MG Metro/Metro Turbo Group A

[MG Rover Sport]

I loved watching these little pocket-rockets in the early 1980's Trimoco British Saloon Car Championship outings. Driven by the likes of Tony Pond, Patrick Watts, Robin Brundle, Tim Harvey, Armin Hanhe, etc they often hassled and beat far more powerful machinery.

[Tim Wilkinson]

One was featured in Retro Cars a couple of years ago, and then turned up for sale on a well-known auction site but I don't think it sold. I'll see if I can find the issue and let you know who's it was and some of the history.

[big andy]

my metro was built from one of the works shellshttp://www.ianhardy.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=27261 dont no which one it was or who drove it

[KA]

Don't know how recent this is, although the car was either sold or withdrawn from sale....


http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/...php?carno=2532

[Tim Wilkinson]

I think that's the one I as thinking of. Retro Cars May '04, the article has a lot of the same facts as that advert.

One of 3 cars prepared for the '84 season, Computervision car, prepped by Roger Dowson, number 35 driven by Brundle and Harvey. Was an exhibit at the Heritage Centre until '03 when it was bought by Dave and James Bradley. In the article Dave thanks Roger Dowson, so it's possible he knows the current whereabouts of this one - he recommissioned it.

I think it came up for sale about a year after the feature.

[MG Rover Sport]

004 was definitely the car on display at Gaydon, which was subsequently sold at auction to the Bradleys. If I rememeber right, that father bought it for his teenage son, and the article in Retro Cars made quite a big point of the fact that the teenager owned it.

I contacted Roger Dowson in the 1983 or 84 when the cars were still competing. He kindly gave me all the chassis details of each car, and what they were used for. I'll try and find the list as it makes quite interesting reading. If I remember right there were 7 cars completed, although there could possibly have been some spare shells made.

Steve Soper used a privateer one, entered by Roger Dowson in the first round of the 1985 or 1986 BTCC at Silverstone. In wet conditions I think he qualified on the front row of the grid, possibly even on pole! I'm sure the outing ended early when a screw in the carb worked loose.

Armin Hahne also used one in several rounds of the German series in 1984.

[chunterer]

Good thread!! Good to have your contributions 'MG Rover Sport.'

I guess as we're talking about the Group A cars we'll leave the earlier Grp 1 Austin Metro's aside shall we?

From memory the first MG Metro was pedalled by Patrick Watts and in the 1983 BTCC.

The Dowson Turbos came out later in the year sponsored by Daily Express/Esso and pedalled by Tony Pond and Robin Brundle with Watts continuing in the normally aspirated car?

In 1984 There were the 2 Computervision Turbos for Watts and Brundle and a 3rd Klaxon backed car for Paul Taft. It was such a shame that ARG withdrew from the series in both Class A with the Vitesses and Class B wth these fabulous little cars.

They were still being developed overall but there were some great scraps with the Alfas and Graham Goode's Nissan!

There was also as you say one or 2 German cars entered in the German series, one for Hahne, but I don't know the identity of the second driver?

How the next couple of seasons in Britain would have been so different had they carried on!! Continually developing Rovers against the oncoming Turbo onslaught in Class A and the Metros against the Nissan, Alfa and probably Escort Turbos in Class B...

I remember reading the Metros were trickly cars to get to run properly so that's probably a reason why we never really saw one run competitively in privateer hands? Although it was nice to see that Soper outing at the beginning of '85 (purpose still not yet sure about??) and Colin Pearcey wheeling his ex Computervision car out a couple of season later.

[Sultan]

I've seen one in Australia on occasion, don't know it's history unfortunately...

[MG Rover Sport]

Thanks 'chunterer' for the kind words!

We are indeed talking about the Group A cars - I think we can leave all the Group 1 cars for another thread if that's OK?

I have just found an advert from November 1991 which features Colin Pearcy advertising an MG Metro Turbo (006) For Sale (along with his ex-Bastos Vitesse). Colin used the MG during the 1987 British Touring Car Championship. I have also found the same car advertised by Gerry Marshall in April 1994.

Patrick Watts and Tony Pond were the two 'main' team drivers during 1983 - Watts debuted a non-turbo'd MG Metro 1300 (002) at Thruxton on 4 April, and used that car in that specification for the next 4 rounds of the series, before it was upgraded to turbo specification from the 16 July meeting at Silverstone.

Pond joined the series one round later than Watts, at the 10 April meeting at Brands Hatch - but his car (001) was in turbo specification right from his debut. He used that car for the next 3 rounds of the series, but had a new chassis (003) from the 16 July meeting at Silverstone onwards.

