By the early 1980s a slew of great cars were on offer for the performance conscious driver. British Leyland, through luck or judgement had stopped production of the ageing MGB in 1980. This meant they could aim more resources at the new “Hot Hatch” market. As the Mini Cooper S was retired in 1971 there was space in the British Leyland range for a fast, fun small car.

A Brute Force Approach

British Leyland had an embarrassment of riches to enter this market. A wide range of platforms, engines, badges and brands could be used. Rather than build something to compete directly against the Golf GTI and Peugeot 205 GTI, British Leyland decided on a brute force approach. The Metro, Maestro and Montego would be assigned more powerful engines and sportier suspension for “MG” badged versions. This made for wider appeal plus the added cachet of the MG badge, even if it upset the purists, being on a hatchback and not a sports car with a leaking roof.

The Metro Cooper

Making use of the MG badge for these performance biased cars was a good move, effectively creating a performance sub brand. One striking omission was the lack of a Cooper badge. John Cooper had effectively invented the hot hatch with the original Mini Cooper. It seemed logical that a Cooper version of the Metro would follow.

The Metro was a practical, modern hatchback. With a tweaked engine and Cooper badges linking it to its famous predecessor, the Metro Cooper would be a surefire hit. Work on building this had started shortly after John Cooper had driven an early version of the Metro.

He was impressed and singled out the Metro as a worthy successor to the Mini Cooper. The Cooper badge had decades of motorsport history associated with it. Certainly enough to compete with the popular new GTI models from Volkswagen, Peugeot and the like.

The Modifications Begin

John Cooper began building the Metro Cooper with his team in 1980. The new Metro would be tweaked to improve performance, handling and styling. Cooper’s team were incredibly knowledgeable on tuning the A-series engine and had assembled the parts to improve performance, styling and handling.

The engine setup included a new camshaft, larger inlet valve, polished head, twin carburettors and a freer flowing exhaust manifold. This got the engine to 88 bhp (a useful amount more than the MG Metro). Wolfrace alloy wheels and side graphics completed the updated visual package.

Metro Cooper Project Cancelled

The prototype Metro Cooper was left with British Leyland for analysis. After comparing performance figures, an issue was raised about launching the Metro Cooper at the same time as the MG Metro.

A separate concern was raised about the warranty. The Metro Cooper was never a factory backed project. As such, any aftermarket items fitted to the Metro would invalidate the British Leyland warranty, no matter who fitted them. Having to sell a car without a warranty made Wadham Stringer nervous.

The Metro Cooper was renamed Metro Monaco to satisfy any problems British Leyland might have had with the Cooper name (The Monaco was the name of a Cooper racing car).

It’s difficult to say whether the timing or the warranty was the real issue behind the Metro Cooper’s cancellation. However the cost implications were quite clear. John Cooper confirmed the list price of the MG Metro was cheaper than the car they would buy to start converting to a Cooper.

While the Cooper badge had significant cachet, it’s difficult to say how much more people were willing to pay. In the end Wadham Stringer decided the risk of selling a Metro Cooper without a warranty was too great and ended involvement in the project.

In a strange turn of fate, the Metro never really replaced the Mini. This meant that John Cooper would continue to sell Mini Cooper’s until 2001. This left the Metro Cooper nothing more than a sad footnote in history.

Other Metro Performance Variants

The need for performance variants of the Metro resulted in a wide variety of models over the years:

1981 Metro Cooper (2 prototypes produced)

1982 MG Metro (120,197 produced)

1983 MG Metro Turbo (21,968 produced)

1985 Metro 6R4 (205 produced)

1986 MG Metro 9x 6 cylinder turbo (1 prototype made)

1990 Metro GTa (Now Rover 100)

1990 Metro GTI (Now Rover 100)

The burgeoning hot hatch market had reached a head of steam by the early 1980s. The VW Golf GTI, introduced in 1976, had started things off and as a way into this market, using the MG badge on a sportier existing model was the easiest way to do it.

The Mini Cooper was too old to be considered viable competition at this point so British Leyland had transformed the Metro into the MG Metro to compete. It was expected to contribute 10% to sales of the entire Metro range, but had actually contributed an impressive 25% not long after launch. To add to the range, another sporting Metro model was planned.

With the old A-Series of the Mini underneath the Metro’s bodywork, there was limited tuning potential. Modifying the A-Series and keeping it naturally aspirated was expensive and would make for a highly strung engine. Not great for day to day use. Instead, British Leyland began work with Lotus on turbo charging the A-Series engine. This would provide an increase in power over the MG Metro and provide another hot hatch option to sell.

A Metro Cooper?

The Cooper badge was also considered, but John Cooper’s business model was to sell modifications to increase the performance of the standard Metro. British Leyland were worried about giving sales away and decided that anyone using Cooper modifications would void their warranty.

The Cooper brand wasn’t synonymous with the Metro like it was with the Mini, so the MG brand was used instead. John Cooper’s brief stint selling modifications to Metro owners was over. The handful of Cooper Metros are probably worth a lot due to their rarity.

