Pre-production Montego?

[Sir Snipes]

I like the sculptured sides. So neat and sharp compared to moderns with their numerous swage lines that go nowhere.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My Montego cv:

1992 2.0 Gti Estate. Company car

1994 2.0 D turbo Countryman. Company car.

1987 2.0 Vanden Plas 2.0 Efi. Estate.

1990 1.6 LX Estate.

1986 2.0 Si Saloon.

1992 2.0 Gti Saloon.

1991 1.6 LX Estate.

1991 1.6 Clubman Saloon.

1992  2.0 SLX D Turbo Saloon.

Plus at least 20 various from 1.3 A reg to MG with factory body kit as sales cars.

Never owned or driven an MG Turbo. Or GSi, yet!
I once drove someone into Buckingham Palace in my white Clubman and waited in the central quadrangle parked with all the DS420’s Rollers  and diplomatic S Classes. 
I snapped a cam belt on a 1.6 leaving Northampton Auction one night, went back the next day fitted a new one at the side of the A45: drove home- no ill effects.

Knocked some bloke out cold , by hitting his head against the seat belt adjuster, when he threatened to rob me with a broken bottle one night cabbing.

( Forgot to list 5 different extra Montegos, 2 diesel saloons, a diesel Countryman , 2 petrol estates, that I rented as cabs over a 6 year period)

Broke a few(6?) for parts for my own and rented cabs 

Got a letter from West Midlands Police threatening prosecution for anti social behaviour, after getting caught on CCTV doing donuts in the snowy car park  of the National Motorbike Museum. Whilst waiting in my Gti saloon to meet the seller of an XJ-S.

Its not Aspergers it’s love!

[HMC]

@RobT has a tasty looking GSI saloon a while Back.

[RobT]

Indeed I did.

In fetching Oyster Beige.  The sills and fuel filler aperture were getting steadily worse, but it drove well albeit a bit floaty on the suspension and steering front.  Blimey, 10 years ago now...

Edit:  sorry, those aero blades were me.  The only time I've ever done that on chod.

[New POD]

21 hours ago, Rab said:

We dragged this Countryman out of a shed on Skye two years ago.Still managed to sell it to an enthusiast in Cumbria.

My first job at Lucas after I graduated, had a departmental pool car which was a cuntyman. 2.0 HL.  One of the senior managers old cars. Without sun roof as he was very big. Tall and wide. 

On a trip to Pontypool, a wiper arm came loose. 

I remember it would wheelspin.  In the dry. 

[Spottedlaurel]

12 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Never owned or driven an MG Turbo.

An MG Turbo is the only Montego I can recall driving, in August 1991. My boss had one, and his wife had an MG Maestro. He was a member of the local motoring club and I think they got used on their events.

It was a memorable day, partly for the drive of the Montego but also that he made me redundant at the end of the afternoon.....

[sierraman]

2 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

An MG Turbo is the only Montego I can recall driving, in August 1991. My boss had one, and his wife had an MG Maestro. He was a member of the local motoring club and I think they got used on their events.

It was a memorable day, partly for the drive of the Montego but also that he made me redundant at the end of the afternoon.....

Was the drive of the Montego in lieu of redundancy money? 

[Garythesnail]

On 4/2/2020 at 11:03 PM, adw1977 said:

I have a March 1984 guide for salesmen that includes  the whole range.

Thanks for the link - interesting to see the gearing on the MG version and the effect on economy and acceleration.

I had an MG in the mid nineties although VOSA brings it up a Rover Montego - odd for a B reg. Good car.

[Dick Longbridge]

So, @BorniteIdentity, did you do any more digging, or was it just a moment of lockdown madness?

[Dick Longbridge]

It's sold. Dash is bloody amazing. 

Montego bay

From a teacher perspective, Dave Dexter and Rob Puberty's general use of grammar and punctuation places them at around year three level. Yes, that's seven and eight year olds, folks. 

[bramz7]

Glad it was saved. 

I dunno why people bother posting in those Facebook groups with thousands of members, it must get very boring hearing the same LOL SCRAP M8 dross all the time. 

That digital dash is mega! I honestly didn't know they had them. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Given how shite the digidash was in the Maestro it's a wonder ARG let any Montys out of captivity with them fitted.

[greengartside]

I’ve never seen a Montego digi-dash until now. That must look bloody amazing when lit up.

[quicksilver]

On 4/3/2020 at 5:54 PM, lesapandre said:

Interesting- I love this early and prototype stuff. Could be the the car was retained at Longbridge as a test mule? Dunno. Some sleuthing at Gaydon might turn something up. The vin may provide further evidence. 

This and Maestro was styled by David Bache (who got sacked for it particularly the scalloped beltline which was disliked by management ) and then tweaked by Roy Axe - who presumably did the subsequent refreshments. So many BMC BLMC Austin Rover car have these tortured beginnings and tales of corporate melodrama. 

I think Roy also styled the Talbot Tagora - every designer has an off day, not just David Bache - (personally I prefer the Bache prototypes - much cleaner design) but like a lot of BL stuff it took so long in development it looked out of date by the time it arrived so no wonder Roy Axe tried to refresh it before launch (a repeat of the Austin Maxi drama really). 

As these are not very old cars - some of the original design team may still be about  to talk to - Roy died in 2010.

