In the eighties any car was ripe for a bodykit that consisted of a plastic slotted grille, a bigger front air dam, angular side skirts and a bigger back bumper, maybe with a rear spoiler thrown in for good measure. And if you had a bit of cash to spare after all that you might even treat your car to a 'flashback' reflective panel that ran across the back of the car, with the make and/or model emblazoned all over it.
It was to this recipe that the KAT Designs adhered, when it was launched in late 1984. The man behind KAT Designs was Simon Saunders (of Ariel Cars fame), who had previously worked for Aston Martin Tickford, and he felt that the Metro was rather neglected by the multitude of companies that had sprung up to offer bodykits around that time.
By this point the Frazer-Tickford Metro had come and pretty much gone, and that was a much more costly proposition. If you didn't want a complete makeover for your Metro but you just wanted it to stand out from the crowd, KAT Designs would fit a bodykit for £914 using all GRP parts, and in the event of you wanting to return your car to standard further down the line, that was claimed to be no problem at all.
Although the KAT Designs Metro (which could be fitted to any Austin or MG edition) was generally a purely cosmetic exercise, buyers could also opt for a retrim in Connolly leather and to complete the exterior upgrade there were also 13-inch Compomotive alloy wheels available, shod with Pirelli 175/50 VR13 tyres.
If you were lucky enough to be fitting all of this to an MG Metro Turbo, KAT Designs would add an intercooler as a finishing touch, to increase the power over the standard car's 93bhp, although KAT Designs didn't say by how much or what the cost of doing this would be.
How many of these bodykits were sold to Metro owners is unknown – and whether or not any have survived is doubtful. Unless you know different…
