Hello All,
Kinda new here, used to post years ago under the name Montanna when I was building a Reliant kitten with a bike engine, but it never got finished. Then had a long line of S%$T boxes and a few bikes. But now... NOW I've got something worth posting about again!
Here's my Rover 100 / Metro:
So, bit of history (if it counts as history), maybe a more of a trip down memory lane: It's 2007, I'm 20 just gotten together with my now wife and only have a motorcycle for transport (a suzuki bandit 650). She's put in a lot of effort to impress, by riding pillion for a good while longer than most would have considering my riding style at the time, so I decide to get a car. But what car to buy after 4 years of riding like a nutter in all weathers?
Looked for a while, but had 2 very bad influences in my life named Adam & Tom (Hello Lads!) who both drove Metros. And were they a riot or what! Easily modified suspension, nippy enough for a bit of fun on country roads and different enough to make people look twice when you bomb past them. So, I went in search...
Found a British racing green GTI in Bradford for £800 so I jumped on the train, and shot up there, checked it out in the dark, paid my money and drove it approx' 500 metres to the nearest garage to fill it up for the trip back to West Sussex. After putting 25L of fuel into a 20L tank someone pointed out that petrol was leaking all over the forecourt (turns out the top of the tank was rusted through) and thus started the motoring love of my life with Metros.
Yes it was a rocky start (and may have been an abusive relationship in hindsight) but I loved that car, it was just soooo much fun! Even though I spent every weekend welding the damn thing up I was sad to see it go a couple of years later and have regretted selling it ever since.
Fast forward to 2022: In Feb / March my last cars head gasket failed, (under mysterious circumstances, you can't prove I was ragging it!) and I ended up using my now wife's car for a few months (we work together so not a huge inconvenience) while, with her undying support decide what I want from a car or motorcycle.
Until I see this:
There's only 15 mins left on the eBay auction so: a quick consultation with Mrs H, a nervous wait until there's only 30 seconds left, frantic bid.... And it's mine!
The advert read as follows:
Rover 100r Road legal track car built by talon engineering. Owned and maintained by retired mechanic. In excellent condition throughout. Engine 160bhp 1.8 vvc k series. R65U 3.7 FDA’s gearbox. Rover 200 front brakes. Body strengthened and re-welded. Fully welded roll cage. Racing seats. Full race harness. Oil cooler. Additional gauges. All steel rolled arches. Etc.2 additional sets of wheels and tyres. A frame braked towing kit. Trolly jack. 2 petrol Jerry cans. Totally ready for track days. Can tow or drive to track., Mileage: 60000
I was properly exited now, back in my youth as a yob on the metro power forum, the kings of the metro kingdom were Talon Sportscars, I drooled over their work on the forum and their website, I still remember the roll over jig they used to get at the underside of the cars when seam welding and repairing them for 1.8 conversions. As a yob I never thought that I'd be able to own one but NOW I DID!
A few days later I'm re-living my youth, on a train to pick up a metro again, and meet a nice guy called Bernie who was selling the car. He even picked me up from the train station to take me to his mate Roger's house where the metro is kept. Turned out they bought the car together from Talon about 12 years ago and used to do track days together in it. Further questioning revealed that it's been kept in a garage, nice and dry, and comes with two sets of track wheels with tyres, a towing set-up and even jerry cans for track fuel!
The engine is the one I recon suits the car best the 160BHP VVC naturally aspirated. It's got an uprated gearbox, sportex exhaust!
That's all for tonight I wanna go to bed so the saga continues tomorrow, is it a lemon? Is Bernie a kidnapper who lures people to their deaths using 90's hot hatches? Stay tuned to find out.......
Kinda new here, used to post years ago under the name Montanna when I was building a Reliant kitten with a bike engine, but it never got finished. Then had a long line of S%$T boxes and a few bikes. But now... NOW I've got something worth posting about again!
Here's my Rover 100 / Metro:
So, bit of history (if it counts as history), maybe a more of a trip down memory lane: It's 2007, I'm 20 just gotten together with my now wife and only have a motorcycle for transport (a suzuki bandit 650). She's put in a lot of effort to impress, by riding pillion for a good while longer than most would have considering my riding style at the time, so I decide to get a car. But what car to buy after 4 years of riding like a nutter in all weathers?
Looked for a while, but had 2 very bad influences in my life named Adam & Tom (Hello Lads!) who both drove Metros. And were they a riot or what! Easily modified suspension, nippy enough for a bit of fun on country roads and different enough to make people look twice when you bomb past them. So, I went in search...
Found a British racing green GTI in Bradford for £800 so I jumped on the train, and shot up there, checked it out in the dark, paid my money and drove it approx' 500 metres to the nearest garage to fill it up for the trip back to West Sussex. After putting 25L of fuel into a 20L tank someone pointed out that petrol was leaking all over the forecourt (turns out the top of the tank was rusted through) and thus started the motoring love of my life with Metros.
Yes it was a rocky start (and may have been an abusive relationship in hindsight) but I loved that car, it was just soooo much fun! Even though I spent every weekend welding the damn thing up I was sad to see it go a couple of years later and have regretted selling it ever since.
Fast forward to 2022: In Feb / March my last cars head gasket failed, (under mysterious circumstances, you can't prove I was ragging it!) and I ended up using my now wife's car for a few months (we work together so not a huge inconvenience) while, with her undying support decide what I want from a car or motorcycle.
Until I see this:
There's only 15 mins left on the eBay auction so: a quick consultation with Mrs H, a nervous wait until there's only 30 seconds left, frantic bid.... And it's mine!
The advert read as follows:
Rover 100r Road legal track car built by talon engineering. Owned and maintained by retired mechanic. In excellent condition throughout. Engine 160bhp 1.8 vvc k series. R65U 3.7 FDA’s gearbox. Rover 200 front brakes. Body strengthened and re-welded. Fully welded roll cage. Racing seats. Full race harness. Oil cooler. Additional gauges. All steel rolled arches. Etc.2 additional sets of wheels and tyres. A frame braked towing kit. Trolly jack. 2 petrol Jerry cans. Totally ready for track days. Can tow or drive to track., Mileage: 60000
I was properly exited now, back in my youth as a yob on the metro power forum, the kings of the metro kingdom were Talon Sportscars, I drooled over their work on the forum and their website, I still remember the roll over jig they used to get at the underside of the cars when seam welding and repairing them for 1.8 conversions. As a yob I never thought that I'd be able to own one but NOW I DID!
A few days later I'm re-living my youth, on a train to pick up a metro again, and meet a nice guy called Bernie who was selling the car. He even picked me up from the train station to take me to his mate Roger's house where the metro is kept. Turned out they bought the car together from Talon about 12 years ago and used to do track days together in it. Further questioning revealed that it's been kept in a garage, nice and dry, and comes with two sets of track wheels with tyres, a towing set-up and even jerry cans for track fuel!
The engine is the one I recon suits the car best the 160BHP VVC naturally aspirated. It's got an uprated gearbox, sportex exhaust!
That's all for tonight I wanna go to bed so the saga continues tomorrow, is it a lemon? Is Bernie a kidnapper who lures people to their deaths using 90's hot hatches? Stay tuned to find out.......
? I wrote stuff.... Lol 🤣