Not quite right according to AROnline - Bache came up with some rejected proposals for the Montego and was sacked by Harold Musgrove when he refused to shut up. The chosen design was front and rear ends by Roger Tucker grafted to Ian Beech's Maestro centre section by Harris Mann. Roy Axe allegedly took one look at that designed-by-committee dog's dinner and was horrified, but was very limited in what he could do to improve it.

Good to see A290 KWK has been saved. A122 TOO was the oldest known to the club so this one trumps it.

[Matty]

Much love for these and maestro's. Another fixture of childhood ?

[omegod]

Digi dash in a Montego, when,what, how, omg ...never mind i'm off for a quick w*nk 

[andyberg]

Quote

 

I had a 1984 MG Montego, non turbo, full Janspeed (remember them?) exhaust, in black B411AMG, sadly long gone now. But she had the wonderful digi dash and voice. Being in my early 20s I WAS Michael Knight. Loved that car, stupidly I PX'd it for a 320 BMW, never liked that car. Of all the cars I ever owned, that is damn near top of the list, with my rose tinted glasses on anyway.

[quicksilver]

22 minutes ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

Am I right in saying that Harold Musgrove referred to Bache as a 'coiffured puff'?

 

Great to see this has been saved.

'Coiffured ponce' I believe was the insult in question. Musgrove didn't think much of Bache's fetish for septic styling crap like opera windows.

[adw1977]

This is the digital dash lit up, from the launch brochure:

I don't know why this Vanden Plas has that dash, though.   According to both the brochure and the salesman's guide it was only fitted to the MG and wasn't even an optional extra on other Montegos.

Flickr link

[omegod]

Sounds like this might be something a bit special, absolutely fucking minging but still special 

[Angrydicky]

That’s so typical that the Facebook bonehead who slags off BL products drives a “sick” chavvy Beemer with nasty mods. 

Certainly not the first BMW/Fast Ford enthusiast I’ve come across who insults BL/Rovers at every opportunity.  Dave from Walsall has to get his two-penneth in that Rovers were shit when new, and should all be scrapped because Clarkson said so.

Disclaimer - not everyone who likes BMWs or Fords is like that and some car people even dislike those and Rovers. But my god it’s tiring.

[ProgRocker]

Having owned two other unpowered medium/family sized saloons in the past I'd love a go in a Montego 1.3 for shits and giggles. Imagine they're all gone to scrap now. 

[adw1977]

5 hours ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

I hope it gets nicely restored...

I'd be fitting a set of early MG alloys to it.

I think there's a bit of a contradiction there!

1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

I'd love a go in a Montego 1.3 for shits and giggles. Imagine they're all gone to scrap now. 

These two 1.3 Montegos apparently still exist, albeit on SORN:

[davocano]

I saw the B-plater last year.

1985 Austin Montego 1.3 by davocano, on Flickr

[Zelandeth]

Do those digital instrument pods do most of the processing internally with just the usual sender lines and cable speedo drive from the standard car plugged in?  Or do they have an additional interface box hidden behind the dash somewhere?

Know the ones used in the early 80s Supra seemed to be a bit of a mix.  Fuel and temperature gauges were normal, but the speedometer (and power/normal indicator LEDs) were fed by the gearbox ECU it seemed rather than looking for a simple pulse train as far as I could figure out.  The rev counter had a bewildering array of wiring associated with it so I have to assume it was interfaced with either the ignition or injection ECUs. 

Imagine BMC would have kept things as simple as possible though...

[NorfolkNWeigh]

There was definitely some extra electrical gubbins behind the clocks , I once removed some from an MG to see if they were a simple swap into a lower spec saloon and every plug was different. I wasn’t that enthusiastic to investigate any further and anyway I was too busy swapping the red seatbelts over!

Dont think I ever saw the digital dash actually lit up, the MG was bought as a scrapper.

[doubleyeller]

For reasons I have never been able to fathom, it was possible to bump start an automatic Montego. Well, an Estate you could anyway. 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

7 hours ago, doubleyeller said:

For reasons I have never been able to fathom, it was possible to bump start an automatic Montego. Well, an Estate you could anyway. 

It’s something to do with having a different pump as opposed to the pressure being built up by the torque converter, as teenagers me and a mate experimented tow starting a Rover P6B and Mk4 Zodiac, the Rover would only start if you were doing at least 60, the Zodiac only needed to be doing 40. In both cases the good old BW35 was fitted, presumably even BL weren’t still using that in 1984!

[Alusilber]

On 5/9/2020 at 6:02 PM, quicksilver said:

Not quite right according to AROnline - Bache came up with some rejected proposals for the Montego and was sacked by Harold Musgrove when he refused to shut up. The chosen design was front and rear ends by Roger Tucker grafted to Ian Beech's Maestro centre section by Harris Mann. Roy Axe allegedly took one look at that designed-by-committee dog's dinner and was horrified, but was very limited in what he could do to improve it.

Good to see A290 KWK has been saved. A122 TOO was the oldest known to the club so this one trumps it.

I've read that the plastic caps under the side windows were Roy Axe's last-minute attempt to improve its looks, raising the belt-line slightly.

[red5]

When I was at college we had an A plate Montego early/pre-production with the digi - dash. Most deffo not an MG  version.

My lecturer also brought in a Triumph Lynx and stored it in one of the old bodyshops for a while.