My uncle had a 2.0 EFI Maestro. The thing was fookin rapid and could chew up and spit out most of the hot cars of the day. I still like the Montego too
I own a chipped MG Maestro 2.0 EFi 8v non-turbo. Has a full race stainless exhaust, custom induction kit and always ran on decent octane booster in the petrol. Apart from the chipped ignition ECU, engine is standard. Has 146 bhp and 167 lb ft of torque. Blows away most modern cars and recently blew away a Golf R32. I'm sick of people slagging these cars. The people slagging them generally have never owned one nor been in one.
Golf had146hp Maestro turbo has 150hp! He talking about about a 8 valve engine non turbo Maestro! Goofs are so overrated MG Maestro beats any golf of its era!
Power to weight ratio. Older cars had much less weight, and you were far more likely to be hurt even in a low speed collision. My MK3 XR3i was only 105bhp, but quicker than a modern car with 140bhp. An R32 though? Mmmmm 🤔
They where very reliable and comfortable to drive! Nowhere near as bad as the reputation? The maestro was ahead of its time - for sure. I liked them. Good cars!
Gary gray:... in 2000, I had two in a row, both white, 1.4 Maestros, decent pickup pace, reliable, quiet and I sold them both in turn for a fair bit more than I paid. (a little inside secret... I'm a Valeter!) They were cheap runarounds for the wife and she thought they were both pretty decent too!
Once the reputation was tarnished in the 70s and early 80s it's almost impossible to come back from that no matter how innovative and genuinely forward thinking.
MG maestro's were really fast cars. although they got slated all those year ago,not many things could touch an Maestro turbo! The montegos were pretty fast too!
I remember the biggest bugbear people had with them was the talking computer, which couldn't tell the difference between something not working and a dodgy bit of wiring on the sensor. A quick tug on the wires leading to the speaker tended to fix that issue.
The 2.0 turbo was the fastest production 2l car made in the world at the time, I remember the massive poster adverts, I had a 16v escort and couldnt keep up, also a Beta HPE, bastards.
I was part of a racingteam back then, and we had 2 Maestroes 2,0i . They both performed perfectly leaving the Peugeots a.io. behind. The Montego Turdo was indeed a little bit scary due to the way the turbo kicked in, but so muc h fun to drive all the same.
The Montego turbo was the fastest accelerating production saloon car when it was launched in the mid 80's. Everyone goes on about cosworth's which are a better car with the tuning potential and rwd but a std montego / maestro turbo will give a std cossie a fair run for their money in a drag race (just look at the 0-100mph times for both cars!!)
I had a 1988 Montego MG Turbo which I bought when it was two years old. It came in as a trade in where I worked, the idea was to keep it for a couple of years and sell it on hopefully for nearly what I paid for it as I purchased it at trade price. I needed up keeping it for over seven years as it was so reliable and I never got bored with it. Unfortunately it is no myth about the corrosion and despite it always being garaged the usual places started to rust i.e. the rear wheel arches and the back end of the sills.
@@antman5474 so an SLS or i8 are unimaginative and crap ? Dont quite get that, there are old german cars pottering about in Africa well passed a million miles, 230e mercs mainly, so how they're crap I dont know
What you mean like all the other quality manufacturers selling their cars in the UK. Like the BMWs - made in South Africa (3 Series), or the Honda's made in China (Jazz) or the Mercedes made in South Africa (C Class), or the Peugeot's made in Slovakia (207), I could go on and on and on...
i wasdriving a renault 21 gtd and a car shot past me at a rate of knotts i have never seen before.It was a Montego.I laughed my arse off then looked at what i was driving and nearly started crying.Good cars as well as the Maestros.
Old Top Gear at its finest, that ending was just plain awesome! The Maestro Turbo was a respected little machine. Sure, it had its flaws and a tarnished image due to it being a Maestro and due to the fact that, despite being an MG, it isn't a roadster, but still, 6.6 sec. 0-60 acceleration, for the 80's, was just ASTONISHING.
My dad had a 1600 L montego estate, in about 6 years of ownership it went though 1 engine as the bores had become oval shaped followed by 2 drivers doors and 3 tailgates through rust!
I bought a 5 year old Montego which I kept for another ten years, great engine, no rust, a very reliable and economical car as well as good performance. Still going well when i traded it in.
I remember Honest John being asked how to remedy a fault with an MG Maestro. I think the answer was to park it minus wheels on bricks down the allotment, take the seats out and use it as a greenhouse. Still makes me chuckle!
I had an MG Montego bought just under 3 years old and took it through its first mot. It was reliable but devastating to watch the rust come through so soon. Loved the car when I had it though.
The T WAS based on the O. Not the original O series as in Marina- the Monty/Maestro O('+' as some people liked to call it) was a major update and went through some amazing transformations. As I recall there were lots of headgasket redesigns needed to stop the annoying little water and oil leaks.
I recently heard him on the radio, one of the local rock stations in Manchester. He's just as irritating as he was then. And no, he never fixed those adenoids.
Went for blast back in the 1980's in my friend's dad's brand new MG Montego Turbo, with him driving and that car was bloody quick! Would easily have left my own car at the time in the dust, which was an Audi Coupe GT Quattro (non turbo) Unfortunately that blast out in the Monty though had dire consequences.. At the time there were heavy floods and we shot through a flooded ford/bridge, the car rose up on the flood water and was unduly panel beaten along most its sides by the bridge! Suffice to say I never saw that car again after this with my friend beating a retreat from our company too, so I never went found out its fate..
