MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

| 27 Jan 2025
Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

As the present day forever trundles forth, giving an ever-changing perspective of yesteryear, British Leyland and Austin Rover Group cars now conjure a great deal of enthusiasm and nostalgia.

So, dear cynics and peddlers of doubt, please pause your scepticism.

Previously, these MGs have been widely mocked and scorned, but now this view is only held sacrosanct by the low of brow.

Glimpse their vivid detailing – those alloy wheels, red octagons and striping, lower door graphics, digital instruments, black spoilers and seatbelts brighter than a Yuppie’s braces – and you’re transported back to the early ’80s.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The lively MG Metro handles well

It was a time when BL/ARG finally got around to serving up one last new home-grown range, before Honda’s influence would prevail.

It is understandable why some enthusiasts, in the wake of BL’s neglect of MG, would be highly dismissive of the MG Metro 1300, the Maestro 1600 and the Montego EFi.

Hostile Leyland management had starved Abingdon of much meaningful investment since 1968, before opting to close a strike-free plant that had persistently topped the company’s quality tables in 1980.

It was only after the furore and closure protests that the firm decided to preserve the MG name.

At the 11th hour, it realised just what it had done: aborted a marque that people held in great affection and that, crucially, they still wanted to buy.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Metro’s grey interior is lifted by some very ’80s red piping and carpets

Cue the old BMC reflex – badge engineering – until a new sports car could be launched.

Today’s location is where the Maestro and Montego were made – if not our Longbridge alumnus, the Metro. Established by Morris, the Cowley plant is now the home of our kind host, MINI.

Tanya Field from the MG Car Club’s Front Wheel Drive Register acts as our knowledgeable guide, pointing out what would have gone where and when.

There’s the car park that we’re standing on, formerly V Building (post-1992 Maestro/Montego paint and assembly), with T Building (press and tooling) dating from pre-ARG being used as our backdrop.

When the first ARG MG – the Metro 1300 – hit the road in May of 1982 there were still some new MGBs haunting dealerships.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Metro’s Wolfrace Sonic alloy wheels

Before the MG Metro appeared, however, a blast from the past turned up at Longbridge with his idea of a go-faster version of BL’s supermini.

John Cooper had based his prototype on a 1982 Austin Mini Metro 1.3 HLS.

It ran twin carburettors, a 997 Cooper cam, a free-flowing exhaust and an oil cooler, and was capable of Cooper ‘S’ performance.

The Metro looked understatedly sporty, only wearing decals along its lower flanks and sitting on Wolfrace Sonic ‘pepperpot’ alloys.

Developed in tandem with the Vanden Plas version, the MG Metro was up and running by late ’81.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Metro’s neat dash pod, styled by David Bache

It drew from Cooper’s prototype, but the factory car was more sophisticated and powerful.

It was the first Metro capable of breaking the ton – 0-60mph in 10.9 secs and a top speed of 103mph – courtesy of a low-drag, rear-spoiler-cum-’screen-surround and a tuned 1275cc A-plus engine.

Output was raised by 12bhp to 72bhp at 6000rpm, with 73lb ft at 4000rpm, in part via a new cam profile (more severe, with greater overlap than that of the ‘S’) and compression raised from 9.4 to 10.5:1.

A performance exhaust was used, while an SU HIF44 carburettor bolted to a water-heated inlet manifold stabilised the temperature of the incoming mixture.

Slipping behind the chunky wheel of Nick Hunter’s fantastically original Cinnabar Red 1983 MG Metro, you need a minute.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Metro has a similar engine layout to the Mini, but with better access

The interior space utilisation is most impressive and must come second only to the impact left by that wheeled bungalow, the Austin 1800.

Then there’s the jazzy trim, that Minimalist David Bache pod-on-a-shelf dashboard adorned with instruments sporting graphics that border on New Romantic – and is that a suggestion or a genuine hint of Austin Rover new-car smell?

“When they brought these out, I was 20 or 21 and it was a ‘wow!’,” enthuses Mini Cooper Register stalwart Nick.

“I’d always had a soft spot for them, had never owned one and they were as cheap as chips, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ It’s the natural successor to the Cooper ‘S’.”

I recently enjoyed a refresher course with some go-faster Minis, so it isn’t a surprise that so much here is familiar.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Maestro’s sharp lines – penned by Ian Beech and David Bache – have aged well

The ride is less frenetic than that of a Mini, but still a touch firm and not as refined as Alec Moulton’s fully interconnected Hydragas that graced the 1990 Rover Metro.

The lack of a fifth gear could be tiresome on the motorway – it’s a shame that ARG didn’t buy Laycock’s Mini Metro overdrive – but these are the only niggles.

The Metro still feels brisk. At 50mph, pulling a mere 2500rpm over snaking B-roads, the light, direct steering – bordering on the Mini’s electric responses – is sharp, full of feel and in-sync with the front end’s quick wits.

