RE: Shed of the Week: MG ZS 180
Discussion
s m said:
Did you buy one in the end?
Yes, look what SOTW made me buy!I was going to buy one of these a few years ago for the odd track day but having never driven one and not being a fan of Rovers/MG's I forgot all about these cars. Then seeing the silver one listed as SOTW I had a look on ebay and bought this one, seemed too cheap to miss out on (it cost less than a set of rear tyres for my BMW!).
First thoughts - they really do handle well once you start to push a bit harder, the front end finds a magic amount of grip in cold damp conditions even with full throttle in 2nd gear exiting slower corners it behaves very well.
Nice engine and gearbox, steering is pretty good for a front wheel drive car with a big engine.
Other thoughts
Jumping in and driving normally this is not a very nice car to drive, mainly due to a heavy clutch and throttle, offset pedals and the seat base is too high. For the first few miles the car feels all out of sorts, the suspension gives a nasty up and down jiggly effect that I once had with a JDM Spec C Impreza.
The pedals are off set and the throttle pedal is too far over to the right plus the first 1cm of throttle travel does nothing making heal and toe very difficult.
Once you get used to all that and give it some stick down a favuorite B road its quite good fun, well worth the small asking price.
Not sure what I am going to do with it but will sort out a few niggles, get the MOT and cambelt done and then try it on a track day and see how well it goes.
It seems surprisingly well built and for a 10 year old 100k miles plus car it coped well the abuse it got on the way home across some of Norfolk and Cambs' finest B roads/fen roads which may have included some wild moments with all 4 wheels off the ground (which caused a snapped front coil spring and a now blowing exhaust after a series of yumps on a terrific B road in the middle of nowhere).
rallycross said:
s m said:
Did you buy one in the end?
Yes, look what SOTW made me buy!I was going to buy one of these a few years ago for the odd track day but having never driven one and not being a fan of Rovers/MG's I forgot all about these cars. Then seeing the silver one listed as SOTW I had a look on ebay and bought this one, seemed too cheap to miss out on (it cost less than a set of rear tyres for my BMW!).
First thoughts - they really do handle well once you start to push a bit harder, the front end finds a magic amount of grip in cold damp conditions even with full throttle in 2nd gear exiting slower corners it behaves very well.
Nice engine and gearbox, steering is pretty good for a front wheel drive car with a big engine.
Other thoughts
Jumping in and driving normally this is not a very nice car to drive, mainly due to a heavy clutch and throttle, offset pedals and the seat base is too high. For the first few miles the car feels all out of sorts, the suspension gives a nasty up and down jiggly effect that I once had with a JDM Spec C Impreza.
The pedals are off set and the throttle pedal is too far over to the right plus the first 1cm of throttle travel does nothing making heal and toe very difficult.
Once you get used to all that and give it some stick down a favuorite B road its quite good fun, well worth the small asking price.
Not sure what I am going to do with it but will sort out a few niggles, get the MOT and cambelt done and then try it on a track day and see how well it goes.
It seems surprisingly well built and for a 10 year old 100k miles plus car it coped well the abuse it got on the way home across some of Norfolk and Cambs' finest B roads/fen roads which may have included some wild moments with all 4 wheels off the ground (which caused a snapped front coil spring and a now blowing exhaust after a series of yumps on a terrific B road in the middle of nowhere).
rallycross said:
Jumping in and driving normally this is not a very nice car to drive, mainly due to a heavy clutch and throttle,
Danger Will Robinson, danger!The clutch slave mounting can be problematic on these and is best checked as soon as you can as they are prone to sudden failure.
The bracket that holds the (plastic) clutch slave cylinder is not terribly strong, and if you watch while someone operates the clutch you will likely see an alarming amount of flexing. Eventually the bracket cracks and your foot falls to the floor. Replacing the bracket is pretty easy and not overly expensive, but the best solution is to ditch the entire original plastic hydraulic system and fit Honda Civic master and slave, but a custom slave bracket and hose is required (I did this conversion, making my own bracket and using aeroquip hosing and it transformed the feel of the clutch). Alternatively the existing bracket could be welded up and reinforced a bit.
To exacerbate this, the clutch operating shaft runs through the alloy bell-housing, and can partially seize. This makes the clutch heavy and accelerates failure of the bracket. With the slave removed, try moving the operating arm within it's free range by hand to see how tight it is.
I don't remember the throttle being particularly heavy on mine, might be worth checking to ensure it's not been routed incorrectly, or pinched.
rallycross said:
Not sure what I am going to do with it but will sort out a few niggles, get the MOT and cambelt done
Cambelts. There are three of them, and it's a fairly big job compared to typical IL4 engines which is why so many of them are driving around on borrowed time.Edited by Mr2Mike on Sunday 31st January 21:43
tali1 said:
s m said:
Mr2Mike said:
s m said:
Was that the 167bhp Civic that started about P-Reg?
