Metro ADO 88 - LC 8 -
R6
With the Allegro been
launched and the Mini still selling well, it was decided in around
1973 to look at a model that would slot in between. So the first
concept car styled by Harris Mann was called the ADO74, two
versions were look at, with the larger of the two finding favor. it
was designed round the following dimensions, wheelbase of 7ft 6ins
(90 ins), it was 5ft 1.5ins wide and 11ft 6ins long. The suspension
would have probable been the conventional MacPherson struts at the
front with torsion bars at the rear. Wheels and tyres would have
used the 12ins from the Mini or the 13ins from the
Allegro.
In 1973 with Lord Stokes at
the helm, he made a statement that British Leyland would be
spending £500 million on producing new models and new engines, to
raise production from 1.1 million to 1.5 million vehicles per year.
At the same time he announced that he would be standing down from
been chairman, and the post would be taken up by John Barber was
the finance man. So the first thing he decided to axe was the ADO
74, as he thought it was too large and at a projected cost of £130
million could not be justified, so it was scraped.
With the ADO 74 killed off, it was now time to start with a clean
sheet, so the new car was born. The car would now become a
replacement for the Mini, although slightly larger with a wheel
base of 7 ft 4 ins (88 ins) hence it was called ADO 88, its strange
that they were still using the Austin code system.
As can be seen from the pictures below it went through various
stages of styling. But was now starting to look like the car that
was launched.
Spen King who was put in
charge of product development for British Leyland and the man
chosen to oversee the product development at Longbridge was Charles
Griffin, who had a wealth of experience working on designs from the
1960s.
The funding for the project would come from the government, with a
estimates of £30 million for the development.
So with the funding in place, work started. Because of the cost
restraints it was necessary to raid the “parts bin”. So many parts
as possible would be carried over from the Mini. It was thought at
the time that the car could be out at the latest by the early part
of 1978.
The same A-Series engine and gearbox-in sump of the Mini would be
used. Various upgrades were looked at, even OHV version. In the end
small changes were made and it became the A-Plus, which powered the
Metro up to 1991. On the suspension side the Hydragas units as used
in the Allegro, but they would be interconnected side to side and
not as in the Allegro front to rear. This arrangement of the
suspension gives the body designers more freedom which results in a
remarkable spacious and airy interior in such a short boy
length.
With the package all-but finalized, David Bache who had stylized
Rover SD-1 was brought in to oversee the final styling and
production engineering of ADO88: the Metro was now entering the
latter and drastically vital stages of development. A final
full-size clay models were prepared for viewing in October 1975.
After various small changes taking place, by April 1976 the final
approval was given.
While all this tweaking on the body was taking place, the engine
and chassis departments needed to do development work. There are
two main stages in the course of producing a new car. The first
stage is called Semi-Engineered Prototypes (SEP), these have hand
built bodies and have mechanical components either off the shelf or
custom made. By November 1975 the first SEP was ready for track
testing etc. The wheelbase had now grown to 88.6 ins from the
original 87 ins, with the extra at the front end, this allowed a
little more room under the bonnet, it also gave more body at the
front end that would allow it to comply with the stiffer legal
requirements for crash testing. By the middle of 1976 ten SEP had
been built, all of these would have specific tasks to complete in
the testing programme.
With the development in full swing, it was now time to prepare all
the tooling etc for the manufacture, it was decided that it could
be ready to launch in October 1979.
The project now moved into the Fully-Engineered Prototype (FEP)
stage, this time a total of seventeen would be built, these having
body panels pressed from soft tooling. By the summer of 1977 the
first one was ready for testing and evaluation.
FEP
Mock-up
It was around this time
that doubts were been raised, was this car right for the market
place. The problem is that the major body press tooling along with
plastic tooling have to be started about two and a half years
before the cars launch.
Although various options
were looked at, the decision was made to completely re-skin the
body. So in a time scale of just five weeks a very short time scale
in which to carry out a restyle. In the end two full scale clay
models were ready for trying in another public clinic. This time
the feedback was positive, so the management gave the go ahead on
11th January 1978. The new version was given the code name LC 8
standing for Leyland Cars 8, so the Austin Drawing Office (ADO)
reference was now dead.
LC 8 Styling
Studio Longbridge
Of cause this restyle had
put the programme back by about one year, so the launch was now
scheduled for October 1980. It was also decided that it in its new
form it could slot in between the Mini and the Allegro. So what
were the main changes, the front end nose was improved along with a
front spoiler. The shape of the doors changed and now had proper
door handles, with the tailgate angled forward. Interior changes
were made to make it look more spacious and airy, along with better
quality trim. One of the main improvements came with the rear seats
which would fold down to give an estate car position. but in stead
of splitting 50/50, they split 66/33 there by giving the option of
having one, two or three people on the rear seat, with the increase
of luggage space if needed. Yet another idea from Longbridge that
was soon adopted the world over.
