Group B bomb returns in very limited edition
British Motorsport Tools, known for pepped-up Ford Escort Mk 1 and 2, is taking production of a contemporary version of the MG Metro 6R4. The car gets a supercharged V6 from Audi behind its front seats, is largely made of carbon fiber and is street legal. Production will start next year and the British price has already been announced.
When you think of the heyday of rallying, you quickly think of the Group B period of the WRC. In that category, Audi combined four-wheel drive with turbo technology for the first time, making the cars so much faster that the class was soon found to be ‘too dangerous’ and Group B died a not so quiet death. What made Group B even more appealing than it already did was that the cars that participated in it were not homologated until the manufacturer behind them also marketed street-legal variants.
That led to road cars like the Lancia 037 Stradale, Audi Sport Quattro and… the MG Metro 6R4. Because the latter was based on the downright lame MG Metro, we can label its homologation variant as one of the most remarkable cars from the already colorful 1980s. All the more fun that the British Motorsport Tools (MST) is now breathing new life into the model.
More than €300,000 before taxes
The company makes all-new carbon fiber bodies that are virtually identical to the bodies of the MG Metros of yesteryear. Thanks to Autocar, who spoke to MST, we already know a bit more about it. For example, MST will start production of the 6R4 next year (the company does not have the rights to the name MG Metro), it will first make five copies in 2024 and the car will cost in the United Kingdom from £ 295,000 (more than €333,000), excluding taxes.
Behind the front seats of the 6R4, the company places a V6 from Audi’s shelves, namely the supercharged copy that served in the B8 generation of the Audi S4, among others. MST increases its power to 450 hp, which reaches all four wheels via a sequential gearbox. What the car will weigh is not yet known, but we’re guessing it won’t be much more than 1,000 kg. Whether MST will build more than the initially planned five street-legal copies is still unclear.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl