Austin-Rover

I think something like 2003 and 2006 it was Britain's most stolen car per examples remaining registered. Something like one in ten Belmonts went walkies in those years. Now you'd be lucky if there were ten Belmonts left!

Aha! Well spotted! Yes, its an improved 1987 specification model. 😎 I have yet to actually get behind the wheel for a proper drive - I can't get near! Some niggles are becoming apparent, but they're all simple to sort items, which makes a nice change.

So when you've already got an Astra F Saloon in bits that needs finishing off, the most logical thing to do is to buy Kadett E Saloon that doesn't need very much work at all. Thus thereby diverting funds from the one in bits, and ensuring it spends another year off the road. 😄 Today's collection mission was the Belmont GLSi - a car we spotted at last month's Tatton Park show. A holy grail for fans of the more boring cars in Vauxhall's range, it's a very smart car and makes a great companion for the Cavalier GLS - they both have grey Mosaic velour interiors and matching alloy wheels. The Astra F in bits in the garage (that has had so much work done to it!) was always the consolation prize, as we never thought we'd find a Belmont worth having. Oops!

There's only one type of air filter housing for the 1.3 Maestro/Montego. It can be a bit of a pain to get all the plastic parts to line up and get the filter sat correctly around the oval ridge inside but they will always go together and seal eventually, even if some of the clips are missing through previous ham-fistedness. It is best done with both parts off the car. You'll probably also need to replace all the vacuum tubes while the air filter housing is off. Any leaky parts of the system and you'll never get it to run right and have no hope in sorting out the fuel mixture.

The Maestro had two 1.6 engines. The first one was the R Series, which is a warmed over E Series, and chain driven. The later S Series has a cam belt, and as already stated is non-interference. The R Series never went in to the Montego.

Early Maestros came with two designs of 13" wheel rim. Oblong holes for 155 section and round holes for 165 section tyres. Montego 1.3/1.6 Base came with 165 section tyres and thus round hole 13" rims only. Unless of course you specified the optional metric sized TD rim and tyres, in which case you got an enlarged version of the typical Metro wheel of the time with a snazzy squared off centre cap rather than a full wheel cover. These were unbelievably rare, as at launch the Montego 1.3/1.6 Base was the only model in the range to come with conventional imperial wheels and tyres and not the snazzy metric TD stuff as featured on every other model in the range.

The seats and rear door cards someone has paid to have re-trimmed. They're not genuine AR items. The shape of the seat foam suggests they started life in a later facelift car. They might have been bought in like that to replace the tired originals, and I suppose they could have been sourced from anywhere over the years, even another Montego that someone had invested heavily in with a custom interior. Your front door cards are as they should be for an L model of that vintage. The econometer should sit under the clock and is designed to clip in to that space in lieu of an an ash tray. The panel where the econometer is currently sat should house the cigar lighter.

Anything from the mid 60's onwards looks shite with black and silver plates. A quick look at some period photos from the late 60s and early 70s shows that fitting the new yellow/white plates to cars was a very popular thing... and why wouldn't you want to make your car look newer than it was? Sadly we now have the opposite where all those lovely patinated plates are being binned for cheapo black/silver plates in the post 2001 font. Anyway, enough of the rant; Nice Volvo!

Oddly enough, it looks no different to an A Series under the bonnet of a Maestro. 😄

Left hand drive Maestros aren't particularly rare at all... when you compare them to other street furniture of the same age. Granted, most of the left hand drive ones are much later examples and usually from the Ledbury and Apple 2000 cars. Left hand drive Mk1 cars... I can think of two in the UK off the top of my head; my one above and an MG1600 a friend of mine owns. It has the digital dash and voice synthesiser that speaks English, French, German and Italian. My own is a 1300HL, and was new in Switzerland. As such, Austin Rover went to the trouble to equip it with an emissions control system for sale in this tiny and insignificant market. It has a double bottom pulley that drives an air pump, with a pipe to an injection rail that delivers air to the exhaust ports. Rudimentary stuff.

It was only the one Maestro. The photo is taken at the side of the CV736 between Javea and Denia on the Costa Blanca.

Superb cars, had more than I care to remember over the years. You could pick up some fantastic examples for noting in the noughties. Not so much now though! 😄 I 'graduated' to Montegos for a while, which was great for slightly plusher interiors and the more substantial feel that a saloon car brings over a hatch back. I still own two Maestros, though they are both off the road and have been for some years.

A fascinating thread, if only for trying to figure out the ones that are trying too hard! 😄 Here's my contribution ;

The car could have been dormant for decades and would never prompt a SORN or Tax reminder, but once you've asked for that new V5c in your name, you've woken the record and you're now in the cycle of tax or SORN. This is a superb thread by the way. I love the car for 1) being something I've never heard of, and (related) 2) a wonderfully obscure model and the history that comes with it. Fascinating! (and a fascinating story for the actual car, too!)

For the most up to date giffer 'mod' scene you need only to attend a Rover 75 owner's meeting (when such things are allowed). Many Rover owners are not content with the understated sense of style and class many of their cars naturally posses and are like unable to resist stick-on chrome, extra Rover badges stuck in all manner of random places and generally carrying on until the whole thing looks like a dog's dinner. (see also some Jaguar S Type owners).