There were no changes made to the mechanical side but further
testing was carried out to see if the body changes would affect the
aerodynamics and handling. Testing had to be carried out on the ADO
88 FEPs either on the public roads or at the MIRA proving ground
near Nuneaton. At the end of 1978 ten FEPs LC 8 arrived, so that
the real testing could be carried out on what was now the
production form.
Dust Tunnel
MIRA
Because they had to use
other testing facilities, a decision was taken for BL cars to have
its own test track, which was constructed at Gaydon in Warwickshire
which had been a base for the American Air Force V bombers. With it
two mile long runway it was ideal as a test track.
Now what shall we call this new car, a company that specialising in
coming up with names for new products was contacted. They came up
with no less that thirty eight names, in the end this was reduced
to just three, Metro, Maestro or Match. The whole workforce had the
opportunity to vote for the new name, with the result very close at
Metro - 8,599, Maestro - 8,332 and the Match at only 2,793. So
Metro it would be, but there was one obstacle to over come, as in
Birmingham a company called Metro-Cammell who built Tube trains
were contacted for permission to use the name Metro on the car,
they had no objections so long as it was prefaced with the word
'Mini'. so hence the Mini Metro was born.
This View clearly shows the
immense size
of the Metro Shop
A new (BIW) Body in White factory (standing for a body that is
complete but is unpainted) was built behind the Old West Works on
land bought from the Hollymoor hospital, a total of 33 acres of
which the main building would occupy nearly 18 acres. The work on
preparing the site and putting up the new build was awarded to
McAlpine at a cost of £15.5 million.
The new building was give two names, New Metro Shop or New West
Works. The completed bodies needed to be transferred to South Works
for painting and final assemble, so another contract was given to
Wimpy to construct a conveyer that would connect with the conveyor
system in Old West Works at a cost of £6 million.
The Robotic
Welding Line
So after less than three
years development and £275 million the Metro (LC8) was launched on
Friday 8th October 1980 at the Birmingham NEC Motor Show and called
the Austin Mini Metro.
It was powered by the new
'A' series Plus. and was available in 998cc and 1275cc engines. On
version which was become popular with car manufactures, was to have
a version which gave very good economy. This was called 1,0 HLE,
and claimed that it was the most us economical car in Europe. In
1983 the 1300 cc was fitted along with a higher final drive. With a
few tweaks this version was more economical even though it had a
large engine.
Metro's in the
trim shop
Running improvements were
carried out. The next major launch was in 1982 when a 1300 cc MG
version came out which was available in two forms normal aspirated
and Turbo. Around the same time it was possible to buy a Vanden
Plas with the luxury of velour or leather trim along with the wood
capping and Wilton carpet.
For me the next change, really increased the appeal of the Metro
when in 1984 a facelift was announced and it was now possible to
buy a 5 door version, but the basic mechanical components were
unchanged. Just three years later the Austin name was dropped and
it was just called Metro. Then in 1990 it was renamed Rover
Metro.
Buck Shop
Longbridge with the R6
(This shop was the old
Styling Studio)
It was on the 2nd May 1990
that the New Metro was launched, this major update went under the
Code Name R6. The 'K' series engine with various specifications was
fitted with a end-on Peugeot gearbox design called R65, which was
machined and assembled at Longbridge. There was a update to the
general specification in January 1993, mainly paint and trim. A
diesel version became available in 1993 using the Peugeot/Citroen
1,400 cc engine. It was still called the Rover Metro although in
Europe it was now called the Rover 100. It wasn't till 1994 that it
took the same name in the UK.
1.4 8v 'K'
series
1.4 16v 'K'
series
1.4 litre PSA
'TUD' Diesel
This time the Hydragas suspension was changed from side to side, to
interconnected front to rear which gave a better overall
ride.
How It
Works
Metro's new Hydragas suspension has sealed hydraulic displacers,
one at each wheel connected on each side of the car by a reiforced
plastic pipe. When a front wheel hits a bump, the upward force is
transmitted to the fluid in the lower diaphragm. This in turn
transmits the pressure to the gas in the upper diaphragm, which
compresses to absorb the shock. At the same time, fluid is forced
through the pipe to the rear unit. The result is that the floorpan
stays level: the front end doesn't lift and the back end doesn't
squat.
At the same time, the redesigned geometry helps to prevent dive and
lift on braking and acceleration, giving an impressively smooth,
level ride.
______________
Rover Metro
Automatic (CVT)
Showing the
different seat arrangements
1.1L
1.4GSL
Leather
MG Metro
1300