Your MG on Fifth Gear

[Jonathan]

I've had the following communication from Nick Morgan at Chrysalis TV.

I'm working on Series 4 of Fifth Gear for Five, and we're doing a Best Car of the 80's special. We'd like to feature an MG Maestro, and were wondering if you could provide a pristine example of either a 1600, 2.0 or Turbo which is as close to factory spec as possible. We will be filming sometime week commencing 29th September, exact date to be confirmed

I'd like to think that means MG Maestro as one of the best cars of the 1980s rather than "we'll throw it in and use it as an excuse to have a quick dig at Austin Rover". Anyone with a suitable car happy for it to be used? If so drop me a line and I'll pass your details on to Nick who will no doubt be able to go over the finer details.

[D87 SMW]

Thought you had an MG Maestro 2.0, Jon... (hint hint) ;)

[Jonathan]

Yes I'd love to but unfortunately it's not pristine, it's not entirely factory spec (digital dash for example) and it's not running properly. There are plenty of MG Maestros about far better suited to this than mine :)

[G51 NAV]

Our pristine MG Maestro Turbo, no 502, is completely standard (or at least can be made so in the space of an hour: it currently has VP wooden door-cappings and a Momo wood/leather steering-wheel).

But, it has already featured in MG Enthusiast, an American publication called "The A-Z of Fast Cars" and is shortly to appear in Gran Turismo 4, so I think it's only fair that I share a bit of the limelight and let someone else take centre-stage this time round. What about Matthew Semple? His MG1600 and Turbo are superb examples.

Besides which, I'm not interested in having my car used, abused, slagged-off and laughed at in the name of cheap entertainment to amuse Ford and Vauxhall owners.

If no one else comes forward (which I'm sure they will) we'll offer forward our car, but they must meet all costs.

[Bertybassett]

Hi folks,


Got 3 excellent 2.0I's here, but none of them are standard.

All three have aftermarket wheels, suspension. One has montego seats. Two have montego dashes/centre consoles. All have red callipers and clear side repeaters. Mine has EVO side skirts and another has quadlights.

One of them could look standard, with a swap of wheels. But its got Motobuild 2" lowering springs, poly bushes, gas dampers underneath and 57i kit.

Somone will have a mint Standard car surely?

[Hobson]

Originally posted by G51 NAV
......and is shortly to appear in Gran Turismo 4........

Please explain that! :D

[G51 NAV]

Originally posted by Hobson
Please explain that! :D
It's been the subject of various threads on this BBS and the MG BBS, so I'll recap quickly.

1) My car was previously owned by Jackie Woods, wife of Martin Woods, who was then the MGCC FWD Register Chairman. It has covered less than 30,000 miles and is completely original apart from wooden door-cappings and a Momo steering-wheel, all of which would take about one afternoon to put back to factory-spec. Three of its tyres are still the original Michelin MXV 2's.

2) Sony Entertainment Europe contacted Martin in March asking him if he knew where they could source a mint, original MG Maestro Turbo to photograph for Gran Turismo 4. They wanted the car to appear in the game's historic-vehicles' section. He immediately thought of his wife's old car, contacted me to ask if I was interested, and I said yes.

3) The car was photographed at Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedford, on a gorgeous Spring afternoon on Tuesday April 8th 2003. Over 300 shots were taken of it, the whole car was electronically surface-mapped and the engine was sampled. The car’s registration plates are also going to be used for originality.

4) A list doing the rounds on the 'net claims to show all the cars that will feature in GT4. My car doesn't appear, but that's because it's mainly a "wish-list" - and an old one at that - and is NOT based on any official communication/leak from Sony or Polyphony Digital (the software house programming the game). About two month’s ago I was contacted by Sony to confirm various details about the car that weren’t asked on the day, such as BHP, tracking, wheelbase and gear-ratios, so the car must be ‘in’ or they wouldn’t have asked.

