british leyland freelander

hi
came across this picture and it seems that the freelander was designed from it, it looks like a maestro

don't know how true it is but just wondered if anyone knew the full story please

just curiuos and thks in advance

That looks like a Meastro van to me (on iPhone so small)

Its one of their test donkeys - I think I just made up that term. There's a couple of pages on the web with the Freelander history and they usually reference this car.

defo maestro van but on a 4x4 running gear by the looks

yip was a test mule if I were them id have stuck with it I know id rather a 4x4 maestro van

I used to have a Meastro . Was a diesel though.

Silverlandy said:

I used to have a Meastro . Was a diesel though.

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did my apprenticeship on them vans good old engine in its day quite powerful
ad a few montego estates with same engine in as well

marc7 said:

did my apprenticeship on them vans good old engine in its day quite powerful
ad a few montego estates with same engine in as well

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Wasn't a van. Engine was great.....car? No so

Silverlandy said:

Wasn't a van. Engine was great.....car? No so

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no they dropped apart with a bad rust problem normally

marc7 said:

no they dropped apart with a bad rust problem normally

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Yep.

It's old news and was well reported after the Freelander was launched, it also gets included in the history on a regular basis. It was a clever way to allow the mechanicals to be thoroughly tested with no chance of the final vehicle design being discovered. The Maestro was a common enough sight on the roads at the time and to the untrained observer it would pass un-noticed. Even if the industry spies and/or Auto journalists saw it, they would gather nothing than perhaps the approximate dimensions of the track & wheelbase.

I had a maestro van, it was so noisy my missus could hear me driving down the road 10 mins before I got home! Good old days

deangermouse said:

I had a maestro van, it was so noisy my missus could hear me driving down the road 10 mins before I got home and booted the milkman out the back door. Good old days

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It's now in the Dunsfold Collection,
Dunsfold Collection

marc7 said:

no they dropped apart with a bad rust problem normally

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No different to a land rover then?

The L Series diesel in Freelander was a development of the Perkins Prima used in Maestro/Montego. Then the TD5 was a (major) development on the L Series - so Maestro/Montego technology lived on a long time after the last one rusted away.

But did they?

Look at the condition of this (1 owner 60K miles) 25 year old baby..

M.G. | Montego | 1989 | For Sale | Buy | Turners

Looks like its in pretty good nick and its in a "scrap" auction because it fail its WOF (MOT) on rear brakes!

cheers guys for the info

seeing this maestro reminds me of the other cars around

like the terrible ital , where the back end useto slide out and people put lead over the rear wheel arches, lol

for rust I don't think nothing could touch the old alfasuds for being rust buckets

owned a dolomite sprint and vitesse , still miss them to this day , was a joy working on the vitesses engine with the bonnet lifting right out of the way and sitting on the tyre

My first car was a Vitesse - as you say fantastic car and I miss it to It failed its MOT so I stuck it in a garage I rented off the council. When the garage bill got to £80 - I sold the car for that to cover the bill - mad things you do when your young!

2nd car was an 1850HL I bought off my mate who had crashed it (on that tight bend iin Merstham on the A23 if anyone knows it). I had it repaired and a replacement engine fitted in Canning Town. It broke down in the middle of the Blackwall Tunnel driving it home ! I then crashed it in Brighton a couple of weeks later! That was the end of that.

3rd car was a Spartan built on a Vitesse. That had a hinged wooden board for a "back seat" - underneath it were 3 lumps of lead moulded in oil cans

GrumpyGel said:

My first car was a Vitesse - as you say fantastic car and I miss it to It failed its MOT so I stuck it in a garage I rented off the council. When the garage bill got to £80 - I sold the car for that to cover the bill - mad things you do when your young!

2nd car was an 1850HL I bought off my mate who had crashed it (on that tight bend iin Merstham on the A23 if anyone knows it). I had it repaired and a replacement engine fitted in Canning Town. It broke down in the middle of the Blackwall Tunnel driving it home ! I then crashed it in Brighton a couple of weeks later! That was the end of that.

3rd car was a Spartan built on a Vitesse. That had a hinged wooden board for a "back seat" - underneath it were 3 lumps of lead moulded in oil cans

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mine failed in the end, the rear outrigger rusted away, so when u slowed down the wheel moved sideways, scary, lol

had the 2 litre model , was very thirsty and great with the roof off, was cherry red , gold wheels and a gold thin strip down the side

if I had the money would love another one, could blaim it on a mid life crisis ,

another car i always wanted back then was a Jensen interceptor, but well out of my price range, think it was a 7 litre v8 , sounded awesome ,

also would have liked a rover 3500 cc, coupe, can't remember the model but had all leather interior and was an auto as standard

did also have a triumph 2500 cc pi , that went through injection pumps like no tommorow , lol

my dream would be to have a garage, a 4 post ramp and buy a 90 defender, take it completely apart down to a rolling chassis , put a tvr v8 in it along with an autobox, snorkal , the works

oh well nice to dream