Welsh company MST Cars announced it’s developing a replica of the MG Metro 6R4 that competed in the Group B category of the World Rally Championship in the 1980s. New from the ground up, the hot hatch features a carbon fiber body and a mid-mounted V6 engine.
Photos of a bare shell posted on the company’s Facebook page suggest that the modern-day 6R4 will look just like the original model. It features a muscular-looking body kit characterized by a front spoiler, huge wheel arch flares, vents that channel cooling air into the engine bay, and a rear wing. Instead of starting with a regular-production Metro shell, which by this point has become relatively difficult to find, MST Cars teamed up with New Zealand-based Innovate Composites to build the body and the parts that make up the body kit with carbon fiber.
The original 6R4 was powered by a purpose-designed 3.0-liter V6 (hence the name: six cylinders, rally, and four-wheel-drive). This engine is no longer available, so MST Cars chose to fit its Metro with a 3.0-liter V6 sourced from older Audi models (like the B8-generation S4 sold in the late 2000s and in the early 2010s) and supercharged to about 450 horsepower, according to British magazine Autocar. Mid-mounted, the engine will spin the four wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission. This little hot hatch should be loud, fast, and tremendously fun.
We expect to learn more about the MST Cars 6R4 in the coming months. Production is scheduled to start in 2024, but the firm will build just five units that year and pricing starts at £295,000 before taxes (approximately $363,200 at the current conversion rate). Autocar adds that buyers will have several configuration options to choose from: they’ll be able to order a street-focused setup with a number of creature comforts or a more hardcore rally-ready specification that should weigh less. There’s no word on whether the 6R4 will be sold in America.