5) And just to deny another rumour, unfortunately I didn’t make one cent from the whole deal. I got a free meal at Millbrook and free petrol home; that was it.

[Ricky]

I hope they do put it in, i've always felt gran turismo missed some quality "ordinary" cars, i've always had a yearning in particular to pit a maestro 1.3l against a peugeot 309 1.3.......
I have to confess though that Gran Turismo 2 went some way to fulfilling my dreams, who would have thought a fiat 500 would be able to have a turbo and develop 133bhp.......:D :D :D
Still, hats off to you for letting them do it!

[Alan the Vanner]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ricky
[B]I hope they do put it in, i've always felt gran turismo missed some quality "ordinary" cars, i've always had a yearning in particular to pit a maestro 1.3l against a peugeot 309 1.3.......

How about pitting it against my Brother's 309 1.3?:laugh: :laugh:

[Hobson]

Thanks John for taking the time to post, I have always wanted to drive a Maestro Turbo, and now I guess I will! :laugh:

[Beaker]

Shame it wont be on the PC tho' :rage:

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Shame it wont be on the PC tho' :rage:

Unless you get a PS emulator. ;) :cool: :)

[Beaker]

Whats that when it is at home?

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Whats that when it is at home?

No idea. Mate's got one on his PC to play Nintendo games, you can get PS ones too from somewhere... :eek: :cool:

[G51 NAV]

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Whats that when it is at home?

An emulator is a device that makes one computer behave as though it were another. In this case, the emulators you're referring to will make a PC behave like a Playstation and, in most cases, allow you to play Playstation games, but with varied amounts of success.

Think of it as like a translator, with the Playstation accepting instructions in Japanese and the PC accepting instructions in English. Faced with a Playstation game - in Japanese - the emulator (which after all is just another piece of software running in the background on the PC) has to convert everything into English for the PC to understand, so the PC has to work at least twice as hard as a real Playstation to achieve the same result.

Emulators are never 100% infallible because PCs and Playstations have fundamentally different hardware - particularly graphics - and some games which rely on the individual peculiarities and strengths of the Playstation's graphics card (such as GT) will never run very well on all but the most powerful of PCs because there's so much more work going on behind the scenes to achieve the same result.

Hope that makes things a little clearer for those who are not 'techie'

[Beaker]

Cheers I know what an emulator is! :) I use quite a few myself to play the oldie games on speccy/amiga/commodore.

I just wanted steve to elaborate on the playstation emulator, as I couldn't see how it would be able to interact with the PC on a technical side. I was hoping he could provide me a weblink, but he didn't know much about it.


Thanks for explaining the emulator terminology, it may help someone else not technical minded :)

Lindsey

[G51 NAV]

:o Sorry to have misinterpretted your meaning.

[Beaker]

Ah thats ok dont worry, it was a very good explanation :)

I look fwd to seeing GT4 with your turbo in it. Just will have to find someone with a playstation first.

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by Skatiechik
I look fwd to seeing GT4 with your turbo in it. Just will have to find someone with a playstation first.

Me too. Will be buying a PS2 sometime just to play that game. :) :cool:

[MaestroMatt]

Originally posted by Skatiechik
Cheers I know what an emulator is! :) I use quite a few myself to play the oldie games on speccy/amiga/commodore.

I just wanted steve to elaborate on the playstation emulator, as I couldn't see how it would be able to interact with the PC on a technical side. I was hoping he could provide me a weblink, but he didn't know much about it.


I love emulators - especially for old Amiga and Nintendo games. As far as I know, although you can emulate a Playstation 1 on a PC, there is no emulator for the PS2 because the format of the discs isn't readable by a PC (the PS1 used CDs) and a ROM file would be a HUGE download. Your PC would also have to be so incredibly high-spec and fast that if you could afford to buy it you could probably also afford a PS2! Anyway, who cares about all that Sony rubbish, the Gamecube is the only console worth owning...

