MG ZS 180 2.5V6!!!

anyone been in or driven one???  a guy in work has just offered one to me for £1000 as he is leaving the army and emigrating to canada.  

Thought it could be a cheap track slag for a while.  it has full mot and tax and new tyres so should be fine on consumables.

not driven it yet, but interested to see what people think it would be like on track out of the box with no mods.  dont want to buy iut and throw another 1000 in mods

Have worked on quite a few, 180bhp from 2500cc is pretty weak, pretty well specced normally. Cambelts are a nightmare to do, about 10 hours is the book time.

great motor,ill have it for a grand if u dont.

One of the best handling cars in its class out of the box, and they just get better if you start throwing parts at them.

As said engines can be weak, although newer ones are much better.

My mate had one after a Golf GTI and said there was no comparison, the ZS was a far, far better car to drive and far quicker a to b. And although he managed to break both (heavy right foot and lots of miles) the VAG's turbo failure was slightly less in scale to the ZS's blow up :|

It did get mullered on a very tight track by its modified predecesors, but on the open road it would hang onto them round the corners just lost out on the straights.

To be fair to my mates car he had free fuel for it so we used it for towing things up and down the motorway and it was raced, dragged, thrashed.. so it may of died but it worked hard to!

J

One of the best handling cars in its class out of the box, and they just get better if you start throwing parts at them.

As said engines can be weak, although newer ones are much better.

My mate had one after a Golf GTI and said there was no comparison, the ZS was a far, far better car to drive and far quicker a to b. And although he managed to break both (heavy right foot and lots of miles) the VAG's turbo failure was slightly less in scale to the ZS's blow up :|

It did get mullered on a very tight track by its modified predecesors, but on the open road it would hang onto them round the corners just lost out on the straights.

To be fair to my mates car he had free fuel for it so we used it for towing things up and down the motorway and it was raced, dragged, thrashed.. so it may of died but it worked hard to!

J

thats good to know. and 10hours labour to change a cambelt is horrendous. :o to be fair if it blew up, id just sell the interior and scrap the car. although id bet getting a new engine would be quite cheap

what sort of modifications are you talking of?? obviously being N/A theres no point in remapping, but simple handling mods could be done i guess. Just going to have a llook at the tax costs i think

Isn't the road tax in the £400 bracket? Looked at one a few years back.

Yeah pretty sure it is, thats why they are worth feck all.

Had a V8 ZT in the other day, bleeding nightmare to work on...lol

pre 2006 should be capped at £245 a year on the tax front! Really wanted one of these before I bought the fabia, but could not get enough discount to make it worth buying one as they dropped in price so badly!

A track day car would be cool and alot of fun MG/Rover seem to be good at working magic with what was crap. The engine make sure its cambelt has been done correctly it need the belt and runners done at the same time hence why its a pig of a job like ross said.

Have a look at a few MG forums for extra info

I followed one of these from ambleside to keswick when I had the vRS, and could only 'just' keep up, I was trying, he may not have even been trying, was quite a way in front of me, he wouldn't have know I was trying to keep up.... I don't know if it was modded, but it was just a fast on the straights, and cornered better...

Yeh, engine wise they wont produce huge power being nasp. Although if you killed the original motor a lot of peeps drop the older 2litre T series in, which will last forever, has 200bhp+ out of the box and has the usual turbo potential. V6 does sound nice tho

The suspension is a complex honda design which gives a great basis if you start fitting coilovers etc (complete opposite to the incredibly primitive, unadjustable, but equally good handling ZR). Specially being its put together using Rovers own geomatry, steering rack and is even poly bushed as OE i beleive. As said, Rover generally were working with some right ****e but they do know how to make a bad car handle.

Its a great shame they went under, the extreme variants that were planned would of been awesome.

J

ZS 180's were very popular for track days a few years ago and were compared to Octy vrs's. The ZS was preferred as a better handling car. £1000? for using it on trackdays, you can't go wrong there, give it go mate.

You cant go wrong for a grand! it will be worth that in bits!

Had a V8 ZT in the other day, bleeding nightmare to work on...lol

What did you have to do? as I have one and the local garage has never charged heavy or said they were a pain to work on.

Steve.