MG ZT 260 4.6 V8
Discussion
JulesV said:
bungle said:
That looks a great car. I sold my ZT-T for quite a bit more than that with over 80,000 miles. Edited by JulesV on Sunday 18th August 22:35
Can't remember the original price, but many £k's less than that.
It's about time I updated this thread. The car has now done over 80k miles and is still cruising along.
It's had the expensive custom rear disks and pads replaced a few months ago (half price via the Two-Sixties site - more than justified the MG Owners club membership there!) along with replacing some corroded brake pipes.
Last week was an oil service plus the front disks and pads. These are standard ZT 190 parts and much cheaper and easier to get hold of. All done by M & G Bradford who had another ZT 260 in at the same time - they know their way around these things.
I now need new rear tyres. It's all been just normal maintenance but combined with the Lotus it's been an expensive month so far!
Still, all it takes is a good run out for all to be forgiven. On Sunday I made an early morning trek to Aviemore from Yorkshire. The roads were deserted so a steady cruise and I don't think I touched the brakes more than 4 or 5 times the whole journey! This was the result:
All in comfort listening to podcasts on the stereo, and arrived fresh enough for a couple of hours skiing. Though obviously the speed reading must be broken
Just add it to the list of quirks...
This things just devours the miles. I even managed 25mpg for one tankful on the way back home this morning
It's had the expensive custom rear disks and pads replaced a few months ago (half price via the Two-Sixties site - more than justified the MG Owners club membership there!) along with replacing some corroded brake pipes.
Last week was an oil service plus the front disks and pads. These are standard ZT 190 parts and much cheaper and easier to get hold of. All done by M & G Bradford who had another ZT 260 in at the same time - they know their way around these things.
I now need new rear tyres. It's all been just normal maintenance but combined with the Lotus it's been an expensive month so far!
Still, all it takes is a good run out for all to be forgiven. On Sunday I made an early morning trek to Aviemore from Yorkshire. The roads were deserted so a steady cruise and I don't think I touched the brakes more than 4 or 5 times the whole journey! This was the result:
All in comfort listening to podcasts on the stereo, and arrived fresh enough for a couple of hours skiing. Though obviously the speed reading must be broken
Just add it to the list of quirks...This things just devours the miles. I even managed 25mpg for one tankful on the way back home this morning
Edited by moribund on Tuesday 11th March 21:23
moribund said:
By my calculations it was 22mpg
Due to the complications of wiring up Rover, BMW and Ford systems in one car they omitted the fuel section completely from the computer. No mpg, no range, nothing.
Commuting normally sees 18mpg.
Originally the plan to get it to run was the Mustang key bonded inside the PATs transponder in a box stuck to the bulkhead... The Rover ignition then just powered up the Ford ECU. That's how the first car (the grey one above) was made to run first time around. Can't remember if that was ever replaced. Due to the complications of wiring up Rover, BMW and Ford systems in one car they omitted the fuel section completely from the computer. No mpg, no range, nothing.
Commuting normally sees 18mpg.
Somewhere buried under the dash is a bespoke little ECU that talks Ford and Rover and allows the Rover key to kick the Ford engine management to life. It's a small miracle it even runs let alone get MPG figures
gary71 said:
Originally the plan to get it to run was the Mustang key bonded inside the PATs transponder in a box stuck to the bulkhead... The Rover ignition then just powered up the Ford ECU. That's how the first car (the grey one above) was made to run first time around. Can't remember if that was ever replaced.
Well I've learnt something new today 
53 reg makes it an early one.Had a 75 2.5 and cdt - both were not the best ownership experiences sadly
bungle said:
If you get early one like OP ,registered up to 1 Feb 2004 it is £280.00 - same as a 1.8 auto !moribund said:
Cheers Gary. Prodrive? I think I've seen some of your posts before on the subject, or am I mistaken?
Good work in any case
Correct Good work in any case
The design & build of the ZT500 was a great project. Memories of shaking it down (when it was matt black) on a summers evening around the track at Fen End will last for a long time!Eventually it had to be made a bit more road legal and we put cats on it, unfortunately the torturous exhaust routing that gave killed the performance (and the noise) and it was never really the same afterwards.
Haddocks comments above about it having a lot of bespoke parts are very true. Not much of it is (or at least was!) the same as the production car, subframes, suspension, uprights, brakes etc were all one off and not least all the body mods to get the drive train in.
It's clearly had a few coats of paint though, so I guess some of the bits will have evolved as well.
Blackpuddin said:
Interesting. I don't remember any of the prototypes being red. Pictures of the rear suspension would confirm.It's good to see the V8's get some use. As you say, they eat up the miles, specially when the engine is only doing 3,000RPM at 90mph 
and it is like driving a Spitfire every day. I love driving mine with the windows down
Gary - Sorry to hijack the thread, but did you know about chassis 004, which recently got saved from the scrapper ? It is a MG ZT-T with AWD fitted ! The vehicle started life as a 260 VIN 000004 and was converted to 2.5 KV6 with Land Rover Freelander running gear at Longbridge.
and it is like driving a Spitfire every day. I love driving mine with the windows down Gary - Sorry to hijack the thread, but did you know about chassis 004, which recently got saved from the scrapper ? It is a MG ZT-T with AWD fitted ! The vehicle started life as a 260 VIN 000004 and was converted to 2.5 KV6 with Land Rover Freelander running gear at Longbridge.
Another update. Since my last posting I've fitted two new rear tyres and then this week, due to the sudden onset of a loud whining noise, it's had a re-conditioned alternator fitted plus a new bearing in one of the wheels the belt runs over. This was done by M & G in Bradford, who were excellent as usual. There were three ZT 260's there today which is a rare sight.
Now I've had the car over 2 years I think it'll be up for sale in a few weeks. It's got under my skin, I only planned to keep it a year originally but instead of selling it last year I bought a Lotus instead. This time I've got a hankering for an Alfa GT V6...
The ZT will be a hard act to follow. Hopefully I can sell it to another enthusiast but there does seem to be a glut on the market right now for some reason?
Now I've had the car over 2 years I think it'll be up for sale in a few weeks. It's got under my skin, I only planned to keep it a year originally but instead of selling it last year I bought a Lotus instead. This time I've got a hankering for an Alfa GT V6...
The ZT will be a hard act to follow. Hopefully I can sell it to another enthusiast but there does seem to be a glut on the market right now for some reason?
Edited by moribund on Friday 4th April 00:45
Well I've still not written the ad, but I've at least taken some photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/giveitfish/sets/7215...
Thinking of asking £6250 for it.
Thinking of asking £6250 for it.
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