The driving position is a touch Mini-esque, but the bolstered sports seats and the lack of any detectable body roll or steering load-up make wriggly roads an utter, G-force-loaded joy.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Maestro’s distinctive alloy-wheel design

It may have been fashionable to criticise the old-campaigner engine, but right here and now, zinging through the swift gearbox – the four-speeder shames all of its Alec Issigonis-transmission ancestors – the A-plus is far more capable than some newer overhead-cam units.

Let’s move up a class size. Notoriously and typically BL, it took the Maestro seven years to get into production and replace the Maxi, Marina and Allegro – which explains its slightly last-season Ian Beech/David Bache styling.

“I’m sure that in around 1979, when we built the first Maestros, the MG was not on the development programme,” says former ARG technician Paul Bott (see below).

That view is reinforced by ARG’s decision to axe the Maestro three-door, and may be why there were challenges in extracting competitive performance from the MG’s stopgap engine.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

‘As you sit behind the MG Maestro’s grey two-spoke steering wheel in the glassy cabin and observe the dash, it is beguiling’

Masterminded under BL’s engineering chief Spen King using CAD/CAM, the Maestro would be the first conventional steel-sprung Austin car – MacPherson struts leading a Volkswagen Polo-derived rear torsion beam – since the last A60s in 1969.

Moulton’s Hydragas system was discounted on grounds of costs and complexity. 

In another break with the past, the Maestro abandoned the Issigonis (gearbox-in-sump) transmission for the more popular, end-on configuration favoured by Dante Giacosa at Fiat.

And, to save costs, ARG bought in a VW five-speed manual gearbox.

S-series engine development was running behind schedule, so it was decided to use the R-series.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

Digital gauges in the MG Maestro’s cabin

In effect a halfway house between the overhead-cam E- and S-series units, it is a fettled 1598cc ‘E’ that accepted the VW 020 gearbox.

To realise competitive outputs of 103bhp at 6000rpm and 100lb ft at 4000rpm, twin Weber 40DCNF carbs were installed atop a short, eight-port manifold.

This led to hot-starting problems due to the engine’s non-crossflow cylinder head – and that wasn’t all.

Carburettor icing was an annoyance: the R-series was mounted 180° around from the E-series, placing induction at the front.

Plus, by removing the in-sump gearbox, crankshaft failure became an issue due to the loss of block rigidity.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Maestro’s R-series engine was a stopgap solution, but it performs admirably

The S-series delay – it wouldn’t be ready for 17 months – was something that the cash-strapped BL/ARG’s tarnished reputation really could have done without.

Yet, as you sit behind the grey two-spoke steering wheel in the glassy cabin and observe the dash, it is beguiling.

There are the solid-state instruments with digital speedo and vacuum-fluorescent ancillary displays – plus a trip computer – to study as you cycle through the voice-synthesis info and warning system.

None of the quality and reliability ‘BLunders’ seem pertinent today when faced with such a futuristic piece of theatre, which is part War Games prop, part ZX Spectrum 48k – and which can actually talk.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Montego benefited from the Austin Rover Group’s tie-up with Honda

Actress Nicolette Mackenzie’s voice is full of authority – sounding remarkably as if The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter is being channelled by a Speak & Spell – and beams me right back to my childhood.

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, the Maestro.

Norman Dawson’s Opaline Green 1983 MG 1600 has performance air filters fitted that amplify the Webers’ bubbly, gargling duet as we leave our location.

The next surprise is the R-series engine’s eagerness to rev and fill the cabin with an Italianate four-stroke song that is more spicy Fiat than Cowley hatchback.

Past 2500rpm, then 3000rpm and beyond 4000rpm it croons with a sporty rasp. It really does shift, before mechanical sympathy calls time.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Montego’s cabin might’ve lacked a top-quality finish, but it’s stylish enough

“It was a wreck when I bought it in 2011,” says Norman, before recounting all the Maestros he’s had and still owns.

“I burnt lots of pullovers learning to weld and sourced plenty of parts – I’m only just beginning to forget the horrors of doing it! It develops into an illness, doesn’t it?”

The driving position is straightforward and comfortable, as are the bolstered, hip-hugging seats.

The VW gearchange is fluid, average of throw and engages easily; the rack-and-pinion steering, even at parking speeds, is by no means heavy and has you questioning the point of power assistance.

At higher speeds over twisty roads the 111mph Maestro is a laugh, with brilliant manners. The steering is nicely connected, precisely geared and pleasingly weighted, while confidently relating feedback. 

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Montego’s fuel-injected, O-series engine gives performance on par with a VW Golf GTI

Combined with crisp body control, swift turn-in – not compromised by the Maestro’s comfortable, long-travel ride – and eager front-end grip, this car is vastly better than any go-faster, first-generation, front-wheel-drive Volkswagen that I’ve driven. Really, it is.

Before such impressions grow stale, I transfer into the Maestro’s big sibling: Jeff Patterson’s Zircon Blue 1984 MG Montego EFi.

The two share suspension and floorpan, but the 101in-wheelbase Montego is heavier than the shorter (98.7in) Maestro.

In MG form, it packs a completely different engine, the 1994cc O-series (also subsequently fitted to the 1984 Maestro EFi).

