Turning a mundane Montego into a cool machine

Regardless of how hard Austin Rover tried to spruce it up, the Austin Montego could never be described as a cool car. There may have been a turbocharged MG version and a snazzy two-tone paint option, but travelling salesmen still flocked to Ford Sierras and Vauxhall Cavaliers instead.

Launched in 1984, the Montego was hamstrung due to the need to share its central section with the aesthetically flawed Austin Maestro to save costs. In the background, there was a revolving door of designers and, when Roy Axe was finally tasked to finish the work, his pricey recommendation to restart the whole project fell on deaf ears.

As a result, seductive looks were not a selling point of the Montego so, when Terry Loxton decided to race one, it begged a very simple question: why?

“My dad had them years ago,” recalls Loxton. “I remember he got an estate, and it was just so embarrassing at the time. I loved the saloon, but he got an estate. I don’t know what it is, but now I feel the other way!”

Originally built in 2006 by Andy Campbell, this 1993 Countryman-specification Montego went on to win the MG Owners’ Club Championship that year. Since then, it bounced around a few owners and was rebuilt with MG ZR running gear after a severe accident at Brands Hatch.

Following that component transplant, it acquired the MG Montego title, but Austin Rover enthusiasts will recall that there was no such thing as an MG Montego estate – except, strangely enough, for the New Zealand market. Loxton acquired the car last year and had to rebuild it to return the estate to its former glory.

Loxton stripped the Montego right back over the winter to transform the car’s handling

“What happened was there was some rust on it,” explains Loxton. “It was getting a bit tired. I’m a body man and I started to do it and realised it was in a bit more of a sorry state than I thought. I got totally carried away, so we ended up taking most of it back down to bare metal and starting again, cutting some more out, making it a bit lighter right to the limit of the regs. We’re really surprised by how light it is.

“We cut out everything we could. In the doors, all sorts of bits in the quarter panels, and then just left everything up front so it’s actually got the bumper on and everything running in the front to counter the fact that all the weight is in the roof. We’re right down to around 950kg too.”

Compared to the structural surgery and the fancy new paint job, the oily bits have had relatively little work. The four-cylinder, 170bhp Rover K-Series power unit recently had a new head, so the engine wasn’t touched during the off season, but the suspension geometry needed revising since it was “all over the shop”, according to Loxton.

"It’s really surprisingly nimble. Surprisingly faster than you’d think. It’s really rigid because it’s braced up here and everywhere, so it’s up on three wheels all the time!" Terry Loxton

A new set-up, featuring significantly different toe settings, was dialled in and, after a day at Snetterton sorting it out on track, the car was transformed.

It’s clear the extent to which the winter tidy-up has improved the car, with Loxton taking two Equipe MG Cup class podiums at Brands in March and following that up with a first in class and third overall at Cadwell Park a month later.

Now looking at it, you would think that the old estate is a bit of a barge, but Loxton says it’s actually a remarkably agile machine. Its chassis stiffness makes it a handy track weapon, with its long wheelbase allowing the car to be superb through long sweepers.

Having once been embarrassed by his dad’s Montego estate, Loxton now feels the opposite

“It’s really surprisingly nimble,” says Loxton. “Surprisingly faster than you’d think. It’s really rigid because it’s braced up here and everywhere, so it’s up on three wheels all the time! It’s unbelievable, I can’t express how good it is. An estate shouldn’t feel that way.”

The Montego is currently getting a breather after some demo runs at Super Touring Power in July resulted in the engine blowing a head gasket. But, even though it’s currently out of commission while the motor is sorted, Loxton remains optimistic regarding his next plans for the car.

“We’re going to keep running it this season and run it next season as well,” he explains. “We might dabble in class D, moving up from class B. We’re debating whether we’ll run a 190bhp engine, the high compression K-Series, and run it on slicks. It would be nice to try the 190 as I think the chassis can handle it, but 200bhp would be lovely!”

Austin Rover’s rather clumsy efforts to market the car in period meant that the Montego was always seen as a bit of a lemon, but now Loxton might have the rarest model of them all: a Montego that genuinely is cool.

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The Montego is an unlikely competition car, but Loxton says it’s surprisingly nimble