This is part of an e mail I received from John Davenport. John was head of the Austin Rover team and had a lot to do with the MG Metro 6R4 in the Group B era.
This is what he had to say about the 6R4's 0-60 time:
Autocar tested a standard 6R4 and one of the full rally cars that we brought back from the abortive trip to Portugal in 1986. They timed the rally car at 2.8 seconds 0-60mph and, as far as I know, that is still one of the fastest cars over that particular criterion that they have ever tested. It was able to do it, incidentally, since the V6 could be revved above it normal limit of 9,600rpm and thus they were able to hold second gear to achieve 60mph without popping it into third. Frankly, I doubt if the Delta S4 or Quattro E2 would have been faster had they ever been tested under rigorous conditions as there was always some delay in getting the gases flowing through their long and complicated induction systems. Mind you, once past 60mph, they would have been gone ...