003 was also used at the 1983 Silverstone Tourist Trophy meeting on 11 September in the hands of Pond / Watts - a European Touring Car Championship round.

For the final round of the BTCC series at Silverstone on 2 October, the two main drivers were joined by Martin Brundle in a third car (001). If I remember right, the Rover Vitesse was in stiff competition for the overall title with Andy Rouse's Alfa GTV6. As the latter was in the same class as the Metros, Austin Rover were trying to deprive the Italian marque of points in an attempt to support their title aspirations with the Rover.

Two new chassis were built for the 1984 BTCC season - 006 for Patrick Watts and 005 for Robin Brundle. They contested the first two rounds of the series and then were joined by Paul Taft's privateer entry (002) from the 1 April meeting at Silverstone. All three cars competed in the series for a further 4 rounds until the team withdrew in support of the Rover Vitesse's exclusion from the 1983 series.

003 was used in the 1984 Donington 500 ETC race on 29 April in the hands of Watts / Brundle, but a 2-car entry returned to the ETC for the 1984 Silverstone Tourist Trophy meeting on 8 / 9 September, with 006 being driven by Watts / Rob Hall and 003 by Brundle / Tim Harvey.

007 was used twice by Armin Hahne in the 1984 German Saloon Car Championship at Hockenheim on 5 August and Zolder on 19 August.

For some reason I cannot find any reference to 004 at the moment?

I trust the above is of interest, although it doesn't really explain where any of the cars are nowadays.

[chunterer]

MG ROVER SPORT sent Roger Dowson a typed sheet detailing each entry since Rd 3 in 1983, with a blank space next to each, and asked Roger to complete the detail. This is therefore what he came back with...

MT 001
Pond - Nº 35 - 1983 BTCC Rds 4 to 7 inclusive.
M Brundle - Nº 37 - 1983 BTCC Rd 11.

MT 002
Watts - Nº 78 - 1983 BTCC Rds 3 to 7 inclusive.
Rebuilt to turbo specification.
Watts - Nº 36 - 1983 BTCC Rds 8 to 11 inclusive.

MT 003
Pond - Nº 35 - 1983 BTCC Rds 8 to 11 inclusive.
Pond / Watts - Nº 59 - 1983 ETC Rd 11 (Silverstone Tourist Trophy).
Watts / R Brundle - Nº 61 - 1984 ETCC Rd 3 (Donington 500).

MT 005
R Brundle - Nº 35 - 1984 BTCC Rds 1 to 6 inclusive.

MT 006
Watts - Nº 34 - 1984 BTCC Rds 1 to 6 inclusive.

Also detailed on the same sheet is the following...

MTR 002
Taft - Nº 43 - 1984 BTCC Rds 2 to 6 inclusive.

Which I am guessing means that it was possibly the ex-Watts 1983 chassis MT 002 but rebuilt for Paul Taft's privateer campaign, ie R for rebuilt? But I am guessing I know.

KA - Yes Paul's was an independently funded entry with his Klaxon / Neiman sponsors, but the car was indeed run by Roger Dowson Engineering.

At the bottom of the sheet it also states...

006 will be coming second ETC car at Silverstone.
007 will be competing in the German Championship.

004 The speculated 1984 spare Computervision chassis?
Consensus is that 004 was the car on show at Gaydon until recently sold at acution to the Bradley family

MGRS reckons that this info must be post the 1984 BTCC withdrawal, but before the German entries of Armin Hahne or the 1984 Silverstone Tourist Trophy. That would make it sometime between 10 June and 5 August 1984.

[MG mad]

Hi there,
I'm a long time MG and motorsport enthusiast, and now find myself the owner of 3 MG Metro's, one of which happens to be a Turbo in a bit of a sorry state. It's always been a plan of mine to build a Group A Metro Turbo replica (I would've bought the one that came up for sale from the BMH museum had I had the money at the time) and so of course am trawling the internet in search of any information I can find on them. I've heard various reports of the car's running anywhere from 190-240bhp, but other than that I haven't yet been able to find any useful technical info on specs etc etc, and was wondering if anyone here had any or knew of anywhere to look?
Cheers
Andy

[Herbert]

You can find a picture of the "German" Metro here:
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...alenpokal.html

[northington]

One of the original works Group A Metro's was imported into the US in 1984 and campaigned in the IMSA series as a GTU contender. The car is still in Atlanta GA currently undergoing full restoration for Historic racing.