Starting Austin Maestro After 21 Years + Test Drive
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2021
- 1988 Austin Maestro 1.3. It was originally silver and it was painted to red. After that it was left abandoned in shed for years. About 10 years ago it was towed outside.
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Skinner Union forever ... my parents (we are Germans) went to GB for holiday about 30 years ago and they hired a car... it was a Maestro. When my dad tried to start it next morning, it refused to run.... after the battery was nearly giving up after innumerous trials, my dad opened the bonnet and:; Oh my good, it still has a carburettor!!! Then he discovered a knob on the dash.... It still had a choke!!! This is no joke.... LOL It fired first instance then but on the continent at that time no new car had a choke as they all were EFI with catalytic converters...
Congratulation for your attention to detail: original Austin Rover wheel covers!
British oldschool mechanics at their best... All very straight forward, easy to maintain and runing forever with a minimum of attention. I have a Rover SD1 Vitesse and a BL Princess 2200 HLS. Both cars were abandoned but dry stocked for over 15 years. Mechanicly undestructible and repairs especially on the Princess incredibly easy. Fanstastic access to everything!!!
I've an updated and uprated Wolseley Landcrab and a Triumph Vitesse overdrive convertible. So very simple although the cretins who got hold of the Vitesse need to be hung drawn and quartered for incompetence.
Fuaaaaa no te cansaste de escribir 😅😅
Fantastic work my friend. People in the UK will love this
I’m in the UK and I love this!
@@howard81 fucking marvelous fellow!!
@@howard81 same here 😊
I’m from the UK, and I’m ashamed of this car
@@ttbdrummer You should be ashamed of yourself making a statement like this. You have never driven a maestro , kadett , R 14 , VW Golf of that era! Maestro could meet with his competitors , look on how this car handles with the Hydragas suspension , the visibility . It was a modern car . Flexi must learn about the SU carburetor because he forgot to check the needle was stuck or to check the oil in it and that's why it ran too rich .
An Austin Maestro! Unfairly maligned due to being a BL car, fairly maligned for rusting to death.
They were really good cars. Great ride quality for their size, mechanically tough, the sportier models were fun to drive but dear god the rust! I'm glad this one's been saved, they're getting so rare now.
They rusted just like the rest of that time
There was talk about these been scrapped while still in production, they were that bad for it, montego was the same sadly.
@@procta2343 same with cars of today... being scrapped whilst still in production
@@lucyellenroe6029 Please do the motoring word a great favour, and tow it to the nearest crusher, thank you!
My great grandad had one and I also had one but I had the mg turbo version car flew I remember as kids when the family car broke down we would take my great grandads one was great never broke down
Straight pipe 1.3 Maestro - just what the doctor ordered.
It’s funny how people slag these off yet they were no worse than any other car from that era. Had an MG Turbo version and it was a cracking car. 100% reliable and never had an issue with it at all over the 5-6 years I had it.
Good cars I'm looking around for one as I do still like them! As even running rough they still run a piece of plastic tin can modern trash of todays cars wouldn't even start never mind run+,drive
89 rover or 89 vw hmm
I had one of these about 25 years ago, owned it for 8 years and covered over 100 thousand miles with no problems, only time it was in the garage was twice for a cambelt change and once for the clutch, probably one of the most reliable cars I owned.
I had a 1989 model, 1.3 litre. probably the best car I've ever had, along with my Avensis. Very easy to work on, spacious and practical. Wish they still made them. The only issue i had was the clutch cable snapping every 18months. In the end i just got a spare one from the scrapyard for £3 and kept it in the boot for a quick change
British Leyland are hated for the sake of being hated
An interesting family car design that was built with space, practicality and economy in mind, and that has actually aged quite well, I think. I hope the car is good enough to allow full renovation. She could make a decent and useful little runabout and would even make something interesting for visitors to see at classic car shows.
HubNut would be proud
I am! Great stuff.
@@HubNut confirmed
@@HubNut lol
@@HubNut lol wasn't expecting that
I used to own a 1983 Austin maestro was a great car very reliable owned 3 years they where a lot better than they where made out to be so many memories watching this I loved mine
Underrated cars
Very much loved mine
I own a 1983 Maestro
I'm amaised at the great condition that Maestro is in after all those years, they were know as absolute rust buckets. I'm surprised it didn't fall apart when you started to tow it.
Its kinda amazing how little rust this thing has, considering where it sits for so many years.
