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

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

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seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Monday 16th August 2021
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Well, it appears I’m well and truly converted to cheap track cars. After the unfortunate but – ultimately – inevitable demise of the trusty PH Readers Car of the Week RX8, I needed something to fill the void of cheap fun. The second-hand snotter market has changed palpably since we acquired the RX8 in 2017. eBay is expensive. Gumtree is a void of nothing. Autotrader? Ha! Even the PH classifieds didn’t bring that sweet relief. There was only one thing left to try – one desperate, last-ditch attempt to find what I was looking for.

That’s right.

It was time for Facebook Marketplace.

Marketplace is a fascinating place. Never before has the simple act of purchasing goods been so complex, so nuanced. The thrill of having to guess details from one-word adverts, the terrible grammar, the vague (or non-existent) descriptions, the dark, smudgy, mysterious photos. Hours and hours trawling through completely unsuitable chod.

And yet.

And yet.

And yet if you persist, if you can wade through all the noise, persist where no other casual buyer on a budget will persist, you can find gold in amongst the ste. Not actual gold, of course, we’re talking about a monkey-and-a-bit’s worth of JDM British engineering here, but it has promise. And a V6. And it’s not another bloody Clio (apols to all Clio owners, of course. You’ll all be faster than me anyway). A short advert, priced at a tantalising £12,345 which had eluded my previously-filtered searches. A polite inquiry. A hastily organised trip north on a rainy Sunday evening.

In exchange for five hundred and fifty of your finest pounds, we have………..













Yeah ok, it’s pretty daft. I should have bought a Clio, or a Civic, or an MX5, or one of the two very cheap, very well put together Saxo track cars that are for sale near me. But where’s the fun in that? hehe

What do I know so far? Well, so far, it’s not too bad. The interior is minging, the headliner is sagging, one of the door handles is broke. Fine, most of that will be coming out. It’s done about 95k miles, has a surprising amount of service history and has clearly been cherished for some of its life. There’s pulley-related grumble coming from under the bonnet, the clutch pedal travel is reeeeeeeaaaaaaaallyyyy looooooooonnnnnnnngggg, the brakes are a bit vague, and there’s an after-market stereo that goes BEEPBOOP BEEPBOOP every time you switch it off. The tyres are sort of okay, but were mostly flat. It has a Janspeed (or Jansport, can’t remember which) catback exhaust and the all important cambelts were replaced not that long ago.

Plans?

Well, I’ve bought some stickers and some replacement brakes (thanks to Jonny Smith aka Car Pervert and his EBC Brakes discount!). I’m eyeing up some coilovers and some tyres – the order of which largely depends on how much the RX8 sells for. No-one seems to make off-the-shelf cages for these, which is a bit of a pain, but I do have a nice Corbeau seat to go in once I can work out how it mounts. They’ve also re-jigged the classes in the Javelin Sprint Series so I’ll be with similar-powered cars, so I’m hoping I can make it even a teensy bit competitive. We’ll see biggrin

So far all I’ve done is bring it home and plonk it in the garage next to its predecessor.



For those of you who followed my RX8 thread this is going to be somewhat slower in the progress stakes. There’s only one of me this time round as Pete’s off doing awesome things with MR2s (although I’m sure I can coax him into helping out here or there hehe) and I have significantly less free time than I used to.

But hey, if you can bear with me, it might be a bit of fun smile

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Monday 23rd August 2021
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I did tell you progress would be slow, right?

Still, some things have happened at least. I've been doing a bit of research into stuff I'll need and where's best to source things. It looks like a set of Gaz coilovers from Vulcan Racing will be the best place for some suspenders, my box of brakes has turned up, and I'm booked in later his week for some Yoko A052s to be fitted.

I also managed to have enough of a shuffle-around to get it off the trailer and out for a drive!

Looking glorious (from a safe distance) in the evening sun (complete with accidental double-Rover content):





Aside from loading it onto the trailer last week, this is the first time I've actually driven it. First impressions? Well, it's better than I had any right to expect. The engine pulls well, with no sign (yet!) of the rattly inlet the seller confessed to experiencing. The suspension creaks a bit, it's firmer than I remember (did I mention I used to own one of these? No? Well I did, back in about 2010. They were cheap then!). The grumbling noise from under the bonnet is, I'm pretty sure, the power steering pump - I'll check whether it has any fluid but that might need replacing. The brakes are pretty strong but are possibly dragging a bit. The tyres are a mix of Toyo T1-Rs (remember them?!) and Landsail - two of which have slow punctures, and none of which command much by way of confidence under heavy braking hehe

It is good fun, though. The exhaust gives a nice V6ey warble but shouldn't trouble the noise meters. It's noticeably narrower than the RX8, and should be lighter once it's had a bit of a diet - visibility is miles better too.