The O was first updated to the 16v M-series engine, first used on the Rover 800 and the T-series came after that. but fundamentally it is still the same O-series block. I'll e-mail you a website and you can check this out.
I had a 2.0 L HL Montego in 96 i bought it from Beverly moto auctions for 400 pounds, i was only 16 at the time and my dad ended up using it, good times.
We got the Montego here in New Zealand in very limited numbers between around 1985 and 1991 - a range that for a time featured a MG Montego ESTATE - The random thing is, most of the Montegos sold here are still on the road! Oh, and the Maestro van was sold here very briefly in 1991...
I remember we had a 1987 cavalier Sri. Went in for first service and they gave us a Montego 2.0i (efi?) it was nowhere near the standard of the cavalier. It had less power and was very shaky at 80. May have been a totally hammered courtesy car though
They weren't tremendously well built that's a fact. The EFi was quick though, for the era anyway. Largely helped by the designed for life weight reduction system, standard equipment from the factory. Namely bits falling off.
@@paulanderson79 Great reliable and good cars, nothing fell off on mine which I bought when it was 5 years old drove hard for ten years and it was still going well when i traded it in.
@@paulanderson79 Mine was a 1985, I did consider a later one but it was not available when I was looking. I also had a look at a turbo which was a bit scruffy and needed a bit of work but was very cheap, it felt very good to sit in which might sound strange but it somehow felt right without even driving it and I might have bought it but the owner was not around, I would have loved to take it for a run.
More so in 1.6 and 1.8 guise. The KV6 doesn't suffer the same problems. HGF never really occurred in the O(+) - however, design anomalies caused all manner of water leaks and oil leaks. The final HGF redesign (I think it went through 12(?)) finally cured the problem.
Interestingly, you can use the T16 in the R3 Rover 25 - It's basically a Rover R8 front end with a new rear end. You only limitation is the PG1 'box which can only stand a certain level of torque....
I got through a couple of MG Montego's in the late 80's. Really rated them and thought they were great. But then...I had a Nissan Bluebird prior to that. Maybe more about me than the cars.
Sam It was a loooong time ago! Basically a T16 motor was dropped in using the original PG1 gearbox. A cut out is required in the front crossmember to accommodate the powersteering pump plus a modified engine mount at the cambelt end. The other 3 mounts are standard. I can't recall exactly what was done with the wiring, but a new T16 ECU and minimal wiring was required. Then a little bit of minor plmbing work and job done.
Yeah sorry @RWL2013 that's what I mean the 1300 maestro had very poor economy with high MPG due to its heavy body to small engine. The golf had a lighter body better suited to its smallest engine type. Maestro was good but would have been better economy if produced as diesel only.
@chapmasi Interesting thing is that turbocharged engine was the basis for the Rover T16 Turbo... which has been compared to the Cosworth YB block for tuning.. There's been a couple dyno'd at around 1000hp - so it wasn't all that useless. The Monty was built 10 years to late - looking at it mechanically though, it has the same set up as a VW Golf. Simplicity.
There's far newer cars of all makes that have met their pilgrimage at the scrapee . I've noticed within the last few months quite a few focus mk3s Including the face lifted version awaiting there fate with the crusher. I often wonder why there seems to be plenty of focus mk1_mk2s still going strong and the same with other makes 🤔
Nah, the O-series engine was highly adaptable - It found its way into the 220 turbo in T16 series guise. The same unit is now considered to one of the best performance power units similar to Escort's Cosworth - But not even half the price tag.
m y brother had a white Mg Maestro turbo, and my god it was fast, lowered racing shocks and brakes, garret turbo tweaked so the waste gate opened later at 19 psi instead of 15 psi,and then the engine was re-mapped, im sure we were doing 0-60 in 6 secs and top speed of 128 mph /also it had 1 owner from new and was 4 years old,loved that car shame its not with us.it made me laugh when people thought you put a body kit on a maestro and then you pull away and the turbo goes chchchch between gears and your off like a rocket.
Sounds similar to my late 1990 all white Montego Turbo, previous owner had done some similar mods. It was rapid and would easily go off the clock (130mph+) while still pulling like a train. 0-60 in 6seconds is about right for a slightly tweaked one, the Maestro could do it in 6.5 from the factory, Monty a few tenths slower due to its weight. The torque steer on them was hilarious but just added to the charm for me.
Steve Berry was not someone I enjoyed watching. But Moto-Build was a good company, I bought their "anti-cat" years ago for my 420. It was a bit of pipe that was a 1:1 replacement for the catalyst. Didn't seem to add much to the performance, but did give the car a throaty roar. And an annoying boomy drone on the motorway, so I took it off and replaced the cat. Bought a Pipercross air filter off them too, which I left on, but TBH, it was more trouble than it was worth.
I had a maestro as a company car. I could get home, take the ignition key oput and be sitting eating my tea and it was still spluttering to a stop. You couldnt risk parking it in gear or it might take off again,
What's that music near the end? It's driving me mad not knowing what it is, because I know that I did know what it is until quite recently... Rover FTW! (But only up to 1973, I'm afraid. I'm a P5/P6 man).
It’s where bmw got the shape for the 1 series from. Because it’s German though the motoring media suddenly auto happy with their very mundane offerings, especially the first versions of the naff 1 series.
'Mental' has had a bad couple of years. Somebody drove it through a flooded road and it sucked water into the engine. The full engine rebuild did not go according to plan and its future looks uncertain at the moment.
@roxytheraver Partly the body design, which caused dirt and moisure to build up, low quality sheet steel (some inner pannels werent even painted) and they didnt galvanise them. Minis and minors were the worst for rust lol
