RJ, sorry if this doesn't belong here, but I know there's quite a few people in this forum who are familiar with british/italian cars.

I was at a swap meet today and I saw the strangest car. It looked like a clio sport from the back, and when I got up close, I noticed the mid mounted v8, full roll cage, extending into passenger seat area. It had 6 lights molded onto the hood, like an endurance or rally car, advan slicks, rhd. I looked at the spec sheet, it said 410 hp to the wheels, awd, 0-60 in 2.8 sec. I wish I knew what this car was doing in the states, what kind of racing series it raced in. It looked like a rally car, the way it had plastic windows that were riveted in and vented, but since there was no passenger seat, only thing I could think of would be hill climb. Anyway, anyone have any background on the MG metro, or this car in particular (blue with yellow wheels and yellow windows).

btw - it was for sale, $48,000.

 

Metro 6R4 - British answer to the GrB supercars of the mid '80s. Never really competitive on an international level but did make a mark in the British domestic rally championship. Tony Pond was a notable driver, if I recall correctly...

Kirk

EDIT - should have been a V6, if it was the real thing.




Modified by Knestis at 1:17 AM 4/14/2003

 

Did it look like this?

 

Interesting aero parts. It could have been a v6. Probably was, just hard to see through the yellow lexan in the back half.

 

Dang yo! Looks like you could kill someone with that front splitter!

 

Being of English decent, I can tell you a few things (off the top of my head) about the beast:

It was put into production originally as a rally car (Group B?) and therefore a certain amount (~5000) need to be made available for the street. It did have a V6 - normally aspirated if I recall. Most went into competition however, and were doing battle against the short wheel base Audi quattro, to name but one of several "monsters" that tore up UK forestry roads in the 80's. It demise, as for the demise of all Group B supercars occured sometime in the mi- to late-80's where Henri Toivenen was killed in a Group B car (Acropolis Rally??). The governing body decided that these cars were just too fast (some were pushing 600HP) and decided to revert back to cars that resembled more what comes off a showroom floor (however, since then HP has been creeping up to current levels, and cars now are probably as quick as the older Group B cars!) So, where did all the Group B cars go after that?? Into rallycross. Rallycross is like a combination of road course and rallying. For example, I used to go to Brands Hatch and watch rallycross regularly and they'd all start on the tarmac but dive off-road before the first paved corner. This would happen all round the circuit - they'd be tarmac sections then loose (Read: muddy - it always rains in the UK!) sections - of course the mud would get on to the paved sections making things really interesting. I'll tell you what, seeing these cars take off from a standing start and race to the first corner is something else. If you just blink they'd be at the first corner, they were that quick. They certainly are sub-3 second 0-60, which is just about as fast as a F1 car. Rallycross is still big in the UK.

Cheers, Limey

 

I was thinking about the Metros being in Rallycross too... You can sometimes see rallycross action on SpeedChannel (Motorsport Mundial) and it indeed is an awesome sight to watch them launch off the line and barrel on down through the track. It's like rally racing, dirt track racing, and road course racing all combined in a single race...I'd hate to be the techinician trying to setup a car for the course....lol

 

I was talking to a friend today who rally races. Turns out he knows the guy with the metro. He said that the MG was built towards the end of the groub b era, and it wasn't around long enough to give the quattro or the lancia's a run for their money. He did say that pretty soon the car will be eligible for vintage rally, in britain, and it will be a sick car in that arena.