Few people have said start a build thread of our Maestro Track Car.

This piss take of a car is owned by myself (Jase, the funny sounding brummy), and Ratty (Cornish cider drinking Pikey Mother F**cker, who needs anger management and hair colour thats not ginger)

First things first, it was a bit of challenge from another forum when some bloke with a cossie took Ratty up on a comment he made regards cossies and the poor rear beam that ford decided to fit.

Basically the guy seemed to think that nothing would out handle a standard cossie rear beam and Ratty made a comment that we could build a maestro that would whip is ass around track,

Yes thats tight, a MAESTRO, the old thing grannys used to drive before they died.

So we went looking to find a non grotty, rusty Maestro shell for the conversion, (that was our biggest challange).
I drove down to Devon to see a MG that was 'mint', mint was about right, this one resembled polo mints, because that too had holes in it everywhere.
It was rusty the sheriffs badge, as was the other 10 we looked at

We then came across what could be described as a mint Vanden Plas (bet you all dribbling now), Leather, talking computer, it was a stunner and we promised it would be kept lovely.

That day we gutted the shit out of it and Ratty got his welder out, in went a safety devices modified cage with additional side bars, it also triangulated to the struts and braced to the shell up the A/B pillars making the shell very very stiff.
We cut out all the door inners and just left the outer skins and basically removed as much weight as possible, remembering these cars weighed about 1060kg when new

We then added in some thicker Anti rolls Bars, and sourced some Leda Suspension (in the 80s this was around £2K, we paid a couple hundred for it)
We also got some old skool 16" comps fitted.


I then trailered the shell to a friend of friend, namley Wonky (bloke with one eye) and George (fooking 20 stone Glaswegian, built like a brick shit house and hard has fuck with a 8 inch glass scar running down his face), this was when someone obviously mis-took his face for a bottle bank.

They kindly gave it a lick of black paint just to make it look a little fresher, it wasn't the mintiest spray job, but for £500 inc prep and paint we wernt moaning.








Once the shell was back we started to build it back up making wiring looms, fitted new bearings, removed anything rubber and replaced with Poly or needle bearings.

The fronts were fitted with new callipers and to the rear got fitted with LDV drums (for now)

We got some B16 calipers from Nuts off here a used Rover 827 disks as we are only slowing down 800kg, we are now moving to bells and rotors in the next stage of the build

We also had trouble with the 16" wheels catching so moved down to 15s to run 205/50/15

We then got hold of some 5 point harnesses and some seats














We then fitted a 2nd hand Ex Track Maestro Turbo engine, the spec was

2.0 O Series
Lowered Compression
Lightened and Balanced Crank
4 Paddle Clutch
Flowed Head
Twin Carb set up (instead of Single)
75mm Intercooler
16 Row Oil Cooler
Maestro T3 Turbo

We turned up the boost and this was the result

224bhp & 240 ft lb




(notice how power drops off, think that turbo was a little small) but it came with the engine


We then did a couple of track days but knew that turbo was too small so we moved to a bigger Cossie T3 Unit, a new set of needles, better fuel pump and another hour on the rollers.

This time we had a more success, notice it dont drop off so quick, also the torque is getting interesting

240bhp & 265ft lb, the torque goes from 80ftlb to 250ft lb in 2500rpm, it was like a step ladder




After this we did a few more track days including Swindon Day at Combe in 2008, Llandow e.t.c

We made more modifications to the car, and reduced weight where we could

Me and Ratty then went on diet as I was 16st 10lb and Ratty was about 15 and a half Stone and pretty, well, fat................

On the same weekend this year (Combe Bristol & Swindon), Ratty is about 12.5 Stone and I am 13.5 Stone so we lost 6 Stone between us,

Here some pics from 2008 Combe


Notice Fat Ratty and Jase killing the power to weight and the quality shopping list of chosen parts such as bread, milk, cheese, Durex

Also the 'yes its a maestro on the bonnet'









Once combe finished last year we wasnt sure what to do, we thought about selling up, having a break, but the gooon was a little addictive

We have so may people say 'that thing is so funny, it shouldnt do what it does, its just not right'.