Yes, the Rover 400 shaped car with a ridiculous gap in the gear ratios between 1st and 2nd that made VTEC drop out. Even without that it was slower than the 1.6 EK shaped Civic VTi. One of the more disappointing cars I've owned, but to be fair it was fairly cheap to buy and I sold it for about the same money. The only thing going for it is that it came with a torque biasing diff as standard, something the ZS really could have used.This was mine:
Despite being almost the same car underneath the MG Rover engineers performed some kind of miracle on the ZS, they are quite different cars to drive.
Edited by Mr2Mike on Sunday 17th January 11:23
The Civic did feel a bit woolly in comparison.
Just shows, as you say, that a bit of well-judged chassis tuning can work wonders
The 5-door version was definitely out on a P-reg ( as well as the bug eye one you mention above )
If you look below at the Autocar test, the press demo was on a P- reg and that was the end of April
In fact, one of the ones I test drove when I was looking for a cheap 4/5 door car was a P-reg too. The plate change to R-reg was still on Aug 1st and when I looked at a few old mags there were definitely P-reg cars being advertised
If you have a look on places like gumtree even now you can see P-reg early ecxamples.
The one below looks a bit of a tired non-standard one ( the plate suggests it was a Honda press car/early reg example ) but it is the type MR2Mike and I were referring to
Not as nice as Mike's old car though!
s m said:
tali1 said:
s m said:
Mr2Mike said:
s m said:
Was that the 167bhp Civic that started about P-Reg?
Yes, the Rover 400 shaped car with a ridiculous gap in the gear ratios between 1st and 2nd that made VTEC drop out. Even without that it was slower than the 1.6 EK shaped Civic VTi. One of the more disappointing cars I've owned, but to be fair it was fairly cheap to buy and I sold it for about the same money. The only thing going for it is that it came with a torque biasing diff as standard, something the ZS really could have used.This was mine:
Despite being almost the same car underneath the MG Rover engineers performed some kind of miracle on the ZS, they are quite different cars to drive.
Edited by Mr2Mike on Sunday 17th January 11:23
The Civic did feel a bit woolly in comparison.
Just shows, as you say, that a bit of well-judged chassis tuning can work wonders
The 5-door version was definitely out on a P-reg ( as well as the bug eye one you mention above )
If you look below at the Autocar test, the press demo was on a P- reg and that was the end of April
In fact, one of the ones I test drove when I was looking for a cheap 4/5 door car was a P-reg too. The plate change to R-reg was still on Aug 1st and when I looked at a few old mags there were definitely P-reg cars being advertised
If you have a look on places like gumtree even now you can see P-reg early ecxamples.
The one below looks a bit of a tired non-standard one ( the plate suggests it was a Honda press car/early reg example ) but it is the type MR2Mike and I were referring to
Not as nice as Mike's old car though!
tali1 said:
s m said:
tali1 said:
s m said:
Mr2Mike said:
s m said:
Was that the 167bhp Civic that started about P-Reg?
Yes, the Rover 400 shaped car with a ridiculous gap in the gear ratios between 1st and 2nd that made VTEC drop out. Even without that it was slower than the 1.6 EK shaped Civic VTi. One of the more disappointing cars I've owned, but to be fair it was fairly cheap to buy and I sold it for about the same money. The only thing going for it is that it came with a torque biasing diff as standard, something the ZS really could have used.This was mine:
Despite being almost the same car underneath the MG Rover engineers performed some kind of miracle on the ZS, they are quite different cars to drive.
Edited by Mr2Mike on Sunday 17th January 11:23
The Civic did feel a bit woolly in comparison.
Just shows, as you say, that a bit of well-judged chassis tuning can work wonders
The 5-door version was definitely out on a P-reg ( as well as the bug eye one you mention above )
If you look below at the Autocar test, the press demo was on a P- reg and that was the end of April
In fact, one of the ones I test drove when I was looking for a cheap 4/5 door car was a P-reg too. The plate change to R-reg was still on Aug 1st and when I looked at a few old mags there were definitely P-reg cars being advertised
If you have a look on places like gumtree even now you can see P-reg early ecxamples.
The one below looks a bit of a tired non-standard one ( the plate suggests it was a Honda press car/early reg example ) but it is the type MR2Mike and I were referring to
Not as nice as Mike's old car though!
Another bargain looking Zs180 has appeared on ebay, a silver one, 2004 looks like it could be a bargain for someone currently at £520
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
rallycross said:
Another bargain looking Zs180 has appeared on ebay, a silver one, 2004 looks like it could be a bargain for someone currently at £520
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
The last few mot read like war and peace. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
rallycross said:
Another bargain looking Zs180 has appeared on ebay, a silver one, 2004 looks like it could be a bargain for someone currently at £520
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
Still got yours?http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-MG-ZS-180-2-5-V6-/1...
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