New Shite Incoming - Horriblish MG Maestro Purchased

[andy18s]

Looks utterly lovely, I have a soft spot for an mg maestro but it would have to be black, something about a black car with a red stripe

 

Here's one I saw at the weekend

 

20170730_115053.jpg

Identical to my old 1

F969DNX,long gone now though

I even fitted Capri quad lights to it for a while

It had most of the Moto Build catalogue stuck to it before I got an offer on a Starmist Black Carlton 3000 Gsi,which was another overlooked car at the time...

[cort16]

I had a Carlton GSi3000 too it was mega.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

These don’t seem very ‘Cort16’ to me at all - I’m glad you are liking it. To me they are a classic Rover Group product, cobbled together from ‘that’ll do’ components but somehow as a whole, much better than they have any right to be. The old O-series engine was an absolute sweaty turd in the Ital/Ambassador/Sherpa days and pretty old hat by the late 80’s but its unfashionable low-down torquey delivery makes these a surprising and interesting drive I reckon. Although the block is much the same as the Ital/Sherpa engine, the head is a lot different with the ports reversed for a start and the Lucas EFI on these (2 x ECU’s right?) makes them a pretty smooth engine.

 

I always found the handling of these Maestros to be completely and utterly wooden, they are certainly competent though and not likely to flick you off the road under any circumstances but if you are looking for a car you can ‘play tunes on’, exploring its limits on the backroads, there are few worse choices. Still, as a car you can actually enjoy travelling to the shops and to work in they are great.

 

Love all the silicone sealant, you can just imagine some old boy getting the sealant gun off the shelf in the garage every weekend  and ‘sealing’ a few more bits here and there while his Sunday dinner was cooking, then sitting down to his roast beef with a big sigh of satisfaction at the great work he’d done ‘maintaining’ his vehicle.

[Asimo]

I replaced a Maestro with a BMW 5 series, which felt like a racer after the Maestro. BUT it was nowhere as fast around roundabouts as the Austin.

Maestro did feel a bit wooden but had fantastic grip and was completely dependable, encouraging irresponsible yoof behaviour. (Even with a 1.6 auto)

Always fancied a 2 litre, did they come auto in the Maestro?

[Essex V6]

I have had the horn for one of these for ages now. Also used to have a Montego Turbo many years ago

[cort16]

The steering feels pretty good to me given I'm normally driving heavy modern stuff.

Maybe part of it is the vibration and the other stuff you feel through the wheel, which is all damped out on newer stuff . You definitely feel the lack of weight in corners . It's so long since I've driven an equivalent escort or astra it's hard to give a comparison.

The underside looks okay rust wise but there's no end to the giffer bodges. To be fair the car would probably have disolved long ago if he hadn't wobbed up various bits and nipped the rust in the bud. Quarters are available on ebay if I decide to change them .obviously it has an oil leak but I think that's mandatory .

[Captain Furious]

Papped this at a show in the Lake District earlier this year, well fit

 

[Bren]

Don't be sad about the arches - they have probably been like that since 1988.

 

If you like mayo on your salad you will find an inexhaustible supply in the breather pipework - they are notorious for this.

 

Run it for a bit but look for some rear arch repair panels.

[Lacquer Peel]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/3032424752/in/album-72157609121076414/

 

Trigger delivers the goods here, and Maestro wins.

[ProgRocker]

Nice Maestro! My parents had one of the earliest MG 1600s with the twin carb R series engine, had it around the same time that the Turbo was sold.

 

The digital dashboard would go blank in very hot weather making driving legally a bit of a guessing game.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Really nice buy, as Bren says, those arches have probably been like that since it was relatively new!

 

Also, power steering was a £300+ option back then.. that's getting on for £1000 today isn't it?  Can see why most people did without !

[LostnotFound]

What a cracking motor.

 

One I'm definitely rooting for in the, hope you don't come across anything too grim as you get to know it way.

 

A usable example of a car which is pretty rare beyond the show circuit is always a winner.

[cort16]

Scrummy.

 

But you garaged it the wrong way round.

How you going to get to the battery with a jump pack next time you need it?

 

Amateur...

I just got so used to putting my p6 in forwards as the battery is in the boot for exactly that reason.

 

I didn't think it would be my thing.I remember them being a bit of a joke at the time and if you'd said to me 1994 I'd be rubbing my trousers over one, a rough one at that 20 odd years later Id tell you to check your pint for disco biscuits.

As I said earlier trying to get anything vaguely interesting and useable for sub a 1000 quid is virtually impossible . The more I looked at the advert the nore I gained trouser friction.

I just hope it doesn't blow up .

[AnthonyG]

Good buy, looks a right laugh. I love all the sealant in weird places (like the bottoms of the door storage bins?) looks proper giffer. Trim looking like it's about to fall off is more or less how they were new, although the dashboards were normally ok.

[SiC]

I dislike late 80s and 90s Rover and MG products a lot (apart from MGF and the later MGs). However I think this looks really neat. Getting proper retro and more of a classic now for sure. Put it this way, it's made me tempted to look at them.

 

One I think we'll be saying in 10-15years time on how these used to be sub £1k.

[Noel Tidybeard]

you need to remove this pipe and just listen to the improved induction ROAR

[Noel Tidybeard]

and an off the shelf cone filter will just fit straight onto the throttle body if  you unscrew the airbox and the TB can be left bolted to std bracket

 

*not that i ever did this with my efi

[mrbenn]

There is something about the rear light lenses of a Maestro. They make me feel very nostalgic, safe and comfortable.

 

Very nicely bought!

[phil_lihp]

Having the arches stuffed full of pudding is exactly how these should be, my parents had a lowly 1.3HL on an A plate back in the early nineties and that had no rear arches left even then so yours have done well enough.

 

Also, silicone doesn't rust, so you're ahead there.

[seacow]

Love this - gets me aching to get the Montego out again - where in Scotland are you I will keep an eye out! If you need any bits and bobs give me a shout - the usual stuff if around on Rimmers etc

[drum]

Cort, it was three years ago last Feb you posted a maestro on the tat thread that I ended up buying! Mine is a lowly 1.3 though so I'm very jealous of your MG.

 

I put new front wings on mine and manage to get repair panels for the rear arches, one day I'll get round to doing them.

[phil_lihp]

You may be right, I thought it was HopeLess.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

'Horse Lips'

[adw1977]

HL was a highish trim level on a lot of BL models. I think the 18-22 Series and it's later Princess incarnation was the first model to have a HL version.

 

Dolomite, Ital, Acclaim, Allegro, Montego and Ambassador were all available in HL trim at some point.

 

HLS was better, though!

[cort16]

Mighty Gash

[adw1977]

Maxi surely?

You may well be right. There certainly was a Maxi HL, but I don't know when that was introduced.

 

EDIT: You are right, Maxi HL was introduced in 1972, according to aronline.co.uk.

[ProgRocker]

I always thought that HL was just their equivilent to Ford's and Vauxhall's mid spec 'GL'

[RoadworkUK]

Ah, but GL was supposed to mean "grand luxe" until trim designations became entirely arbitrary.

[Pillock]

So was L "luxury" or "luxe" even though it usually appeared right at the bottom of the range?

 

GL on a Golf was top of the range, on a Granada it was second from bottom

[MorrisItalSLX]

Which was higher in the BL world, HLE or HLS?

 

City was the more-basic-than-bASe i'm pretty sure?

 

Please correct me if i'm wrong!