My Grandad had one with the Perkins diesel engine, those engines were indestructible.
weak link was low hanging oil filter - easily snapped off. one came in dealership for running rough and iol leak. conrod poking out of the block and no oil filter on - but still drove to dealership...
Perkins Prima..... a "Diesel-ised" O- series engine.
Very strong and efficient engine 👍👍
Great engine, a bugger to work on.
@@sthompson1000 still got the scar when the snapon socket shattered [ on the really tight clearance, - so use a 3/8 drive socket]on the head bolts doing a headgasket 33 yrs ago
@@sthompson1000 these are quite simple when you know what you're doing
As soon as I saw the A series engine under the bonnet I knew it would run. Shame about the small exhaust leak though!
Great resurrection. My grandfather had a 1.6 Maestro in the same metallic red in the late 80s. He liked the power and didn't mind the Golf gearbox but complained about the suspension, it lacked the refinement his Princess had provided.
Lovely to hear an a series with no exhaust again, I drove Minis from the age of 11 to 17 round the farm at home, neved had an exhaust or brakes for long. Learned things then that have kept me running since.
Chapeau!
Good old 'A' Series for you, first used in the Austin A30 as an 803cc in 1951
Used in pretty much everything
Same model as the one I used to have... Got me and the family around France and Belgium
I like that he just gets to it,no bull about it just does it.
This must be one of those rare models where they actually bothered to rust-proof the metalwork... :P
Like the rest of the cars of that time then...
Maestro/Montego were dreadful rustbuckets even back in the day. Note the plant growing through the floor at the start. Respect for the effort to get it running again.
Not really any worse than Ford's or Japanese cars the same age. We had an Escort and a Fiesta and they both started rusting before my friends Maestro did. Maestro felt a nicer car in some ways too as much as I loved the Ford's.
@@MrFlazz99 again, the rest of the cars of that era were the SAME. Not just Austin Rover
They were no better or worse for rusting than anything else of the time.
A B/L Maestro (1,3 HLS I guess)...I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen one of those, in my country they were not popular cars. As usual you did a great job, thank you so so much for bringing it to life again! And please don’t scrap it: it’s more than rare, it’s a unique car nowadays!
Still fairly common as far as cars from this era go in the UK, not many 2.0efis though
I lived in Italy for 31 years and i May have see only One or two in my whole Life when i was a kid, propably owned by British tourist, here i wonder if they were available to buy at all, super rare car getting used parts for it must be a nightmare!
@@gillespriod5509 they were definitely sold new in Italy but just very unpopular, why would you buy this when you can buy a Fiat Ritmo or VW Golf for the same price?
It is crazy how cars are abandoned like this in Europe (presumably due to inspections?). Cars in the U.S are driven until the rocker panels are completely gone, blown exhaust and a major drivetrain failure. It is very rare to see a car under 200k miles scrapped here unless it was a particularly unreliable model.
Roadworthiness tests are v strict so render cars uneconomical to repair
That could be down to spare parts too, getting hold of bits in Europe might not be as easy as it is in the uk. But then again i have bought bits for a metro that i couldn't get hold of in the uk, from the netherlands.
I was really surprised how solid it looked when you showed the undercarriage, even spending only 10 years in the field it's held up very well. I'd say even with as rough as the interior is, this would be a candidate to restore or at least make a daily driver. There must have been 50 or 100 of these with tidy trim and rotten body for every one with solid metal!
It's MUCH happier now! Nice job.
😚👍
Very Impressive stuff, Nice to see it living again, would be worth restoring as it looks pretty solid. i love old british leyland stuff ive got a couple of rovers myself :)
I pulled one out of a barn once it was covered in rolled oats ,I washed it took it for an mot and then did over 2k miles around france fantastic car it even got stolen from the scrap yard years later
We had a 1989 "Special" model in red. It was such a nice car to drive.
Sounds like a Rolls-Royce Merlin on start up!!!!!!
Great Car in pretty good shape!! I had never seen a Austin Maestro before. I love the colour.
Your videos are pure natural ASMR 💯💯💯💯
Quite bad for rot these Austin Maestros but this one looks 🆗
Hello from across the pond in the UK 👋🏻🇬🇧👍🏻
Great video flexiny, great work, another classic bought back to life👌👍😀
A-Series engine never let's you down!
They always start right up , even after 21 years of sitting :)
Funny how in the Maestro they mounted it backwards, now all the easy to access parts are behind, like oil filter and alternator and spark plugs and dipstick, are all behind the engine now, when normally in minis they are facing you right there
Where they are kept drier?
It had to be turned 180 degrees to use the end-on gearbox as opposed to the gearbox in sump with the intermediate drive used on older BL vehicles.
@@philtowle4683 No, they stopped as soon as it rained.
@@sthompson1000 don't talk rubbish, they run what ever the weather
Beautiful. Such underrated cars. And, who doesn't love a straight pipe!
Please cherish her dearly and make her in top shape!!!!
Thank God we don't have big problems with rust in Brazilian countryside 🙏
I daily drive one of these on my channel :) great job getting it going
I see Rovers & a FIAT Coupe, I spot some vintage computer equipment.. Instantly subscribed!
@@savagesam205 cheers Sam appreciate ya :)
That needs the ed chiner treatment
We had a 1993 Maestro diesel, and loved it! In 7 years I replaced two lamps, that's all.
Quite amazing really! Thank you for putting in the effort and showing us!
1988 Maestro, registered in Estonia 12.12.1994
Couldn't of been when these were made on Bulgaria in the late 1990's and Rover stopped producing these in 1994 but they didn't ship any as LHD
Always adhere to safety when working on automobiles. Classic and underrated find, man. Popular in the 90s, when I was born, too. Lol. Childhood!
Excellent work, thanks for uploading this. I hope the car is saved.
I know it's an ugly old girl but they are so rare now, even back in the UK where they were made and were once hundreds of thousands of them. Only 127 still exist here. Very rare.
I see the one in Czech Republich recently.
Last time i saw a maestro in person, was at a MG live, and it was an MG version, which are even rarer. it was the only one that turned up for MG live and it was the maestros 30 birthday, MG live though never gave the Maestro a lickings of a dog at all, or even a mention, which was very poor, on MG lives part. The bloke entered it in light your MG, and it won, but that was only due to the fact it was the only maestro there, and they took pity. The owner had put the hazards on and some glow sticks. Still a winner in my eyes still, as it was the only one that turned up. The owner said that he did ask other owners, but there were only a spit full. This was going back in 2013, and facebook was still very young at the time and owners groups were not even thought about back then. One easy car to work on though compared to the modern shite now.
@@procta2343 I've see a black MG Maestro from time to time as it's local to me.
I brought one for £30 in 2005 lol
@@yassarali8274 you were robbed
My Grandad bought one of these around 20 years ago for £10 from an auction. 27000 miles on the clock! 2.0 auto colour coded bumpers and chrome door handles and loads of rust up the arches!
F reg
Great work and thanks for uploading. Nice to see a survivor; possibly a 'Special' or 'City X' or equivalent version?
I remember my parents used to own a 1985 1.3L 5 spd when it was only 18mnths old; recall the comfortable & spacious interior.
Clubman spec. These were made in Varna
Wow, ready for a full on restoration, they are super rare now!
Very nice video. Fantastic repair Works. Grettings from Zagreb Croatia 😊😊😊
Fantastic patina, enjoyed every second.
Kinda sounds like a VW Bug. 😊 Good job getting it running again.
yea with less maintenance lol
Same engine as a mini
Another great video but I must say something......Being from the UK, I appreciate most American engines have accelerator pumps, this carb however does not, pumping the throttle is not necessary or useful, plus you MUST add a small amount (two to three drips) of light oil to the dashpot piston under the big black thumbscrew on the top of the SU carb, it makes all the difference. I am surprised there is any metal left in this car, they fell apart in the UK fairly quickly. The A series engines though were always good, gutless but reliable, they ruined these vehicles with the dreaded ''O'' series engine. Thanks again for another great video.
Yes, the O series was a retrograde step as far as refinement, reliability,& power output from the earlier A ,B & even the E series Maxi unit! It seems it was designed more for economy & emmisons reasons. The early MG Maestro with the R series & it twin Weber DCNF's are a rare beast😳
I don't recall anything wrong with the O series. Since my Countryman estate has one with carb and stepper motor, the punch and refinement I get is tops compared to my A series Maestro. They didn't ruined it at all
Wow that was my first car, good to see this one running
congratulations...great motor of austin maestro!!! 👍
Museum tanks from the war also start up and drive!!!))) Thank you for the reviews!!!)))
Damn 21 years, it is running like new
To me it sounds like its running rough. However, i'm only up to 8:43 in the video, so perhaps it smoothens out from there, or i'm just none the wiser about old diesels.
@@adelaideautowashes plot twist, it’s a petrol 😂
@@mcmcolm Ohhhh... my bad bro. Sounded like a diesel to me.
Thanks for getting the old girl going again!
still looks in really good shape want's saving
This one brings back the memories!
The good old trusty A series, great engines
I personally love the shape of the maestro it all looks.
My dad had a maestro back in the day..1.3 4 speed...USD 118 Y long gone now
Excellent. I think you have the basis for a good car there.
Had one for 8 years / 100k miles. No rot and only minor repairs in that time. Was sad to see it go, when wiped out in a head-on collision.
Ah the venerable "A" series engine. I drove one of these as a hire car once - did OK but would have preferred the Perkins diesel version.
I had the Maestro 1300 Petrol Van .(1275 Mini engine) Great vehicle. Surprisingly nippy and roomy.
Absolutely fantastic, if you can you should restore it, they are very rare cars now and becoming sort after, thanks for posting.
That is the cleanest Austin Maestro I have ever seen, those cars rotted for fun.
Not strictly true. All cars of that era used very similar metal, again these get something but shit yet a Ford never does but they also rotted. If you think that's the cleanest one you've even seen then you haven't seen my pristine 4
Another facineted star after years of sting 🤘👍
I had a 2L petrol injection one. It went like a rocket and was lovely to drive either as a pootle or when pushed hard... Sad to get rid of it, but...the rust....
Well done there fella, be nice to restore that, not too sure where you stand for spares though, There are not many on the roads in the uk, and the last time i saw one in the scrap yard was back in 2008, and that was in worse condition than this one. looking at some bits and pieces you can see the rover metro.
Getting a maestro to run when new was hard enuff well done
Repaint, new exhaust and it's done.
Not strictly true
Roof lining needs attention 😆
Who needs roofs bro? Just cut the thing and make a convertible
@@SummonerArthur Lol yeah there's a little question of structural integrity of the car and handling though.
@@SummonerArthur if you cut the roof off you can weaken the cars structure and cause the car to band in half. No joke-
Like always...good job guys👌👌
I was waiting for the damper pot to be checked, we did this in servicing 👍
BMC, BLMC, Rover/Austin got so much use out of the A series engine, dam it now I want to get back into Mini's again lol, good video
There is also a diesel version of the A series, the 950D. BMC at the time tasked Riccardo Bros with developing a small diesel for the mini van and pick up back in the 60's and they based it on the A series engine but BMC being BMC didn't think diesels would catch on in cars and vans so they shelved it. Nuffield then used them in the Nuffield BMC mini tractor and G & M Powerplants used them in a small generator set 6 or 8 Kva I think. It was at the time the smallest inline 4 cylinder water cooled diesel engine in production the world at 948cc and produces a whopping 16hp. I have both the tractor and generator and it's amazing how many mini, leyland, BMC etc etc experts out there don't even know it exists.
Half expected the car to split in two soon as you started dragging it out
Ironically worth saving as they’re extremely rare now!
Good car ! I've got this one in 1987; Super !
E' un motore che non vuole morire! Bel video!
Had two ,an early 1.3 HLE and an 89 1.3 ,better than the people thought,used VW gearboxes.
I have an early HLE. 1983 in Rattan beige
I'm amazed that it started!!!!!
OMG used to drive one of those maestro diesel awesome little car
Another amazing video,👍👍👍👍👌👌👌
How the hell, is a car you could watch dissolving in the rain still be around at that age. These cars were made of really poor metal and had serious bubble rust and required wielding in as little as 6 years. Thanks for sharing.
I owned 2 of these....i loved em both....
Highly sort after in the uk now
My Nan had one of those when I was little she’d pick me up from primary school in it. Not the Same colour as this one hers was white and I also remember it didn’t like going threw puddles either cloncked out every time. The only thing it was good for was short trips and at least it didn’t leak
I'd stick a new exhaust on it and drive it, no problems. Love it.
and sand it and just brush paint it with a thick coat of red paint...cars like this are great as long as u dont spend lots of money and time on them
it is rare to see this car in Europe, it is easier to find some still circulating in England.
wow good job man😍 i love it
I love this content!
Well done, the battery you put seems really strong...
У меня был Austin Montego 1986 года выпуска, куплен был в Эстонии, потом поездил с 1994 года в Санкт-Петербурге до 2001 года и после уже сломался. Хорошая машина создавалась инженерами, а не маркетологами.
It may not have been the best looking car on the road back in 80s , but it was far from being the worst car ,two friends had them and a friend also had the Maestro style yellow van ,that once BT used ,its actually great to see a piece of British to look back on , thats ours! , rather than no achievement in any manufacturing ,we need industry back , bring back these jobs ,Do it better
Alternatore da visionare. Eee forse la pompa acqua. Scusa della mia inesistenza nel descrivere.. sei un grande!@
I have a 2ltr Maestro Clubman Diesel on my driveway in British Racing Green. I bought it to have it totally renovated but Ill health has put a stop to that and I am now going to have to sell it, I’m gutted because it’s got a cracking engine in it,I had a new one of these in 1994 and I regret the day I parted with it,those turbo diesels were great and brilliant on fuel.
That engine might fit in my Wolseley Landcrab - I was planning a project to diesel it.. Health problems too and scammed to the tune of £3.500
@@rosiehawtrey The best Diesel engine to go into your Landcrab is the old BMC 1800 Sherpa engine,it’ll drop straight in without too much of a problem because they used the same engine block as the Petrol engine,I did give some thought to putting the Maestro engine into a late registered Princess or Ambassador for the same reason,the engine blocks are identical so everything fits as far as I’m aware,I had many Landcrabs over the years and always wanted the Wolseley 18/ 85 but couldn’t afford one and now I can I can’t find a good one.
Looks like the mainland Europe equivalent of the UK Clubman model, with metal bumpers, but relatively well appointed interior.
Nice job ! I'm impatient to see you worked with an italian car 😁
Will e Gus reformou um desse carrinho legal d+++ um abraço do 🇧🇷
MG Maestro turbo underated car.
It's an A series - bloody indestructible and is still used as the backup APU on UK tanks.
This was one of the first mass produced cars to have a computerised engine management system. I wouldn't be too quick in judging it.
Unfortunately it was very erratic. The car would rev up for no reason when idling, or when restarted with the engine warm it would cut out altogether after about 200 metres. The later models ditched the electronic management systems and were quite reliable but the first series were released before a lot of problems had been sorted properly.
@@gibb253 The issue was the automatic choke. It used an electronically controlled stepper motor. Very advanced for the time. Many cars were retrofitted with a manual choke because a lot of garages had no clue about electronics.... Just like now!
@@colintinker7778 It’s a pity I didn’t know that at the time! Having your motor cut out as you were accelerating in heavy traffic was not a fun experience, as you can imagine. Unfortunately, when the leading German car magazine tested the Maestro it performed exactly the same trick, and I remember they said ironically that the British engineers were proud of the fact that their electronically controlled carburettor could match a fuel injection system for efficiency, but in fact it took its fuel saving task so seriously that it cut off the fuel supply completely. I was one of the first European customers for the car, having been convinced by the wildly enthusiastic British motoring press that it was a match for the Golf. If they’d done another year’s development, it would have been. It was stylish, comfortable and spacious, but the list of woes did not stop with the carb. The voice synth would randomly deliver alarm messages telling you to stop the engine, the bumpers were made of brittle plastic that shattered when a Fiat Panda nudged me, causing no damage at all to itself, and the plastic hub caps clipped onto the wheel nuts, so if you braked repeatedly going down a twisty road, they would soften with the heat and fall off. There were also problems with the mounting of the VW gearbox to the A series, causing oil to leak onto the clutch plates. I know these things were sorted after a couple of years of production, but they stopped the car from being the Europe-wide success it could have been
@@gibb253 Not exactly a glowing report for the Maestro!
There's no way a carburettor could match a fuel injection system. Even with added gizmos it couldn't respond as quickly and as accurately as a fuel injector.
I can add to the list of Maestro issues... They were also recalled due to catching fire! A wiring harness would chafe through to bare wires where it rubbed on the gearbox.
I remember an exploding bumper incident. I was along side a Maestro when it hit the back of a lorry at a roundabout. The sky was raining bits of front bumper. Tiny pieces of plastic everywhere.
@@colintinker7778 I've never know the Maesteo because recalled for fire issues let alone one spontaneous catching fire. The carb with stepper is actually quite responsive as I've got one in my Montego and HLE
Super bro keep going on
Ese coche está pidiendo a gritos una restauración profunda !! Hazlo !! Quedan pocos Rover!
I have happy memories of my Maestro and the Montego that I replaced it with. Much more practical than today's chip-infested rubbish.
I had the montego turbo fast as fook. 150mph no problem it was 1987 .
had an old maestro back in the early 90s, chugged between London and Newcastle for years.... need a part go to the scrapyard. happy days
@@SuperJ8son And the spec for that car lists a *very* optimistic 126MPH. Unless you meant the top speed when dropped off a cliff?
Somebody still changed oil regularly during those 21. Oil filter looks like new one.