RE: MG Metro Turbo | Spotted

[3059hp]

Back in the 80s and working for BL, I had a series of company lease Metros for Mrs HP, including a Metro Turbo. Main memory is that it seemed no quicker than an ordinary MG Metro, was uncomfortable, noisy, drank fuel and was generally unreliable.
The MG Metro was miles more refined and comfortable and didn't break down all the time.
The best one by far though was a Metro 1.3 HLE. This was a supposed economy spec with a bit less power than the MG, and very high gearing. On paper awful, but I think I got a good one where all the tolerances added up in my favour. It was quicker than the supposedly more powerful MG with the smoothest A series I ever drove that would rev for ever, and was extremely economical (50+ mpg vs mid 30s for the MG ...and low 20s for the Turbo). Never drove another Metro anything like it.

[carnut360]

interesting article, but sorry would not even pay half for that, i had one back in the day and my fiat 500 is so much a better car and i paid less than that for it new..

[mikeswagon]

My first car was an '83 MG Metro, A21 ERS in that silver/blue metallic.

I fitted an RGA bodykit, tigerseal and pop rivets galore, K&N pancake filter and two toned the pepperpots. Good for 100mph, on a local private road obviously.

[Turbobanana]

bakerstreet said:

...in 13800cc trim...

Yikes, that must go a bit!

[DickyC]

I had three n/a MG Metros at different times: one new, one damaged repairable and one built from bits from a breakers using the engine from the second one. And I enjoyed all of them. The last one ended up as an Avonbar 1380cc. No idea of the power but it was quick. It had standard MG Metro brakes which were okay (ish) but should have been improved. It was the only car to date I've blown up. Coming out of the roundabout southbound on the Marlow Bypass. Blew a hole in a piston. Pulled into a layby, took out the spark plug and drove home on three cylinders. I gave up with it at that point.

When it had been functioning properly my brother and I did a track day at Silverstone. He had his 1969 Cooper S 1275. The lap times were very similar. The Mini had the bendy bits and the Metro had the long straights.

That was a good day.

All things considered, in its day, a good little car.

[Bryans69]

I had one for a while. Undoubtedly the worst car I have ever owned. It was so bad I was actually pleased when it got nicked, only to find the thieves had abandoned it about a mile down the road.

[bakerstreet]

DickyC said:

I had three n/a MG Metros at different times: one new, one damaged repairable and one built from bits from a breakers using the engine from the second one. And I enjoyed all of them. The last one ended up as an Avonbar 1380cc. No idea of the power but it was quick. It had standard MG Metro brakes which were okay (ish) but should have been improved. It was the only car to date I've blown up. Coming out of the roundabout southbound on the Marlow Bypass. Blew a hole in a piston. Pulled into a layby, took out the spark plug and drove home on three cylinders. I gave up with it at that point.

When it had been functioning properly my brother and I did a track day at Silverstone. He had his 1969 Cooper S 1275. The lap times were very similar. The Mini had the bendy bits and the Metro had the long straights.

That was a good day.

All things considered, in its day, a good little car.

Bit of an aero influence on the straights surely? the Mini was not an aerodynamic car

Still miss my old Mini. Wish I could have kept and I sold it for buttons considering its spec

- Cooper Hald leather
- Veneer dash
- MiniSpeed 998cc engine with St3 head, 266 cam, L&B bottom end, duplex timing etc etc
- 12in Performance Minilites
- Group 2 arches

and loads of other stuff I have probably forgotten.

[cerb4.5lee]

I remember my White E plate 1275 Sport rusting away before my eyes, and I was forever painting the front lower spoiler only for it to turn back to Orange after about ten minutes.

I also remember getting pulled over in Nottingham because the copper thought that my suspension was sitting too low, and he said that I was ready for a hydragas pump up!

Fond memories but I can't say that the Metro really did much for me, the Turbo version may well have changed that though. I was a lot happier when I swapped the Metro for a Sierra xr4x4 that is for sure.

[kuro]

This was my old turbo. I swapped the wheels as the originals suffered from corrosion as did the bodywork. The gearbox went just after I bought it but was done under warranty. It was quite good fun until I wrote it off pulling out of a junction.

[Sticks.]

I had an 84 MG Metro in 86 and test drove a Turbo with a view to upgrading. Maybe because I was always tuning mine - had a Gastester, dwell meter and timing light then - plus the turbo lag, but didn't think it was any better. I did 500 miles and a pint of oil every week. Not a warrant issue unless it got down to 350 miles/pint apparently. No real problems, other than the wipers stopped working one rainy night. I fitted big speakers in the back shelf, and a fader. Like you do.

It was good fun but not as good as any other hot hatches I had. 3 years old here.

[anonymous-user]

Surprised there are any left! Metro's of all types used to get nicked as it was so easy and then set on fire. I recall that the fire brigade used to stand well back as the hydrolastic suspension had a habit of squirting jets of flaming fluid!
A mate had a turbo that got stuck on full boost - hilarious for the 2 weeks before it expired.

[21st Century Man]

ElectricSoup said:

I found out years later that a design fault on the fuel filler meant that if you over filled it, it would dump the excess petrol on to the back wheel. Evidently this is what happened, and in combination with heavy rain on the road I was toast.

Not a design fault as such. If the original filler cap was replaced with a non OEM filler cap of the wrong type then leakage was possible.

[21st Century Man]

Baldchap said:

sidesauce said:

Kill it with fire.

The Maestro Turbos used to do this themselves, was the Metro the same?

I know far more about these cars than is healthy and I've never heard of any LM10/11 derivatives having any propensity for self immolation.

[21st Century Man]

3059hp said:

Main memory is that it seemed no quicker than an ordinary MG Metro, was uncomfortable, noisy, drank fuel and was generally unreliable.
The MG Metro was miles more refined and comfortable and didn't break down all the time.

This was my experience too.

[Patch1875]

Can still hear the gearbox whine now.

[Leggy]

95hp AFTER strapping a turbo to it. LOL

[A1VDY]

Leggy said:

95hp AFTER strapping a turbo to it. LOL

Gotta remember though these were wheezy old A series engines, cast iron head and block plus siamese inlet/exhaust ports.
Crush up the waste gate pipe a little though and it's possible to gain an extra 3.3hp...

[A1VDY]

Silly money for a very outdated (even in its time) cheaply made pos rotbox.. but.. makes for better reading than the latest 900hp lambo that certainly no one on PH or 99.99% of the population can afford..

[AdamV12AMR]

I had a matching pair of these as a kid...

[SlimJim16v]

I had one. The g/box was noisy when I got it, had it fixed under the warranty.

I unplugged the OE control for the boost solenoid and wired it to a switch, bingo, full boost at will, went quite well.
It melted the std plugs, so went 1 grade colder.