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Meet Your Committee! - Peter Cooper (Membership Secretary)

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  • Meet Your Committee! - Peter Cooper (Membership Secretary)

    Hi everyone!

    Here is the first post in a series of posts for you to get to know your M&MOC committee members. Our committee works hard in the background to raise the profile of these marvellous cars, and ensure their longterm survival. Grab a cup of tea, have a read, have a laugh, but please go easy on us!

    First up is our Membership Secretary, Pete Cooper!



    Name:

    Peter Cooper

    When did you join the M&MOC Committee?

    November 2015

    Tell us about your first Maestro/Montego (or other)

    My first Maestro was a 1987 MG Maestro Efi that I had as a BL Management Car. I was working as the IT Manager at one of their associate companies in Coventry at the time. Great car with the highlight being a trip to the south of France in it, where it behaved immaculately. It was so good, that I bought it at the end of my tenure to be able to pass it on to my son who drove it for a number of years afterwards. I have always been a BL man, working at Rover, Solihull for 12 years as a prototype vehicle development engineer, rallying minis in the 60’s and 70’s and finishing that time with a special ex-works Allegro, that I campaigned into the 80’s.

    Tell us about your current Maestro/Montego (or others)

    As many of you will know from the various questions, blogs and sagas that I have posted, my current Maestro is Turbo number 436. Since buying it in the Spring of 2014, it has undergone a full, bare shell, nut and bolt renovation and rebuild.

    What do you do for a living?

    I have been retired since Easter 2015. Prior to that, and after my time at Rover, I moved into IT and held a number of managerial roles across many industries, culminating in being the IT & Network Manager at a large secondary school in London.

    Tell us something interesting or entertaining about yourself

    I have personally met the Duke of Edinburgh when I was a member of St John Ambulance, having achieved my Grand Prior cadet status, and I have attended a theatre show in Stratford upon Avon in the presence of the Queen that was for RSC staff and VIP’s only.

    Your funniest experience with your Maestro/Montego (or other)

    Not necessarily funny, but a stand out memory nonetheless. I was travelling to work one winters morning in the EFi. Snow had fallen, and the roads were tricky. Part of my route was along a 12 mile stretch of dual carriageway. Thankfully, after a short distance, it was apparent that snowploughs had cleared both lanes, and traffic had removed the remaining snow, so that 60-70mph was both possible and safe. Safe that is, until I came to a major interchange shortly before the end of the dual carriageway. At the time I was in the outside lane, overtaking an articulated lorry. Rounding a curve, I found that the snowploughs had peeled off the dual carriageway and up the slip road of the interchange. I was met with an outside lane that had about 12” of snow across the lane, the artic still on my nearside, and not enough room to slow and tuck in behind it. I had to bring all my rallying experience to bear as the car hit the snow and immediately jinked right towards the armco. Keeping my feet off the pedals, applying left lock, the car straightened and grazed the armco, taking the door mirror clean off the door, and putting nice scrape marks all down the offside of the car. However I was able to complete my journey, almost as though nothing had happened. My final vision though, was looking in my interior mirror at what was happening behind me, to see a post office van fishtailing behind the lorry and ending up on its roof on the safety verge at the roadside. No media reports relating to this were printed and the MG was repaired at the local garage the following week. Back to being as good as new.

    What do you hope to see in the future of the M&MOC?

    Since the new committee members have come on board, it is noticeable that there is a new excitement and ideas being put forward, all to make membership of the club more inclusive and interesting. Recognising that this is an international club, with members spread across the UK and many other continents, trying to organise events that will please the majority of members is difficult enough. However, I hope that we are moving in the right direction and that our efforts are recognised with members providing suggestions for a greater variety of activities that we can all take part in, while at the same time retaining the cohesiveness of the club as a whole.

    Thanks Pete! :-)
    1985 Austin Montego 2.0HLS x 2

    MONTEGO - THE CAR THAT PUTS THE DRIVER FIRST

  • #2
    well done pete keep up the good work

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