Austin Maestro T5, here's where it's at so far!

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by Clan

Anyone who saw the maestro racing series way back will realise what a fine handling car it is , it beats the golf GTI of its day ...

I didn't realise that, but its not that that I was getting at. I was thinking more about how Austin Metros, Meastros and Montegos were prone to rotting away, and the poor old Allegro, the number of those I remembering seeing years ago with their front wheels doing the splits.

Now maybe one day i will fit a T5 into a hillman imp mid engine .. ( deadly serious ) ...

You've just reminded me of my dad's dream car. He wants a Morris Minor with completely transplanted engine, suspension and brakes from something more menacing. He says he'd love to see the look on some boy racer's face (in his mirrors) as the old man with the grey beard in the ancient little car leave the young Saxo/Corsa lad clouded in the blue haze of tyre smoke.

[Jim S70R]

Great work, that's definitely going to be one hell of a monster when you have finished it.
Keep up the good work, looking forward to the next updates

[BreadBin]

Great project
Was the Maestro relatively light compared to others in the same class or is that something I imagined?

[Clan]

Originally Posted by rippedoffagain

You've just reminded me of my dad's dream car. He wants a Morris Minor with completely transplanted engine, suspension and brakes from something more menacing. He says he'd love to see the look on some boy racer's face (in his mirrors) as the old man with the grey beard in the ancient little car leave the young Saxo/Corsa lad clouded in the blue haze of tyre smoke.

I added a turbocharger to a Imp in the 1980's got 170 bhp from 998 cc it wasnt saxos i was passing it was RS 2000's and BMW 735's and 323i's p-)

[Claymore]

waw, this is the sort of thing I like, have you posted this on retro rides?

[stevo48]

I do hope that maestro is solid, I would hate to read that the test run saw the engine and front wheels leaving the rest of the car behind seriously though that is one mad project, I can imagine the faces at the raceway.............

[Kerry_T-5R]

Brilliant project, what a sleeper!

[RollingThunder]

Love it! Hope it all stays in one piece though I can't believe how good a fit that is.

I had a Montego (Maestro with a boot) and it was a sweet handling car. Just disolved before your eyes when you washed it

Keep us updated - I'm hooked already

[steve howes]

what a great project. would love to see the faces of the saxo/corsa brigade when that blows them away at the light.s .keep the update's coming

[MaestroT5]

Hi all, wow, quite an overwhelming amount of responses! thanks for the interest and comments all! it's that sort of thing that spurs you on in a project like this!

I've not done a whole lot more since to be honest, however, I have received the Impreza intercooler, it's actually quite big and very thick. It should still sit nicely under the bonnet though. I will have to sort some sort of ducting so as I don't cook the intercooler with the manifold and turbo, a tilted bonnet may also help when standing still and ticking over.

Luckily, I have my mate Daran helping out when he can, he'll be the one shouting motivational slogans at me, and also he's officially in charge of most of the wiring! in fact we're going to get onto the loom on Sunday, all things being well.

The car is completely stripped out, it doesn't even have a dashboard, just two bucket seats and a pair of four point harnesses. The sunroof's been replaced by an alloy sheet panel, and all other unused bits and pieces have been removed. I even removed the bitumen sound deadening material from the floors and other areas, that alone got rid of approximately 15kg, the sunroof was around 30kg, and I can only guess at the interior weight! it was all leather and wood, so likely much heavier than a standard velour and vinyl interior.

I'll try to find other ways of weight saving, though the most obvious will be to polycarb the side and rear glass at some point, but that's probably something for next year now.

It's on lowered springs with Unipart NOS MG Montego Turbo front gas struts and some aftermarket rear gas struts, currently with the Turbo front ARB and EFI rear ARB. I've no idea how it will handle or behave, but you can bet I'll be very cautious driving it until I get the measure of it and make the necessary tweaks. As said though, they do handle surprisingly well!

It is really surprising just how well the T5 fits in the Maestro's engine bay, even down to one of the mounts lining up almost perfectly! big odds!

It's going to be looking pretty stock on the outside asides riding noticeably lower, the taillights are also inverted to place the brake lights higher post lowering. The only differences are the 15" Montego 'cross spoke' alloys and the lack of front grill. Oh and the scoop for the intercooler!

I'll do another trial fit on Sunday and start marking the bulkhead where it needs to be slightly dressed back, we'll also do a little more research on the remaining engine mounts, position of the downpipe. Once the engine's mounted I can start to take some accurate dimensions for the the two short outer driveshafts, I'll be retaining the outer Maestro CVs and the Volvo inner CVs. Initially I'll do some cut and shut jobbies, and once I'm satisfied that they're right I'll have some one piece items made.

A fast minor was mentioned, now I know there's various Fiat twink and Rover V8 powered versions around, and whilst I like that, I prefer this:



plus:



equals....

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=219069

Truly inspiring!!!