MG ZT V8 | The Brave Pill
Normal service has been resumed with an enticingly priced V8 saloon
After last week's not entirely successful attempt to persuade the sceptical that a leggy Honda S2000 can be regarded as being brave, we're heading back to scarier territory. Frankenstein's monster gets cited far too often in stories about cars which have undergone radical surgery, but here's one that really did have a heart transplant - and a factory-fitted one at that.
The 'noughties was the era of the unlikely V8. Manufacturers vied with each other to fit upsized powerplants into smaller cars, with the best-remembered examples of the genre being a trio of Germans - the E90/ E92 BMW M3, W204 Mercedes C63 AMG and B7 Audi RS4. But while all were fine cars, they all got scooped by a plucky British underdog, the equally eight-cylindered MG ZT 260 beating them to market by several years.
These days it is hard to remember MG Rover without thinking of the self-serving incompetence of the Phoenix consortium that led it. Yet, following its hasty divorce from BMW in 2000, the newly-independent British carmaker actually enjoyed a couple of years of good press. BMW's enthusiasm to offload its subsidiary had seen it leave MG Rover with both a sizeable divorce settlement and the still-fresh Rover 75, with the new company's first challenge the considerable one of moving production of its newest car from Cowley (which BMW kept to build Minis) to Longbridge.
But almost equally pressing was the question of how to improve the brand's profile and desirability. The 75 had received a mixed critical response when launched, and the 25 and 45 were starting to look dull and dreary - cars for those who found the idea of a Honda Jazz a bit too thrilling. The clue for the exciting new direction was already in the new company's name, with the plan soon hatched to create punchier MG versions of the 25, 45 and 75 - the ZR, ZS and ZT - to be sold alongside the existing MG TF sportscar.
The ZR was a decent warm-to-hot hatchback more than capable of playing showroom tag with Saxo VTS and VTRs. The ZS looked good in saloon form, with the range-topping 180 version having an impressive turn of speed and a zingy character. But it was the ZT that impressed most thanks to to the combination of sportified version of the 75's already fine chassis, the looks-boosting loss of the Rover's tinselly chromework, plus a spacious, modern-feeling cabin.
The ZT's problem came under its bonnet. Prior to the demerger plans had been advancing to move the existing Rover models onto BMW's 'Valvetronic' petrol engines, but that was lost in the break-up beyond a deal to allow the 75 and ZT to continue to use BMW's M47 diesel. Meaning the petrol ZT had to use the not exactly muscular K-Series V6 from the 75, with the exclusive option of front-wheel drive. The motor was tweaked and tuned to make 187hp for the range-topper and given a raspy exhaust, but that still didn't translate into the sort of performance that early 'noughties sports saloon buyers expected - a 7.7-second 0-62mph time for the range-topping version was pretty meh, and the auto was nearly a second slower over the benchmark.
MGR chose what now looks like a ridiculous (if awesome) way to improve on that: the cost and complication of creating a new rear-drive version with V8 power. In engineering terms this was a proper triumph of British ingenuity, with Prodrive adapting the 75's natively transverse engined floorpan to accept both a substantial transmission tunnel and a bought-in Ford V8 under the bonnet. The total project budget was just £30m, something the bigger players could easily spend on creating a new heating and ventilation system.
The new engine wasn't big on sophistication. This was the 4.6-litre 16-valve single camshaft motor as used in the contemporary Mustang, lightly tuned by Roush but still only producing a modest 256hp at 5000rpm, although accompanying this with a solid 302lb-ft of torque. The new rear axle used Holden-sourced halfshafts and gained two extra dampers to fight tramp. But the cleverest bit of engineering was making the ZT260 so it could be built alongside its front-drive sister on the same line.
The driving experience was big on fun and short on sophistication. The engine sounded properly V8-y, exhaling through quad exhausts and with both a bubba-bubba idle and proper snarl when used hard. The standard five-speed Tremec manual gearbox was notchy and had a long throw, but steering was great and the throttle response zingy. Performance was rapid rather than searing, the big motor happiest in its muscular mid-range than chasing its lowish 6,000rpm redline. Firm springs and dampers made ride quality marginal over rougher surfaces, but the RWD ZT seemed to enjoy being driven hard and was happy to play the hoon.
Not that Longbridge's production staff were exactly run off their feet by the need to wrestle V8s about when the 260 launched in 2003. A £27,995 starting price represented a chunky (but not outrageous) supplement over the front-driven 190, but it put the most muscular ZT into direct competition with upmarket alternatives like the E46 BMW 330i. Even the prospect of more cylinders and a snarlier soundtrack couldn't sway many buyers. When MG Rover collapsed in 2006 it emerged that the company had bought a thousand V8 engines; more than 400 of them remained unused when the company failed.
MGR's bankruptcy ended support for the cars that had already been built and pretty much drove residuals off a cliff, especially as the the liquidators sold some undelivered examples for firesale prices. Yet prices have strengthened in recent years as people have realised both how special the 260 is, especially for those looking for a proper Q-car. Beyond small V8 badges on the front wings, the quad exhausts and a bigger wing it is externally identical to the front-driver. These days it has built up a loyal following and - in a nice touch of historic irony - values are now much higher than they would be for that E46 330i carrying similar miles.
Bringing us to our Pill, for £8,000 it is the cheapest currently in the classifieds but still a strong-looking example of what is now a rare car. It's had two owners, with the second now selling it privately after 14 years and with the support of what seems like a comprehensive service history. It's an early car, meaning twin headlights rather than the single units of the later facelifted version, but it seems to have been ordered with every available option, including a rear power sunblind and upgraded Harmon Kardon audio system. The vendor says it has recently had a big service, and has also already had the failure-prone ABS module replaced. The X-Power grey paintwork suits it impressively well, too - and would have been a much more original colour choice when the car was new than it seems now.
The ZT 260 is also one of those cars that has become less brave as time went on. When MGR bit the dust the obvious risk was the lack of any meaningful warranty support if anything went wrong. 14 years later and that is obviously much less of an issue, especially as the rear-driver has proved to be pretty tough and with a proven engine that still enjoys comprehensive parts support from the U.S., and which will happily take chunky power upgrades. They can suffer from gearbox and differential oil leaks and various electrical issues, and the climate control is known to throw up hard-to-find faults.
There aren't many cars from MG Rover's brief independent existence that get mourned outside the small, eccentric fringe of the brand's ultra-loyalists. The ZT 260 is the one that deserves to be, far more so than the ludicrous and under-developed SV sportscar. It was produced on a shoestring budget and sold in tiny numbers, but now looks like the most interesting thing that Britain's last truly independent volume manufacturer managed to do.
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