Nothing wrong with a Maestro/Montego, IMO. I've owned an MG Montego, and it was astonishingly quick and handled very well, whilst also looking quite deceptively boring. The later 2.0 GTi estates are apparently very amusing, especially with 7 seats.
Maestros are not as pretty, but you can't argue with the MG Turbo's performance.
Richard
snip
I once had a shot of one of the original Oldsomobile Tornados --too much car too much engine for fwd. The Renault 30 was bad enough with its narrow Michelin ZX tyres it couldn't put all its power down even in 3rd gear. Back in the late 60's about 100 bhp was all you could hope to put down in fwd without an lsd and not leave most of your rubber on the road everytime you floored the throttle, these days with traction control, better tyres and steering geometry handling twice that power isn't an enormous problem.
The 800 and Acclaim --- were both good cars much better thsat the dogs they replaced.
In news: snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com, Richard Kilpatrick decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows
Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, the 2.0 EFi MG Maestro wasn't a bad car.
Ugly when they started to rust (normally during the PDI), but there used to be a dark metallic green one round here which actually didn't look that bad, in an ugly kinda way, that's just made me realise something.... foookinell....
The MG Maestro EFi.. the four wheeled equivalent of a fat bird.
In news:bvbdfu$vv$ snipped-for-privacy@hercules.btinternet.com, dilbert decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows
I'd love to know one thing about an 800 series car that's better than a V8 SD1. (besides urban fuel consumption)
The apart from the fact it was handicaped at low speed by fwd wheel spin
800 with a 2litre 16 valve efi engine was quicker than the SD1, if you compare equivalent models, it was also a dam sight nicer to drive.
The Montego/Maestro range were spoilt only by the crap bodywork and cheap switch gear -- a combination of making the car light enough for a 1.3 version and being stupid enough to carry over parts from the Marina era. The 2 litre efi version had a lot of grunt and handled like a fwd go kart and the engines & gearboxes were just about indestructable. Only problems I ever had in about 90k miles was the short life of the front wheel bearings and wishbone ball joints, the car got to 170k mile before the body work turned to lace.
In news:bvbdqc$s7j$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, dilbert decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows
In what way? I've owned numerous SD1's, from the 2600SE to the Vitesse, and loved driving them. Fantastic cars, long legged, quick, torquey, reliable, and cheap to maintain, an SD1 Vitesse is IMO one of *THE* best cars produced in Britain in the last 30 years.
I also owned an 827 SLi. Which I'd rate as one of the nastiest cars I've ever owned. Gutless, thirsty (far worse than the SD1 Vitesse 90% of the time), terrible ride quality due to the total lack of suspension travel ("Sport" suspension as fitted to the 800 Vitesse), nasty auto box, badly built, terrible steering, rattles, squeaks, self destructing windscreens, useless Aircon, rattly sunroof, awful seats. It was awful, and it was a good example judging by others I've driven (46000 miles, one old chap previous owner, Main agent serviced). I'd rate the Rover 800 with the Morris Ital.
The smaller engines are better. IIRC the bastardized Triumph units in the 2300 and 2600 are pretty awful.
Richard (but that's about it. Anything wrong with the SD1 interior was wrong with every other 'stylish' 70s interior, like the materials that collapsed in the sun).
Absolutely not....unless you redefine "spiritual" to mean marketing exercise to produce go faster version of mundane car... A Sprint is a good car as most here would agree...not sure many would say that about the Monte or Maestro Turbo, whic were largely a waste of front tyres. And I'd dispute that an acclaim was more reliable than a Dolomite too...
Jonners.
Ouch ! I bet he didn't make that mistake again... :~(
Edward Turner it was. Thanks. But are you seriously saying that BSA owned Jaguar between 1930 and 1966???? Time to take your anorak to the dry cleaners!
Geoff MacK
Anoraking like mad, nobody ever knew what SS stood for. You could be right - Swallow Sidecars - was also referred to as Super Sports and Soda Siphen. Anyway, SS was not a good name after the war, so they took the name of the last saloon (SS Jaguar) and conveniently dropped the SS bit.
Geoff MacK
Just curious - was it the same designer? Who I now find is Edward Turner (apologies for calling him Philip). Did he design the BSA and not the Triumph? I'm not too good on bikes of that era.
Geoff MacK
Thank you for your compliment. I claim to be the only owner of a Ducati with a pent-roof saddle. Oh, clenching buttocks....
Geoff MacK
Can't remember when the Barbara Castle (I don't drive, but you know it makes sense) Labour Min of Transport introduced the 70mph limit on an "experimental" basis. But whenever this happened it was legal. No restrictions on Motorways. Maybe it was a bit earlier.
Geoff MacK "If you can remember the sixties then you weren't there"
Standard Pennant. Alfa 33 Jaguar XJ40 R-R Corniche & Spirit Citroen Xantia Citroen XM most Lancias All Jaguar E-Types post-1967 Ferrari Boxer (all versions)
Geoff MacK
The 800 better than the SD1? It neither went or handled as well, and was just plain ugly. Nor was it as large, interior wise - a strange thing on a change to FWD from RWD.
They're actually quite a good engine if the oil feed to the camshaft doesn't block up. Cars that were driven hard on long journeys (like Police cars) could do very high mileages without problems. Those that were used to potter around and had their oil changes neglected simply blew up.
Er - build quality? PDI? Recall the Finance Director of the firm I worked for in the eighties showing off his brand new 2600 before taking us all down to the pub. Opened the huge hatch to show how much space there was, and the lid fell off. No hinge pins. We told him not to worry, treat it like a large sun roof a bit further back than usual.
It broke down most days, a lot of it due to the panic sensor which was supposed to cut off the fuel in the event of accident. Unfortunately it seemed to be over sensitive - running over a dead leaf would activate it.
Briefly used a 3500 Vitesse while my Jaguar Sovereign was in for a head overhaul (at 170,000 miles) and didn't think it was in the same league. Plus it used roughly twice as much fuel on the same daily journey (commuting from Reigate to London W1) without the creature comforts and enjoyment. A bit underwhemled, really.
Believe me, the 825i (its predecessor) was even worse! That engine would probably have been quite nice in a little two seater, but dumped into a heavy saloon with an auto gearbox which changed up and down so many times it was playing the Japanese National Anthem through the exhaust pipe. It was a raging disaster. Mine died when I drove it through a flood (well, it didn't look that deep - the ducks were only about half an inch down) it sucked water into the engine and went bang in rather a big way.
Most post-eighties cars are actually pretty good, if driven within their limits and bearing in mind what they were designed for, but I would have to say that the Rover 825i Sterling was one of the worst cars I've ever come across in 40+ years of driving.
Geoff MacK
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