Oh, and all of my stickers have turned up..... biggrin

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Tuesday 24th August 2021
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I have a sprint booked at Cadwell Park on the 10th October. With any luck I'll get out on track before then, depending on time and availability.

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Thursday 26th August 2021
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Sensible investments 101:

spend more money on tyres than the car you're fitting them to biggrin





More to the point, I had a 60 mile round trip to get them which was really the first time I've driven it anywhere. I've managed a couple of small jobs - turns out the battery wasn't bolted down, and the squealing power steering pump has been cured (for now....) by topping up the fluid. Fingers crossed that does the trick....

I've been commuting in it as well, just because. I can't wait to get this interior out.... hurl










Sparkly knob!




Oh and I've just booked a track day in two weeks. This may be optimistic.

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Friday 27th August 2021
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Oh yes. Those videos may have played a fairly significant part in my purchase biggrin

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Wednesday 8th September 2021
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Sitrep:

New discs and pads are in. Front callipers seem to be dragging a bit still. Drat.



Interior is mostly gone:





The MG was delivered to a fabricator yesterday to fit a bucket seat, harness bar, harness mounting points, decat and intake. When I politely enquired as to progress yesterday evening I was told "we're still working on it, we had to weld up a couple of holes in the floor." yikes

Did I mention I'm doing a track day tomorrow?

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Wednesday 8th September 2021
quotequote all
Cambs_Stuart said:
Good luck getting it sorted. Where is the track day?
Thanks. Managed to find a spot at Mallory on a sessions day. Everything else is fully booked! frown


Megaflow said:
Watching with interest!

Couple of questions; what are the tyres? You said harness bar and harness mounts. I assume that means, it is not going to be caged yet, do Javelin allow that combination into their sprint series?
Yokohama AO52s. I love 'em.

Yes, they allow you to run without a cage as long as the standard bits of the interior (door cards, dash, etc - basically the soft stuff that covers up the metal bits) remain in place around the driver. It'll be getting a cage, coilovers, new steering wheel, polycarb windows etc in the coming weeks & months, I just want to do a 'test' track-day first to make sure it's actually worth the investment!

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Thursday 9th September 2021
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OK then. Who can guess what broke first? hehe

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Thursday 9th September 2021
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Volvolover was closest - clutch hydraulics have gone. Known issue, and I'm glad I found out now, but still annoying!

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Thursday 9th September 2021
quotequote all
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 hehe

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.



Edited by seiben on Friday 10th September 09:44

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Friday 10th September 2021
quotequote all
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 hehe

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.


seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Friday 10th September 2021
quotequote all
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 biggrin


seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Monday 29th November 2021
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Nothing like a nice delay in updating a thread, right? biggrin

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 hehe



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 biggrin







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 yikes

A couple of vids from the weekend:

Trackday:



Sprint (including a small moment at the gooseneck:




seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Friday 3rd December 2021
quotequote all
Yep - I've been speaking to the very helpful Peter at Vulcan Racing who has specced me a set of Gaz coilovers with the same spring weights used on his competition car.

Off-the-shelf cages are pretty hard to find - although bear in mind the bodyshell is pretty much a 90s Civic (MB, I think?) which gives you a bit of choice if you look carefully. I suspect I'll be going down the fabrication route but it all depends on budget. Either way a cage will be going in - there's been a few 'rollers' on trackdays recently which has highlighted the importance of decent safety kit!

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Wednesday 13th April 2022
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I told you this would be a slow burner hehe

Ok, a handful of updates. Shortly after Christmas I had compiled enough bits to get the car booked into my local indy. Normally I’d like to do most of this myself, but I’m well aware of my lack of free time at the moment so sometimes it’s necessary to pay people to get things moving!