[Alan the Vanner]

I think I might invest on one as well. I saw something similar for the PS2 a while ago. (Now was it in a magazine or on TV? Oh well whatever) There was all sorts of motors on that. Not sure what it was called though.

[Beaker]

I'm working on Series 4 of Fifth Gear for Five, and we're doing a Best Car of the 80's special. We'd like to feature an MG Maestro, and were wondering if you could provide a pristine example of either a 1600, 2.0 or Turbo which is as close to factory spec as possible. We will be filming sometime week commencing 29th September, exact date to be confirmed


See they didn't get an MG Maestro to feature on the program. The 80's special has just been on.

Mind you I think they would have only have slagged it off anyway, as the start of the program said metro's were terrible, but far better than the maestro.

Lindz

[Gemini]

I own a Mg Maestro Turbo, it is a 1989 example on a G plate and is one of the few orignial 92 diamond white ones. Totally standard apart from having cruise control added some years ago with very little rust.

Could thi sbe what you are looking for??

Gemini

[Beaker]

Its already been on at the start of the week. I was just making the comment that they hadn't got one to star in the program.

But seeing as they devoted 50% of the program to the golf, i dont think the maestro would of have good reviews anyway.

Infact all the car programs this week, seem to be BMW, BMW.

Glad to hear the car is good. Must say I fancy having cruise control on the campervan me and the partner have.

Hopefully you will be bringing the car out to a show next summer!

Lindz

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by G51 NAV
I think it's only fair that I share a bit of the limelight and let someone else take centre-stage this time round. What about Matthew Semple? His MG1600 and Turbo are superb examples.

You are welcome to put my name forward for either of my cars to feature on the programme. Both are very close to original. My Turbo has replacement spots because the Lucas ones were cracked and it has Montego lattice alloys. The MG1600 is completely standard.

Here's a picture of my MG1600 that was taken at Powderham on the MG M Stand this year. I had driven from Kent that morning and it did 515 miles that weekend - it's a fantastic car.

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by matthewsemple
You are welcome to put my name forward for either of my cars to feature on the programme. Both are very close to original. My Turbo has replacement spots because the Lucas ones were cracked and it has Montego lattice alloys. The MG1600 is completely standard.

Here's a picture of my MG1600 that was taken at Powderham on the MG M Stand this year. I had driven from Kent that morning and it did 515 miles that weekend - it's a fantastic car.

Sorry Matt, but the programme's been and gone... ;)

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by F170 GGT
Sorry Matt, but the programme's been and gone... ;)


Really - I never saw the programme on TV. Whose car did they use? That's what happens when you reply to old quotes!

Has that Playstation game come out yet? I know GT3 is on teh budget Platinum range so it can't be long now. I don't have a Playstation but it would be great to get a screen freeze posted up.

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by matthewsemple
Really - I never saw the programme on TV. Whose car did they use? That's what happens when you reply to old quotes!

Has that Playstation game come out yet? I know GT3 is on teh budget Platinum range so it can't be long now. I don't have a Playstation but it would be great to get a screen freeze posted up.

They didn't use any, to my knowledge.

Not sure when GT4's out, but I'll be buying a PS2 specially, to the envy of RDGelder... ;) :D :p :laugh: :cool:

[tony]

got my ps2 wating for the game

[Austin-Rover]

Dont worry steve - ill be there to thrash you in all the races. Maestro Vs. Maestro!

:cool:

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by RDGelder
Dont worry steve - ill be there to thrash you in all the races. Maestro Vs. Maestro!

:cool:

You'll have no chance. ;) :p :D :cool: :) :eek:

Oh, and about our little contest, you'll still have no chance. ;) :laugh:

[G51 NAV]

Originally posted by matthewsemple
Has that Playstation game come out yet?
No sign of it yet...Sony are supposedly sending me a free copy when it's released
Originally posted by matthewsemple
It would be great to get a screen freeze posted up.
We can dream...Sony have only been releasing screenshots of exotic cars I'm afraid :(