of these when my sister was born (think it went before I arrived) - again as someone else noted from some importer in Belgium or Holland or somesuch (still sounds dodgy to me today) - She wanted a normal MG but the turbo came up (in black) and that was that.
Dad has some good stories about it, including several trips to the dealer for a bad vibration, at 75+ mph, after being fobbed off several times that they'd investigated, they admitted that they hadn't bothered because it was over the speed limit, so he had to take them out and show them the issue himself - probably wouldn't be allowed these days if you admitted you were going to have to break the speed limit.
They have some fond memories of it.
IIRC, my favourite part of the car was a small single rib that was added onto the cast aluminium inlet manifold, which the drawing specifically then referred to as "charge cooler" rather than "inlet manifold" - This then enabled the race teams (as the car was homologated with a 'charge cooler' to ditch the manifold and run a full Air-to-Air intercooler on the front of the car to massively improve charge temps) - Genius.
Dad has some good stories about it, including several trips to the dealer for a bad vibration, at 75+ mph, after being fobbed off several times that they'd investigated, they admitted that they hadn't bothered because it was over the speed limit, so he had to take them out and show them the issue himself - probably wouldn't be allowed these days if you admitted you were going to have to break the speed limit.
They have some fond memories of it.
IIRC, my favourite part of the car was a small single rib that was added onto the cast aluminium inlet manifold, which the drawing specifically then referred to as "charge cooler" rather than "inlet manifold" - This then enabled the race teams (as the car was homologated with a 'charge cooler' to ditch the manifold and run a full Air-to-Air intercooler on the front of the car to massively improve charge temps) - Genius.
yonex said:
Quavers said:
My mate had one. The gearbox sounded like a bacon slicer.
Exactly that! I bought one as a stop-gap when my at-the-time girlfriend wrote off my Fiesta RS1800i. Great little handler (especially if you retrofitted some decent shock absorbers - for some reason the cars had mounting points for them but no actual shocks fitted) but terrible driving position and agricultural gearchange.
The gearbox-in-the-sump might have been fairly robust and reliable but yup it was noisy, sloppy (no spring-loading) and only 4-speed.
This was 1984, 35 years ago a turbo charged 1300cc hatch with twin pot front brake calipers was quite something.
When I see a photo of a white metro like this all I can see is rusty holes in the front wings (they used to rust through in less than 4 yrs).
I quite like it, they had great handling, I've not seen a Metro turbo on the road for more than 20 yrs this is a rare thing!
When I see a photo of a white metro like this all I can see is rusty holes in the front wings (they used to rust through in less than 4 yrs).
I quite like it, they had great handling, I've not seen a Metro turbo on the road for more than 20 yrs this is a rare thing!
V8 FOU said:
The Crack Fox said:
Stick your supercars, your DSG gearboxes, your EVs, your MPowerAMG dullness. Stick your AWD, your willy-waving BHP and your future classic garage queens. Stick ‘ring times. This is what it’s about. Buy it and drive it like a tt. Like the good old days. By any metric, it’s crap. But my head still contains enough of the 17 year old me, my heart thumps at the thought of that screaming old engine, and my wallet is fooled by the white backdrop pricing. I fking love this. £17k? Pah! It’s a small price to pay to being transported back to my spotty, lairy youth.
What he said ^^t. Like the good old days. By any metric, it’s crap. But my head still contains enough of the 17 year old me, my heart thumps at the thought of that screaming old engine, and my wallet is fooled by the white backdrop pricing. I fking love this. £17k? Pah! It’s a small price to pay to being transported back to my spotty, lairy youth.The gearboxes are fixable these days. Real fun thing.
My first car was a 1988 Metro GTA. It was horridly built but it was huge fun, I learned a lot about how to drive and fix stuff... a lot about the fixing stuff! I seem to remember it having a huge appetite for engine mounts!
The MG Metro Turbo was launched in 1982, 2 years after the miniMetro launch in 1980. Not only was the standard hatchback well received but also the sporting variants.
In 1982 there was very little competition from the mainstream manufacturers, the nearest rival being the Fiesta XR2. The Golf was larger and more expensive (no sporting Polo), the 205 or the Nova hadn't been launched, or you could have a Fiat 127 or original Renault 5.
I also remember the Turbo being launched at the same time as the Rover Vitesse.
In 1982 there was very little competition from the mainstream manufacturers, the nearest rival being the Fiesta XR2. The Golf was larger and more expensive (no sporting Polo), the 205 or the Nova hadn't been launched, or you could have a Fiat 127 or original Renault 5.
I also remember the Turbo being launched at the same time as the Rover Vitesse.
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