I collected the car in early Jan with the following carried out:

Fitting of Gaz Gold coilovers
New stock callipers all round – one of the rears was leaking and the fronts were both binding slightly, and replacements are cheap
EBC braided lines, and a couple of new copper lines after the old fittings didn’t play ball
DOT5 fluid
Engine & gearbox oil
Alignment

I’d love to say I jumped in and headed straight to the nearest track, but in actual fact I parked it for three months and forgot about it :lol:

I finally pulled my finger out a couple of weeks back and booked a cheap weekday track day at Thruxton – a new track for me, despite being fairly local. I’ve heard lots about Thruxton being a very fast circuit, and turning up on a damp morning to a new track which allows overtaking on either side, in a fairly underpowered car, I was a touch nervous to say the least. It took a few laps just to learn where I was going – there isn’t a single true ‘straight’ in the circuit – but once things dried out a bit and I remembered which was a fast corner and which was a really-fast corner I started getting into a bit of a rhythm.

The new brakes held up really well (there’s a couple of heavy braking zones each lap) and the coilovers have made a massive difference to how it handles. That V6 up front means it’ll never change direction like a Clio, but you can really load it up in the corners and it’s really easy and intuitive to adjust the line of the car with throttle inputs. I’m still getting used to driving FWD on track but the MG is really confidence-inspiring and very enjoyable.

Note rear wheel off the ground!



And here’s a quick vid of one of the afternoon sessions. Thruxton’s a touch boring to watch but very fun to drive – the speeds are so high that a slight mistake on braking or turn-in can see you missing an apex by about 15 feet. If you listen carefully you can hear me berating myself once or twice for doing just that hehe



Of course, no cheap track car post is complete without the emergence of something else that needs attention. When heading in from my last run of the day I noticed the front undertray was hanging off. No worries, thought I, I’ll jump underneath and cable-tie it back on for now (because racecar, etc). Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that straightforward yikes



So, back on the trailer we go! It’s now back with the fabricator who is going to poke away at the rust and then (hopefully!) get some actual metal back in there. He’s had a few of these so is familiar with where and how they rust, so I’m confident it’s in good hands. Assuming the car is salvageable, we’ll also get the passenger seat in and a cage built. And given it’s now off the road and unlikely to return, it might get some new decat exhaust bits while it’s in there…



seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Wednesday 13th April 2022
quotequote all
Thanks. I might do a couple of sprint rounds this year, but the calendar isn't all too friendly. With any luck I'll make it over to Anglesey for the sprint double header later in the summer - otherwise it'll be mostly opportunistic track days.

seiben

Original Poster:

2,351 posts

136 months

Tuesday 9th April
quotequote all
Hahaha, yes - it's fair to say a certain amount of 'life' has happened over the last couple of years, so the MG really hasn't had much of a look-in. I did eventually sort out a cage via a local fabricator, and made a couple of other tweaks (most notably a set of Skunk 2 adjustable front camber arms, which worked wonders). Looking back through my photos it appears I did a whopping three trackdays in the entirety of 2023. Fine when it's just sat in the garage on a trickle charger, but now I've moved and lost my garage space I'm a bit more conscious of it all sitting outside doing nothing.

Still, it got a good send-off - I'd booked a trackday at Goodwood for my Dad's 70th, the plan being my brother, dad and I would head down and razz around in the MG all day.

The last trackday (one of Frank's excellent charity days at Blyton) had done for the brakes, so I set about getting a set of EBC Bluestuffs fitted and giving it a general checkover.



I also spent far too long buggering about with the trailer, which is also objecting to being kept outside in the form of a bad earth somewhere in the lighting circuit. A lack of time meant I ended up fitting an Amazon special set of externally-powered lights instead, before loading up...



Fortunately, Goodwood was about as good a trackday as I've ever had. After a wet morning the track dried out and stayed dry the rest of the day. The three of us managed over a dozen sessions through the day and had an absolute blast, culminating in a lovely final session playing with a GR Yaris and a gen2 Elise for a few laps. The main thing is my old man had a fantastic day - he remembers watching Stirling Moss race here as a kid, so getting to drive the track in anger was something of a dream come true for him. A fitting swan song, if there ever was one smile



So, yeah, it's for sale now. I'll be back on track in something, at some point, but until then I'll be focusing my car efforts on keeping the M5 up to scratch as the wonderfully apic fast road car it is. Which reminds me, I should update that thread as well.... biggrin