£1m MG Metro… yours for just £2100
‘One of the bidders wanted something interesting – he picked well!’
A unique Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) development MG Metro that was insured for £1 million in 1985, has sold for £2100.
The so-called ‘Million Pound Metro’ – then known as ‘pedestrian safety car 1’ (PSC1) was used across Europe as a demonstration vehicle to show off safety features designed to reduce pedestrian injuries.
The million-pound insurance was necessary due to the amount of research and time that had been put into the vehicle by TRL and how expensive it would have been to replace at the time.
Vendor Chris Wright says: ‘It was for sale on eBay with a starting bid of £2000. Somebody bid £2550 right at the end, then immediately emailed to say that he’d bid on the wrong item.
‘Luckily, one of the underbidders from Swansea got in touch. He wanted something interesting and I think he’s picked well! We agreed on £2100, and he’s planning on showing it locally and telling its story.’
Chris managed to acquire it from Brightwells’ Modern Classic auction on 23 June last year for what he calls ‘a bargain price’ – after the previous owner, Stondon Motor Museum, near Bedford, was forced to sell the car as part of its remaining collection after it closed down in April 2015. Other classics from the museum included the Metro-based Rover Scout concept car.
Wright adds: ‘There was another Metro listed and some of the information about the car had been mixed up. I’d seen ex-TRL cars before so I knew that this one was likely to be special. Luckily for me I won it for a bargain price.’
Professor Adrian Hobbs was in charge of the Metro project for TRL in 1985 and had asked Brightwells to let him know who had ended up buying the development car.
He later struck up a conversation with Chris to fill him in on the history of the Metro.