The original Metro One project, many faces: a wide variety of styling exercises were produced before ADO74 was cancelled in 1973, as British Leyland could not raise the £130m needed to produce it. The project suffered from having indecisive leadership – it was led by Harry Webster, but because he had worked previously at Triumph, [...]

A lesson in lightness FOLLOWING the success of the BL Technology developed lightweight ECV3 project, it was decided to evaluate a system of manufacturing for building aluminium structured vehicles and then test the structural integrity and durability. This Metro is one of six vehicles built as replicas of steel production vehicles, and employs the system [...]

Keith Adams WITH THE number of BMC/Leyland/Rover cars on our roads diminishing rapidly, we take stock of the successive companies’ ten most popular cars during the post-war years. Some of these numbers are going to shock you, simply because the cars are so rare on the road now. In fact, even the latest car on [...]

The final Car of The Month for 2008 goes to yet another overseas reader, Todd Fitch from Seattle, Washington, USA, who also wins the AROnline award for the being one of those near-obsessed fans who is an inspiration to the rest of us. If you still need persuading that Todd’s a sucker for the cause [...]

Up-spec Metros like this are rapidly disappearing off our roads – claimed by a combination of rust, antipathy and Mini owners in need of updated motorvation for their prides and joys… Thanks to enthusiastic Metro fan Peter Melville, one 1986 Vanden Plas has been saved from the ignominy of the scrap yard, and has been [...]

Developed with the help of Lotus in 1982, the MG Metro Turbo was BL’s answer to the Fiesta XR2 and Renault 5 Gordini. The Metro proved an excellent basis for the hot hatch project thanks to its stiff bodyshell and proven mechanicals. The Turbo engine development was particularly successful; so much so, that engineers needed [...]

By Clifford Webb The demand for BL’s Metro car is so great that Sir Michael Edwardes, the BL chairman, now proposes to use the whole Longbridge plant for its production along with the older Mini. This is a last-minute change in the business plan submitted to the Government on Monday to enable BL to increase [...]

By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent Sir Michael Edwardes, BL chairman, will be going to the Government next week for a £325m vote of confidence in the state-owned motor group. Riding on the success of the launch of the Metro, he is seeking £175m to put a potentially more profitable medium saloon codenamed LC10 into [...]

By Clifford Webb British Leyland’s new Mini Metro will be launched in October with an updated version of one of the company’s existing engines. Later models may be powered by a Japanese Honda engine. The deal has not yet been completed, but reliable sources suggest that the Honda power unit will be built in Britain [...]

THE GUARDIAN How participation went sour at Longbridge As BL’s labour problems bring the troubled motor group once again to the edge of a financial precipice, NICK BOULTER – a civil servant who spent 15 months on the finishing lines of the ‘Mini’ – gives a shop floor view of Participation. In early 1976 serious [...]