This month we showcase Daz Bookers motor..read on to be amazed.
I was lucky enough to see this car in the metal at Trentham Classic Car Show in June
and believe me whatever you see on any forum about bigger lumps in Metros,this is the ultimate.
Read through Daz's words below and you will understand that he has been there and done that.
It is an absolutely superb example of both renovation and technical excellence.
If you ever fancy going down this route, ASK DAZ FIRST.
I bought my car in 1996 off my friend for £4000.
I have always had a soft spot for the rover metro gti.
I bought it as a standard single point injection gti in white.
Over the years of owning it i have made a lot of changes.
Firstly i lowered the suspension and fitted multi point injection.
I ran it like that for a few years then got a job at a rover dealer in barnsley
so i got hold of an 1800 mgf engine which needed repairing.
I stripped the engine and totally rebuilt it from scratch using all genuine parts.
I decided to fit a pair of kent cams and vernier pulleys along with a k an n filter
while i was rebuilding the engine just to give it a little more power.
I knew it would be a straight forward conversion
so one weekend i swapped it over on to the standard r65 gearbox.
Wow what a difference that engine made.
During the conversion i fitted a full janspeed exhaust system including four branch manifold.
While working at rover i came up with the idea of fitting rear disc brakes to my metro.
After a bit of research i got hold of a pair of rover 820 rear calipers and mgf rear discs
along with a pair of mounting brackets i had fabricated.
After modifying the handbrake cable they where on and working
but to no avail as the standard 13 inch wheels wouldn't fit.
So i had to get hold of a set of 14 inch team dynamic qualifiers.
I kept the car in this state for a few years then found that rust had started to set in.
So it was decided to strip it and have a respray.
I repaired all the rust and rebuilt the car keeping the 1800 engine
but added a big disc conversion bought from mike satur automotive who specialises in mgfs.
I then added a set of 15 inch compomotive mo alloys to clear the big discs.
I also fitted full leather interior out of a metro gsi but only kept this in for about 8 months
as i came across some half leather metro gti interior - i prefered the gti seats.
I had the car painted in the new paint which was out at the time
which was the green to purple flip colour.
This was ok but found out after a few minor scratches that it got expensive to maintain
as you had to paint a whole side for one scratch.
During this stage of my cars life i was still working at rover and the new rover 75 turbo had just come out.
I had been wondering for a while if the turbo would fit the metro so decided to source one.
I found one on ebay for 200 pounds and snapped it up.
The following weekend i removed the radiater and mounted the turbo and manifold to the engine.
It fitted but there would have to be a lot of mods done to get everything to fit round it.
I did quite a bit of research in to what i would need including new engine internals so out came the engine and box again
I fitted all the new parts to the engine and replaced it along with the r65 gearbox,fitted a rover 75 downpipe
and had a custom stainless exhaust made for it.
I then had to get the air filter and all the air pipes to fit but found that the standard rover 75 intercooler
was miles too big so i had a custom charge cooler made by pace products.
When I had fitted the charge cooler the radiater was next so on went a metro automatic radiater
which gave me just enough room to fit the charge cooler radiater.
I had to move the mountings on the radiater forward about two inches to clear the turbo coolant pipes and the rad was on.
The cooling fans where next, no room in the engine bay for these so on went a pair of kenlow fans on the front of the rad.
I then tried the bumper - no chance this wasnt going to fit without a lot of cutting so away i went with the air saw.
Eventually i got the bumper to fit , it looked well and more or less standard apart from the cooling fans at the front.
I then puchased an ecu from emerald and wired it in - i couldnt get it to start so a trip to emerald on a trailer sorted that.
While mapping the car at emerald we found that the injecters where too small so back home i came and at least i had it running.
A few week later another trip to emerald with the new turbo injectors in place managed to get it more power
but then found that the kent cams i had fitted where causing the engine to keep reving at high revs
so was advised by dave walker to take these out - so back home i came.
I removed the cams and fitted standard ones and also wired in the electronic two speed boost controler.
A few week later off to emerald again this time to pull 187 bhp and 198 pounds feet torque on the rollers.
I was really happy with that.
The only fault we found was that the air temp was rising on full throttle which meant that the charge cooler
wasn't quite big enough but this was left and didnt really bother me.
After running it for a few week i started to get blue smoke out of the exhaust and found that the turbo was faulty
caused by the oil getting too hot damaging the turbo bearings.
On went a new turbo along with a mocal oil cooler which cured that fault.
I ran it like this for about two years and didnt have any faults but back came the rust.
This time i decided to totally restore the car so i stripped it to the bare shell and took the shell to a place in birmingham
to have it acid dipped to eat all the rust away.
I got my shell back home and started the welding.
I ended up replacing the entire floor, inner and outer sills,doors ,boot, bonnet and wings.
I then took the shell back to birmingham to have e coated which is a rust inhibiter
and then back home to the paint shop for painting in the new mg silver.
I rebuilt the car and during the rebuild i individualised the suspension which has made a diffrence
and also fitted a pair of front and rear avo adjustable shocks along with all powder coated subframes and suspension.
Then in went the rover 200 brm gearbox and mgf gear box and engine mounts
only to find that the engine mounting needed modifying to allow the wheels to turn.
I had this modified and fitted it and then a few week later i got hold of a pair of mgtf 160 front calipers and discs
and put them on the car only to find that my wheels wouldnt fit !!
So i got hold of a set of 16 inch mgtf alloys and fitted them on the car - they looked well but the front stuck out too far.
The only way to cure this was to fit some arch extensions so i fabricated some
by using a series metro turbo arches and gti side skirts.
I had these painted and fitted them it now looked even better.
Not a lot more i could do to the car now so i've run it like this for quite a while and not had any problems.
A couple of week ago i picked a cry02 kit up off ebay which cools the inlet air temp.
I am in the process of fitting this so will let you know what happens at a later stage.
Daz and family show an admirer that engine bay.
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Could a car ever sit any better than this ?
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THAT ENGINE BAY!!!! -the turbo lump - you can see the bespoke charge cooler Daz made
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Those arches and skirts have been exceptionally well finished.
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Two holes in the bumper - one houses the oil cooler and one the charge cooler rad
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Heres a picture of the sixteen inch mgtf alloys.
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Under this back end is that rear disc/shocker set up..get to a show and have a look underneath.
Be sure to keep your hands off that tailpipe - part of the bespoke stainless exhaust.
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And maybe this lucky lad will one day inherit the Beast.
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