So we put our heads together to work out what to do next.

We decided the brakes were pretty poor to be honest, we had 3 inches of pedel travel before the brakes were solid, we also wanted to make more suspension tweaks and we needed more power, we were awesome through the corners but on the straights we didnt have the power you get in a 400bhp cossie

We had good fun on track with our good Alan Partidge look a like friend (Loader) in his 380ish powered 2wd Saff, we were quicker through the corners but he then would pull away some down the straights, as soon we hit the corners again we were side by side, the cars were quite even on the day and gave us a good bench mark.

We then fitted a Brake Bias box and this year went to sort the turbo out, we moved to a Cossie T34 with a .48 housing, this also needed a new downpipe as the old one was very restrictive.

The brake bias box has helped but has been with its problems, this will get ironed out in Autumn 2009, but the turbo was a massive success

I picked up the turbo from Vince around the corner and drove to Chippenham to Rattys to start making the down pipe, look at the differences between the turbo's and down pipes.
It took us all day to make the down pipe and fit it

We also got some new wheels and new tyres as our old 888's were killed in just one track day at Llandow (abrasive tarmac)

We also fitted a Greddy Profec Boost controller from Costina as the bleed valve wasnt the best way of setting boost to be honest

This was finished and then down to Slarks for another rolling road set up





















This time it went very well

255bhp & 320ftlb

We then fitted some poly carb to the windws to remove top end weight and added

'pride of longbridge stickers'

and

Austin Maestro 1.3 L Stickers











Safe to say it went very well, and upset quite a few Jap Cars

We were running around 1:21s/1:22s through the day, even with a brake issue and some stutters through the corners

We also did Mini Day last week at combe and this was when it all went a little pear shaped.

We were going very well, running low 11s AFR's, 22lb boost on T34 and passing mini's like they were standing still and then we had a massive loss of power
We limped in did some remidel work, took it back out but was still down

We did a couple more sessions about 100bhp down and then it was time to go home, the engine had been getting tired for the last few track days with a bit of smke on upshift so the decision was to strip down and rebuild

Stay with me it gets interesting

We decided to rebuild the Carbs, freshen the bottom end, new set of pistons and a redesign of the inlet, the problem is that the O series has the inlet and exhaust on the same side of the head, which is not ideal for space or heat.
We like the characteristics of the O series but everything we have done (inc twin carb set up) as been all our own doing, not many people have pushed these engine so far on power.

We then did some chatting about Audi Lumps, Saab Lumps, Volvo/ford 5 cylinder e.t.c, but fabrication and off the shelf items were not great, so we did some research on T16 Rover lumps and this is route we are heading

The running gear can stay the same as we use a modified K7AR with steel cage bearings and as we were going to rebuild the O series we thought we may as well rebuild a T series instead, this gives us an engine with space, turbo on the front, inlet on the back (similar to RS Turbo)

So this is the new spec and also the plans for the car over next 12 months with the aim being combe 2010

T16 engine, plan is to max out our T34 turbo but with a .63 or go GT30 and move to injection

Forged rods
Weight matched forged pistons
8.0:1
Lightened and Balanced knife-edged crank
Lightened flywheel
Extra block and head breathers
Studded Block
Ported head
Bigger inlet and exhaust valves 34mm / 31mm
270/285 Cam
Bronze guides
Either MLS Gasket or wire ringed
Tubular ex manifold
Verniers
DTA management , coilpack and 660 injectors
T34.63 or GT30

Rebuild gearbox with Gripper diff
Relocate the brake pedal box to inside cockpit
Front discs replaced for bells and rotors
Rear disc brake conversion
Rebuild shocks
Replace rear springs
Corner weight the car and tweak suspension a little more
New fuel cell and swirl pot
Changes to roll cage to stiffen chassis
Carbon bonnet
Polycarb the boot window
New look, graphics and paint



Say hello to 360bhp & 360ftlb lb


What do you reckon guys, should be fun @ 796kg

Let us know if you like and what you think of the goooon

Big thanks to Loader to has kept us inspired, and the people who always offer help and advice