Started in 1980 as the succesor to the Mini, the Metro rolled off the Austin production line and was greeted with immediate approval throughout the country.
A car that offered a great ride, proven engine taken from the mini itself and the cars themselves were compeditvly priced throughout the range.
At the time, the car spec was quite advanced with front and rear seatbelts, a digital clock and option of metallic paint available as well as a good choice of trim and engine sizes.
The MG Metro is born...
After Austin had stopped production of the MG badge in previous years, they knew they needed to boost Metro sales and bring some younger car buyers to the scene if they were to make the Metro a success.
What they created was nothing short of brilliance!
A car with a small affordable engine, with uprated engine parts including clutch, gearbox, cam, head and exhaust, as well as a very high quality interior trim with red carpet, red seatbelts and a velour red and grey interior as well as featuring a sunroof and a rev counter.
The car also came complete with wide alloy wheels and low profile tyres.
Power was increased in the MG engine using the improved enternal parts, and the engine was tuned to give a good reliable 73bhp with 70 ft/lb torque, which at the time was very good, and still is by todays standards for a 1275cc engine!
A year later came the introduction of the MG Metro Turbo which was a revelation at the time, being one of the first small cars to use forced induction.
The car used the same MG block as the standard model, but the car with the turbo pushed out a mouth watering 92bhp! That combined with the lowered sports suspension, a sports wide arch bodykit and front and rear difusers as well as wide alloy wheels and great spec list made the Metro the most popular small car of the early 1980's.
Metro sales drop!
Austin were in total demise and the company were too bothered about saving other models rather then concentrate on their best selling ever car!
The MG range was slowed right down to special orders, and there was a new model born.
The RoverMG Metro GTA had arrived. The same car as the Turbo model, uprated brakes, uprated engine parts, uprated and updated interior, the same wide alloys and bodykit was fitted in a bid to sell off the last batch of Austin based rovers there were left. Sales did improve, and they picked up again up until 1991 when Rover who were now the owners of Austin pulled the plug on the Austin and MG Metro.
Rover after pulling the plug on the Austin Metro realised that they needed to fill the gap, and rather then bring out a new car, they decided to keep the metro going, badged as the Rover Metro.
The car itself received a facelift, and a new rear end layout, but the majority of the car remained the same throughout.
It had the same dash layout, and interior trim as the Austin models received until 1992 when the whole range got an updated interior spec.
The major change to the Rover Metro's over the Austin models was in fact the engine. The Rover models used the powerfull and rev happy K-Series engines whilst the Austin models had used the same A-Series engines ever since it started in the early 80's.
The Rover metro's came in a different range then had been previously offered and new models were introduced all with a sporty theme.
The GTa model was kept alive, with different body detailing, no bodykit but featuring a more powerfull 76bhp 77 ft/lb torque engine as well as the option of alloy wheels.
The range was then improved further with the GTa 16v model which was a very powerfull engine to be used in a Metro, featuring an extra 8valves over its little brother. But at the end of 1991 the range was topped by a light-weight, high powered, high spec'd Metro GTi. There were two variations available, one featuring a Single point fuel injection system whilst the other featured a multi point fuel injection system that was to become the best metro engine ever used.
The Mpi engine put out around 110bhp from its 1400cc block, with lots of torque power and a 0-60 time matched to that of Fords RS Turbo! A top speed of 125mph is also easily achievable in rover's pocket rocket.
