Vintage Austin Metro 1983 Advert 40 years ago

#80s #retrocars #80smusic

Plans for a replacement for the Mini had been afoot within BL since the early 1970s, but none of the concepts conceived got beyond the initial design stages, largely due to a shortage of funds at British Leyland, and its eventual bankruptcy and government bail-out in 1975. The modern supermini market had evolved during the 1970s, with earlier mini-cars like the Mini and Hillman Imp being followed by mostly larger cars with the "hatchback" bodystyle – beginning with the Fiat 127 in 1971 and Renault 5 in 1972, with the next five years seeing the arrival of similar cars including the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo, as well as the Vauxhall Chevette from General Motors (also built in West Germany as the Opel Kadett) which was also available as a saloon and estate as well as a hatchback. These cars gained a decent sized market share in Britain and most other European markets.

On 8 October 1980, BL introduced the Austin Mini Metro. The roots of the Metro lay in an earlier project denoted as ADO88 (Amalgamated Drawing Office, 88-inch wheelbase), which was intended to be a direct replacement for the Mini. However, poor reception to the ADO88 design at customer clinics and the increasing dominance of superminis in the ADO88's intended market segment, forced a major change in the project's focus.[7] In late 1977, ADO88 was given an eleventh hour redesign, to make it both larger and less utilitarian in appearance and more upmarket in nature, becoming BL's first supermini, rather than an economy car. The revised project was given the new designator LC8 (Leyland Cars Number 8), and the definitive Metro design would ultimately emerge under the leadership of BL's chief stylists David Bache and Harris Mann. LC8 would replace the more upmarket, lower-volume Clubman versions of the Mini and the lower-spec, smaller-engined variants of the Austin Allegro (which would be fully replaced in the early 1980s by project LC10, which became Austin Maestro). The ADO88 project had experimented with new engines and suspension systems, but with limited time and budgets, LC8 would reuse much of the Mini's engineering (the A-Series engine with front-wheel drive via a sump-mounted four-speed transmission, and front and rear running gear carried in steel subframes separate from the unitary bodyshell) and borrow the Hydragas suspension system developed for the Allegro. However while much was shared conceptually with older BL models, LC8 would see these design elements heavily re-engineered and modernised. For instance the A-Series drivetrain was extensively updated with new materials and tooling to become the A-Plus while the new car would feature 12-inch wheels and all LC8s would have servo-assisted four-piston front disc brakes with fully split hydraulic systems, as opposed to the standard Mini which at the time still had 10-inch wheels and all-round drum brakes. These new drivetrains, wheels, brakes and many other featured developed for the LC8 would be introduced to the Mini in the near future, updating the 30-year old design at minimal extra cost and providing highly desirable economies of scale given the anticipated sales volumes of the new car. This would make it cost effective for the more basic versions of the Mini to remain in production as an entry-level model for BL, in place of the position originally intended for ADO88 while allowing LC8 to compete head-on with the existing superminis.

1980-**: 848 cc A-Series I4, 34 bhp (25 kW; 34 PS) at 5500 rpm and 44 lb·ft (60 Nm) at 2900 rpm (** = Date last car officially sold is currently unknown)
1980–83: 998 cc A-Series I4, 45 bhp (34 kW; 46 PS) at 5400 rpm and 53 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3000 rpm
1983–88: 998 cc A-Series I4, 41 bhp (31 kW; 42 PS) at 5500 rpm and 54 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3250 rpm (low compression option)
1983–87: 998 cc A-Series I4, 44 bhp (33 kW; 45 PS) at 5500 rpm and 54 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3250 rpm (Metro City)
1983–87: 998 cc A-Series I4, 46 bhp (34 kW; 47 PS) at 5500 rpm and 54 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3250 rpm (Metro Standard/City X)
1980–84: 998 cc A-Series I4, 47 bhp (35 kW; 48 PS) at 5500 rpm and 54 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3250 rpm (Metro HLE)
1987–90: 998 cc A-Series I4, 47 bhp (35 kW; 48 PS) at 5500 rpm and 54 lb·ft (73 Nm) at 3250 rpm
1980–83: 1275 cc A-Series I4, 60 bhp (45 kW; 61 PS) at 5250 rpm and 72 lb·ft (98 Nm) at 3200 rpm
1983–90: 1275 cc A-Series I4, 62 bhp (46 kW; 63 PS) at 5300 rpm and 72 lb·ft (98 Nm) at 3100 rpm
1984–89: 1275 cc A-Series I4, 71 hp (54 kW) at 6000 rpm and 75 lb·ft (99 Nm) at 4000 rpm (Metro Vanden Plas)
1982–89: 1275 cc A-Series I4, 72 hp (54 kW) at 6000 rpm and 75 lb·ft (99 Nm) at 4000 rpm (MG Metro)
1983–89: 1275 cc A-Series turbo I4, 93 hp (69 kW) at 6130 rpm and 85 lb·ft (115 Nm) at 2650 rpm (MG Metro Turbo)
1989–90: 1275 cc A-Series I4, 69 hp (54 kW) at 5450 rpm and 75 lb·ft (99 Nm) at 4000 rpm (Metro GTa/MG Metro)

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