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

This MG Montego has the rare ‘talking dashboard’

The driving position is again spot-on, the seats less hip-hugging and more comfortable, while the talking digital dash is a later development from ARG’s new design boss, Roy Axe, who was Bache’s successor.

“People always ask if it has the talking dash, or they’ll come over and give the thumbs-up,” says Jeff.

“It’s the only talking dash on the road – we know of just four in existence. I think they made them for nine months because it’s a gimmick. It’s not a good one. When the sun is out, you can’t see the digital readout.”

Stylistically, the Montego changed from being a rather unfortunate-looking booted Maestro to a car that would replace the Ital and Ambassador to compete in the Sierra/Cavalier class.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Montego’s understated wheels

Just as the Metro had experienced an 11th-hour restyle by Bache, Harris Mann, Roger Tucker and Gordon Sked, the Montego was transformed by Axe.

Born a bluff-nosed, droopy-bottomed mongrel blend of Beech’s Maestro and a Tucker notchback, despite time limitations it would become a sleek saloon with a more cohesive aero-look.

Fittingly enough, the 1994cc O-series – an alloy-headed evolution of the overhead-cam B-series, introduced in 1978 – was developed by Abingdon to run on Lucas electronic fuel injection in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged forms.

Originally envisaged as a new engine for the MGB, the honour of utilising this last chunk of MG engineering post-closure would fall to the Montego EFi.

In terms of transmission, instead of the Maestro’s VW 020 unit, ARG’s new development partner Honda supplied its PG-1 five-speed gearbox.

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The MG Metro (middle), Maestro (right) and Montego convene at the Cowley factory where two of them were produced

Driven swiftly, the Montego feels more laid-back, more polished, less raucous and less chuckable than the Maestro.

Indeed, I’m tempted to reach for the radio and hope for something catchy and electronic by The Human League or Tubeway Army – my local station was always behind the times.

Wielding 134lb ft of torque at 2800rpm with 115bhp at 5500rpm, this fuel-injected engine’s output is so linear that an obvious powerband eludes detection.

Even though it has manual steering (PAS was an option), the only major differences between it and the Maestro are the shorter, better defined, marginally heavier Honda gearchange and a lower 3.875:1 final drive than the Maestro’s 3.65:1.

As with any of these MGs, sophisticates may pick on the interior trim quality, but to do so is to be blind to their Jean-Michel Jarre charisma.

With the photos all done, our finish coincides with a shift change at Cowley. As the men and women head home, many stare and remark at our line-up of overlooked sports saloons.

Some quip and wisecrack, while a few have memories from decades ago – and many smile. 

Speaking as one who has been guilty of the former, after experiencing the cars and their owners’ enthusiasm, I cannot help but change my viewpoint to the latter.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: the owners; Paul Bott; Tanya Field, MG Car Club FWD Register; Adam Sloman, MG Car Club; Dinara Omarova, MINI Plant Oxford

This was first in our May 2015 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication


MG Metro and Maestro: wind of change

Classic & Sports Car – MG Metro, Maestro and Montego: Octagon’s renaissance

The Mercedes-Benz wind tunnel was favoured when found to produce the lowest drag readings

“The photo [above] is of me at the Mercedes wind tunnel in about 1983, doing the aerodynamic sign-off for the MG Maestro 1600,” says Paul Bott, who joined BL in 1974 and worked on both the MG Metro and the Maestro as a prototype body and trim technician.

“In the early days there was no mention of a sporty Metro – the only one they did was the Austin Mini Metro 1.3S,” he continues.

“Abingdon closed in 1980, which was the year of the Metro launch, and I believe that’s what caused ARG to look into new MGs.

“I did a lot of the wind-tunnel testing for the Metro and the Turbo. We used to work day and night shifts at MIRA doing different trim heights to see if it would affect the aerodynamics, and reporting back to the styling studio about the proposed spoiler kits. On the MG Metro Turbo, the front spoiler actually increased aerodynamic drag.

“We went back to them, but they had already signed it off as a styling feature because they were more interested in the aesthetics of the kit.”

Turning to the Maestro: “The original rig-testing for its rear suspension was based on a Polo, and we used VW top-mounting bushes on it – it was pretty similar to the Golf set-up.

“VW gave or sold us 26 Jettas that we converted to run using our engines with their gearboxes. We altered the chassis, put a power bulge in the bonnet and used them for mileage cars. I often wonder where they went…

“The Maestro was a good car. We tested them at MIRA – we had a Golf GTI and an Audi 80 as comparison vehicles. The Maestro was equal to them on ride and handling.”

Why were the drag figures obtained in Germany? “They chose Mercedes to release the Maestro’s drag coefficient because its wind tunnel produced the lowest readings in Europe.

“We’d done the aero work at MIRA. Ford did all the development or signed off the Sierra at Mercedes; when all the manufacturers found out it gave a lower reading than anywhere else, many went there to sign off models!

“This was the early ’80s, when drag coefficient was god. People slag off the Metro and Maestro, but they weren’t bad at all.”


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