Gearbox Issues

Lotus used a Garrett T3 turbo above a specially cast manifold to generate the increase in power. Unfortunately the Metro’s 4 speed gearbox was the same fragile unit the Mini used. The increase in power from the turbo damaged the gearbox easily, so the turbo waste-gate was modified to allow the boost pressure to leak until it was needed, to limit unnecessary load on the gearbox. The engine was re-engineered substantially and contained new valves, pistons and sodium lined exhaust.

MG Metro Turbo Driving Experience

As rare as these cars are, owners are a friendly lot and I’ve managed to have a go in both the MG Metro and the Turbo. The MG Metro Turbo seemed more relaxed and a less frantic drive than the MG Metro. The increased weight and naturally more muscular engine seemed to give the Turbo more options to go fast, whereas the MG Metro needed throwing around more. The hydrogas suspension gives the car a lot of roll while retaining grip. It’s an odd sensation, but certainly better than the standard Mini suspension I had experienced in the past.

The fragile gearbox also caused issues with the way the car drove, as the four spaced out gears meant you could easily change gears and be left “off boost” and waiting for the turbo to do its thing.

Competition

The MG Metro Turbo had many benefits. It inherited the standard cars practicality and combined it with the characterful A-Series turbo.

The car also benefited from the MG badge although staunch MGB fans would argue that the badge shouldn’t be used for a mere hatchback. Those dyed in the wool MG fans might not have seen the appeal of a hatchback, but the world had changed. The hot hatch made performance motoring available to more people than ever before – with a practical layout a decent engine and tweaked suspension, the once humdrum hatchback had democratized fun. No longer would you need a two seater convertible for a fun drive. In hindsight, this might have taken more effort to realise for British companies that had long been able to sell two seater sports cars with little challenge.

Rover and MG continued to push into the hot hatch market with mixed results. The Rover Tomcat, MG Maestro, MG Montego, Mini ERA were all pretty good all rounders. They struggled to generate the acclaim that the Golf GTI and Peugeot GTI got, but had successfully steered the company in the right direction.

With Rover no longer around and MG now avoiding sports cars altogether, these would be some of the final “fun” cars built by the company.

The car benefited from extensive aerodynamic testing to improve downforce. The addition of the various wings gave the car a distinctive and functional appearance.

The Metro 6R4 was built to comply with the international Group B silhouette regulations for rally cars in the 1980s and is fitted with a purpose built V6 four overhead cam 24 valve engine. This is mounted behind the seats and drives all four wheels via a five speed gearbox and a Ferguson Formula viscous coupling epicyclic central differential, giving a 35/65% torque split. At the time, the four wheel drive system was by far more advanced than the rudimentary system used in the contemporary Audi. In full Group B spec the engine produced 410bhp, enough to get to 60mph in 3.2 seconds.

The 6R4 project was first revealed in Feb 1984 and scored its first rallying victory at the Gwynedd Rally of March 1985 with Tony Pond and Rob Arthur. The same car competed at the Lombard RAC Rally in November of the same year finishing third behind two Lancia Delta S4s. The car was officially still being developed so these were very respectable results.

Group B Banned After Fatal Crashes

Tragically Group B was banned half way through the 1986 season due to deaths and injuries in the Portuguese rally. In 1987 the format was changed to restrict engine power to 300bhp and limit the use of exotic materials.

The Metro 6R4 was essentially obsolete. As a Group B rally car it wasn’t able to compete and the 200 road going versions (built to allow the 6R4 entry to Group B) were sat unsold at a compound in Cowley.

Austin Rover deliberated with authorities to allow the 6R4 to be used on national rallies. While they eventually succeeded, one condition was to limit power to no more than 300bhp. This became the “Clubman 300” spec car.

Austin Rover managed to sell all 200 cars in less than a year, although many were bought at a significant discount.

“I know it’s an ugly beast, but the 6R4 is easily the best rally car I’ve ever driven. Enormous power with four-wheel-drive traction was a brilliant combination, but the transmission also brought other advantages in grip, stability and braking. Aerodynamics performance, too, was an area where the car was a pioneer, as other manufacturers had always believed rallying speeds weren’t high enough for wings to work”

Tony Pond – Professional Rally Driver

Austin Rover’s Group B Supercar Arrives Too Late

The Metro 6R4 was a very good idea in principal.

1. Deliver a worthy rally car to generate the same excitement as it’s predecessor the Mini Cooper.
2. Attain international coverage for success across the various Group B events.
3. Sell the homologated road cars and hopefully some of this exposure would help sales of the ordinary Metro.

Unfortunately, the car arrived at the very end of Group B. Had Group B gone on, it’s impossible to say whether the Metro 6R4 would have done well. It had an issue with turbo lag, which the other teams in Group B had already worked around.

The Jaguar Engine Connection

The engine was thought to be one of the first purpose designed for a rally car (most engines were heavily developed road car engines). This engine was then used in the Jaguar XJ220 Supercar, where it was twin turbocharged – the infamous test bed was this XJ220 engined Transit.

The Jaguar XJ220 had a similarly difficult launch. The British car industry must have thought this market was cursed – for a time at least.

More interesting information on the Metro 6R4 can be found on 6R4.net