MG ZS180 - I've bought another cheap track car...

Am I the only one that can only think of f**k it from the registration

Head gasket?

Throttle Cable is my bet.

Yep, I had one of these, drive brilliantly, but the clutch hydraulics are a joke.

Don't even bother trying to fix the standard stuff, throw it away and fit metal Honda parts using a Dark Ice Designs kit or a DIY equivalent.

It was fine for the first session (which was damp, naturally!) and then went about two laps into the second session. After lettng it cool down properly I managed about 5 dry laps in the third session before losing the pedal again, so called it a day.

A touch disappointing, but in a weird sort of way I got exactly what I wanted from the day in that I was able to uncover issues that would not have been obvious on the road. There was no sign of dragging from the brakes, the car pulls really well, it's a lot of fun and it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be quicker than the rx8... in a straight line at least! Plus, it was definitely worth getting the bucket seat sorted first. Considering it's still on standard shocks and springs it handles very well, with a slight penchant for oversteer in this morning's damp

A quick furtle suggests the slave is the culprit, brought on by heatsoak after the first session. Not something I was going to discover on the road!



It looks to have already had an uprated setup at some point, but judging by the state of the slave cylinder it's all of a certain age. I've ordered a full Sheddist kit, and in the meantime stripped the old setup out.

Here's a vid of basically all the track-time I had of the day, for anyone interested.

Bear in mind it was damp, my first time at Mallory, and my first time in the ZS on track so I'll have no commentary on my lines please

FFWD to the last three minutes to see the only dry laps I got - after a long cool-down period I managed to get the clutch pedal back for long enough to have another crack. Notice me struggle with the clutch again as soon as the chap in the MGB lets me past, try to take the hairpin in 3rd (bad idea), and lose it altogether before diving back into the pits.

Thanks Stuart - it's an al-cheapo GoPro Hero I've had for about 5 years I think.... the cheap 'all-in-one' unit they brought out. I think it was about 150 quid?

In other news.... the postman has been

Nothing like a nice delay in updating a thread, right?

In fairness not a colossal amount has happened with the MG since Mallory, however I did at least manage to get the clutch sorted in time for the next outing at Cadwell Park back in October.

This was to be a far bigger challenge than a quick swiz around Mallory - a trackday on Saturday followed by the final round of this year's Javelin Sprint Series on the Sunday.

There's always something fun about arriving at a track and unloading in the dark before a full weekend, particularly when there's a load of sprint competitors who want to come and have a nosey and ask wtf I'm doing in a fwd Rover



Oh and the car has been christened...



The trackday was enormous fun - I was a little worried after Mallory that the car would conk out again or I wouldn't bond with it, however I needn't have worried. It was also useful for highlighting the weaknesses of the current setup (such as it is...). As predicted, the stock suspension is the biggest issue, with the car flopping all over the place through the woodland section. I'm also getting the ABS kicking in, and a couple of the calipers are dragging too.

But other than that, it's really quite a good track car and I think there's plenty of potential to go chasing after the old RX8's times







I think I ended up 4th in a class of 8 during the sprint, which isn't too shabby really, and plenty of room for improvement next year. I've a set of coilovers, new calipers and braided lines ready to go on, and I'll give the geo a tweak to build in some camber as I'm scrubbing the sidewalls horribly at the moment.

Oh, and I need to go and see if it starts as it's been sat on the trailer for about 7 weeks

A couple of vids from the weekend:

Trackday:



Sprint (including a small moment at the gooseneck:

Nice to see it running around Caldwell, my favourite circuit for sure. I particularly like the expansion of delight on the approach to the Mountain!

Great thread. My ex-partners family were MG obsessed;
Dad - MG ZS
Mum - MG ZR
Sister - MG TF
My ex - MG Metro

I always liked the cars, but due to this previous association... and the fact I'm more into Triumphs... I never looked into them much. However, this thread may have persuaded me. I look forward to seeing progress even if it's a little slow! (Not a judgement, just picking up that you said progress may not be that quick!)