Unsung heroes: MG Maestro Turbo

The unsung heroes series seems to have become rather more occasional than I intended, but here at last is a new entry. This one has been on my list of candidates for a long time and I was finally spurred into featuring it by attending an event that celebrated its 30th birthday. Consider the Austin Maestro, a thoroughly uninspiring bread-and-butter car driven mainly by pensioners with nothing for petrolheads to get excited about. However, you may be surprised to learn that 30 years ago at the height of the performance wars, someone at Austin-Rover went berserk and added a large dose of spices to that butter, creating the hottest of all hot hatches...

Doesn't look that special, does it?

The MG Maestro got off to a bad start when it was rushed into production with a 1.6 S-series engine that wasn't really powerful enough to match its 1.8-engined competition. That was quickly replaced by the fuel-injected 2-litre O-series from the Montego in 1985, which made a much better car but was merely a warm-up for the more extreme turbocharged Maestro that had been on the cards since launch. Many thought such a car would be simply too fast for its own good and could never be any more than a crazy idea, but it did actually materialise following the appearance of the Montego Turbo.

The original MG Maestro 1600 - not really good enough but the Turbo more than made up for it

The MG Maestro Turbo came as a surprise to the motoring world when it was unveiled at the British Motor Show in October 1988. It had a unique appearance with lattice alloys and a specially-designed bodykit exclusive to this model, and was only available in four colours: Flame Red, Diamond White, British Racing Green or Factory Black, all with large but fairly subtle Turbo graphics on the doors. By the standards of the era, it looked quite understated with fairly small skirts and spoilers, and unfortunately that would contribute to its downfall.

Black Turbos are rarest of all with only 49 made

The engine, with an intercooled Garrett turbocharger, was supposedly identical to that in the Montego and officially developed 150bhp, but rumours suggest the actual output may have been closer to 170. Surprisingly the fuel injection system of the naturally-aspirated cars was replaced by a single SU carburettor, reputedly because an injected turbo produced just too much power for the front wheels to handle. Nonetheless, putting this engine in the lighter Maestro body made the most powerful front-wheel drive car available at the time and it is still one of the fastest accelerating MGs ever made. Adverts famously claimed the Maestro Turbo was faster than a Ferrari, a boast that was strictly true as the basic Ferrari Mondial had a 0-60 time of 7 seconds and the Maestro could do it in 6.7.

A humble Maestro that's faster than a Ferrari. Who would have thought it?

Only the prototype and four press cars (one in each colour) were actually built in 1988. Austin-Rover then commissioned a production run of 500, all of which emerged from Cowley between July and November 1989 and were sent to Tickford at Bedworth for fitment of the bodykit and graphics. That was that, and only 505 of these Maestros were ever made compared with over 7000 of the Montego Turbos that shared the engine. Such a small production run practically guaranteed future classic status, but the Maestro Turbo would have to survive some tough times first and it's taken a long time to be properly appreciated.

That's one hell of an engine lurking under there

Sadly, the Maestro Turbo gained an unfortunate reputation during the 1990s as the most stolen car in Britain. That wasn't because it was incredibly desirable, quite the opposite in fact as the combination of anonymous looks and massive performance made the perfect getaway car. Many insurance companies wouldn't touch them and attrition was high with a lot either stolen, crashed or neglected. Around half of the total are thought to still exist but very few are roadworthy. Some have been hidden away, mollycoddled in private collections for years and never driven in anger, a shame for such exciting performance cars, but there are owners who use and enjoy them regularly too.

This one hasn't been taxed since 1997. I guess it lives in a collection and this was a rare public appearance.

Many other petrolheads may lust after the Ford, Volkswagen or Peugeot equivalents, but to me the MG Maestro Turbo is the ultimate hot hatch that really pushed the limits of what a front-wheel drive car was capable of. Perhaps because it was made by a company who unfairly gained a reputation for building dull cars no one really wanted to buy, it isn't revered in the same way as the much more numerous Escort RS Turbo for instance, yet I know which I would prefer. Even today, despite (or maybe because of) its rarity, the Maestro Turbo remains firmly under the radar of the mainstream classic scene. I don't think that's really fair as it packs a remarkable punch beneath its unassuming looks and is very much the unsung hero of the hot hatch world.

OAP special 1.3 base in beige with tartan rug, the total antithesis of the crazy Turbo

Happy 30th birthday, MG Maestro Turbo!