Nathan's Henley Blue 1.8 Turbo

Nathan's GTa started out as a 1.4 carb GTa and has had a full nut and bolt restoration to GTi spec. It really is one of the Metropower greats!

Nathans car started life as many Metros do. An original example, with a 1.4 and a carburetor. Low mileage and in the rare Henley blue, it was clearly the ideal candidate for what Nathan had in mind for his Metro. Here, Nathan tells his story.

''I bought the car in 2011 after seeing it for sale in the Metropower for sale ads. A 1990 Rover Metro 1.4 carb GTa in Henley blue with 41,000 miles on the clock. Along with a mate of mine I made a spontaneous 2 hour trip to Tamworth on a dark November evening to view it. After a short test drive and bit of haggling I was driving it away, it was sat on the bump stops and had an awful Sportex exhaust fitted that droned all the way home!

The original plan for the car was simply for a quick fix up and for it to replace my tired Rover 100 daily driver. However, after a detailed inspection serious rust was found in structural areas which inevitably meant a full strip down. That's when plans and ideas spiraled out of control and the car ended up receiving a full bare shell restoration to GTi spec, respray, MPi conversion and a rebuilt 160 VVC engine.

The work lasted a couple of years and once finished I stored it away for another year or so before it was finally put on the road. With this being my second VVC Metro (I owned another whilst building this one) it soon became apparent the VVC game was getting boring - it was time to turbo it!

The turbo conversion took a bit more thought and a lot more money than the VVC which, in comparison, just slotted straight in. It required a custom radiator, charge cooler, exhaust and standalone ecu to get it to work as I wanted. Although it could have been done much cheaper and easier I wanted to over engineer it so that I had scope for more power in the future. I have recently started building a brand new forged engine with the aim of achieving around 250-270bhp.''

Engine

Rebuilt 1.8t engine on standard internals other than baffled sump and mahle bearings
Omex 600 ecu with launch control and flat shift. Mapped by Chris at EFI parts. It's making 218bhp 234ft-lb @14psi
Garrett T25 turbo (360 thrust bearings, billet compressor)
Motobuild dump valve
Pipercross foam air filter
358cc bosch fuel injectors
160 vvc inlet
52mm throttle body
Walbro 255 external fuel pump
Sytec fuel pressure regulator
Ultralight flywheel
AP race clutch
Hydraulic clutch conversion
Oil cooler
Polybushed engine mount
Charge cooler
PRT thermostat
Alloy radiator
Custom stainless 2.5" twin box exhaust