MG's latest debut went largely unnoticed last weekend when MG XPower debuted their new engine on track. The K2000 engine was fitted to an MG racing in the EERC endurance race at Thruxton.
The engine was fitted in a factory entered MG ZR driven by Mark Roberts and Don Kettleborough, and came home 3 laps in front of the class opposition. The opposition was mainly Honda powered and the ZR was showing them a clean pair of heels even before they started running into problems. A precautionary refueling stop fifteen minutes before the end of the race prevented a higher placing but the reliability of the new unit proved a great success for all involved nevertheless.
The K2000 engine, in 220bhp form for this event, ran faultlessly throughout. Both drivers expressed their delight with the performance, in particular the spread of torque and resultant driveability compared to the 1.8 engines that they normally use. With a rev limit of 7000rpm, the team had to find the longest gearing they could to cope with the extra power of K2000 and the long straights at Thruxton, and a top speed of over 140mph was the result.
The first batch of engines is now being manufacturered and will no doubt be of interest to any cars running K series units currently...