This one was Eddie's first car. He was a bit late in getting his driving license, but went straight in for a GTI (of sorts!). I recall that he had a general disregard for it, and used to drive it like a loony - presumably to catch up on all his mates who'd already been through their schoolboy racer phases (some of us perhaps never will get through it)?
One evening we drove it from Essex to Yorkshire. Halfway there there was a big crack and something bounced off the side of the car. How I laughed when we arrived and discovered it was the indicator unit that had decided it could not longer live with the car.
It also stank of dogs, and by the time it came into my ownership, Eddie had half dismanted the interior, partly for cleaning purposes I think. He'd got a company car by then and needed rid of it, so I picked it up with no MOT with the intention of perhaps a bit of Autocross!
Eventually after it had sat around annoying my wife for many months I decided I'd MOT is and use it on the road for a while. After fiddling for ages trying to make it run for more than 2 mins at a time (turned out to be a faulty fuel relay - common fault apparently), it made it to the MOT station under its own steam (2nd attempt). It failed on a small hole in the floor, rear exhaust box, but it was also borderline on emissions with a sticking valve.
I didn't bother putting it on the road, but did fibre glass up the hole, bought some 2nd hand knobblies and entered it with Mark Andrews into a local Autocross.
Not sure the scrutineer was very impressed with it, but it did meet all the rules. It actually ran rather well, and Mark and I held the top 2 places in the stock class which annoyed a few regulars (Maestros do handle well due to their very wide track). The day was cut short due to exessive dust - probably just in time as the car developed more holes in the floor pan on every run. The only bit of the floor that didn't have a hole was the fibre-glassed bit, and there was worryingly little metal holding the floor to the sill by the end of the day!
After that there was only one destination for the car!
MG Meastro EFi - C532RAB
