SOTW: Montego Turbo

Crack open the synth drums and feel that turbo lag - Shed encounters an 80s Brummie hero

Shed does not ordinarily venture into the dark territory that is the British Leyland/Austin Rover range of the 1980s - partly because so many of Britain's finest have long been sent to that great corporate car park in the sky and partly because most of AR's products of the 1980s were so unremittingly execrable. But today Shed makes an exception.

Because, trawling through the murky depths of classic car online classifieds, we dredged up this, a D-plate MG Montego Turbo in yuppie red, up for £695.

Now, the Montego might not be the most fondly remembered of cars, but in MG Turbo form it managed 150bhp courtesy of a Garret T3 turbo, and so would torquesteer its way to 126mph, with 60mph coming up in a genuinely brisk 7.3secs. That made it the fastest production MG ever at the time, don't yer know...

Picking this little beauty as SOTW also allows us an excuse to bring you a magnificently period Montego Turbo promo video (check it out at the bottom of the article) starring none other than a decidedly fresh-faced version of touring car hero Steve Soper - who also had a hand in developing the suspension set-up of the car.

This particular Monty looks as though it's seen some hard use at the hands of a pin-stripe suited rep over the years, with the MOT reading 103k (even though the speedo says 66,000 miles have passed beneath its wheels).

A few other bits have gone awry during its quarter-century on earth: there's no roof lining, the doors are beginning to succumb to the ol' ferrous oxide, the driver's seat has become a bit tatty, and the temperature gauge is knackered. But it's got three months of tax left and 11 months of MOT, so what more could you want?

Besides, as the plummy voiceover man says in the video: "As the proud owner of a new Montego Turbo, you have an exclusive luxury sports saloon, a leader among the elite of turbocharged cars". So put a note in your Filofax saying 'buy Montego Turbo'. You know it makes sense...