Third time lucky

Back in 1983, the Metro was beating the likes of the Ford Fiesta in UK supermini sales. It proved to be the model’s best year for production, with 180,763 of them leaving the Longbridge production plant, and it was Britain’s best-selling car during February that year.

The supposed replacement for the Mini had begun development in the mid-1970s and production started in 1980, allowing the competition, such as the aforementioned Fiesta and even VW’s Polo, several years to become established and acquire loyal customers. However, the Metro was a huge hit and, from the start, the range needed a performance model. There was a hint that something was on the cards in July 1981, which came to fruition in May the following year when badge-engineering returned in the form of the octagonal MG logo. The company had done the same thing with the 1100/1300 range in previous decades.

The naturally-aspirated MG Metro first appeared in May 1982, followed by the MG Metro Turbo five months later. Typically, the faster Turbo was more popular so the naturally-aspirated MG Metro was rather overshadowed as a future classic or as a collectable, until now.