One for the future - MG ZT 260 ?

[J4CKO]

Looking at the way certain cars increase in value over time due to rarity, the MG ZT 260 seems like a lot of car for the money, MG/Rovers last Hurrah, based on what is widely regarded as their best car, over engineered and only a few hundred in existence, they seem cheap at the moment, been offered a 26k miler, its like a new car for seven grand. I am not in the market for a car having not long since changed but seven grand sounds like a lot of cash for a seven year old Rover, but not a lot for a low mileage, rare, V8, engined car that is like new, plus it doesnt attract the higher VED rate.

I cant see the prices dropping like they have for the front wheel drive models, is it one to buy and stash away somewhere ?

I expect the Rover haters to come along and say its worth £200 (for scrap, hur hur hur) but I really think these are something special and dont really want to miss the opportunity.

[Chrisw666]

It could be a good car to keep long term, if I could afford to run one I'd be much more interested in a supercharger converion and making it look more like a 75, or buying a V8 75 and sourcing a manual box for it so that could be blown.

[LotusOmega375D]

+1. An interesting family Q-car.

[LuS1fer]

It was rated as a good handling car with an appetite for tyres but the Mustang engine is the old 2v 4.6 that left Mustang service in 2004 and for it's weight, 260hp is not huge. Some of the service items are hard to get at because the engine had to be squeezed in.

Still a worthwhile consideration but there are other cars cheaper.

[kambites]

Easily superchargable.

[J4CKO]

Thinkign about it, I go to the wife and say I want to spend seven grand on an old MG V8 and put it away for the future, yes I think that will go my way

[LuS1fer]

People bandy round superchargers as the panacea for all evils but a Mustang supercharger will set you back at least £5k which takes the car into a whole new strata of competition albeit you now have 400hp/weight as the comparator.

Chances are you'll never see your money back on that modification and you have the ball-ache of modified car insurance/limited mileage and you will probably require other mods.

[J4CKO]

LuS1fer said:

People bandy round superchargers as the panacea for all evils but a Mustang supercharger will set you back at least £5k which takes the car into a whole new strata of competition albeit you now have 400hp/weight as the comparator.

Chances are you'll never see your money back on that modification and you have the ball-ache of modified car insurance/limited mileage and you will probably require other mods.

Yes, true, the S/C conversion does sound a lot of money, that as far as I am aware doesnt actually involve any work to the internals, seems a lot for a bolt on charger, is it because there is only one company doing them ?

As for other mods, they were fairly over engineered from the factory, they have a Tremec box that can take a lot more power, hefty rear axle that has its own damper, AP brake (I think), MGR bought all these parts in as they didnt have their own and they are very strong, they were going to do factory supercharged models, the 260 was the start, then a 385 and possibly others.

[joncon]

i was lucky enough to own one of these for 3 years, fabulous car.
two trips to le mans , think i covered around 22000 miles. mine was lhd , which made it even more fun/interesing to drive.
i would recommend one .
alhough i did go through 13 tyres in that time, the odd one was a blow out !
fuel economy will be around 24 on a run...ouch
the bmw trip computer had the mpg option deleted by the factory !
mki has no traction control.
this was mine, now living in sweden

[LuS1fer]

I don't know what Dreadnought charge but £5000 is about as cheap as V8 superchargers come. I paid just under £5k for mine - fitted - back in 2005 and I have seen a recent "offer" of a Roushcharger fitted for just over £5k.

The Mustang engine will take up to about 550hp without issue in SOHC 3v form, not sure about 2v.

A lot of the cost of superchargers from the US is in import duty, 20% VAT, shipping and fitting. They are obviously much better value in the US but the more recent 2005+ ones are offering 550hp anyway making the pain easier to bear. I'm not sure to what degree the MG will take a straight Mustang supercharger without other bespoke requirements.

[300bhp/ton]

J4CKO said:

Looking at the way certain cars increase in value over time due to rarity, the MG ZT 260 seems like a lot of car for the money, MG/Rovers last Hurrah, based on what is widely regarded as their best car, over engineered and only a few hundred in existence, they seem cheap at the moment, been offered a 26k miler, its like a new car for seven grand. I am not in the market for a car having not long since changed but seven grand sounds like a lot of cash for a seven year old Rover, but not a lot for a low mileage, rare, V8, engined car that is like new, plus it doesnt attract the higher VED rate.

I cant see the prices dropping like they have for the front wheel drive models, is it one to buy and stash away somewhere ?

I expect the Rover haters to come along and say its worth £200 (for scrap, hur hur hur) but I really think these are something special and dont really want to miss the opportunity.

I think they will be worth something in years to come. I'm not sure they'll be worth a fortune though, just more solid residual wise. But as always it'll be the tidy, standard low mileage examples that will demand the most money.

Rarity is certainly on it's side, but looking back at past Rovers, be it P6's, SD1 Vitesses or the MG turbo nutters (much akin to the ZT260 in their day, only 500 Maestro Turbo's built for instance and the fastest hothatch you could buy at the time).

None have kept their value too well. So you have to ask "why will a saloon or estate ZT260?".

[J4CKO]

300bhp/ton said:

J4CKO said:

Looking at the way certain cars increase in value over time due to rarity, the MG ZT 260 seems like a lot of car for the money, MG/Rovers last Hurrah, based on what is widely regarded as their best car, over engineered and only a few hundred in existence, they seem cheap at the moment, been offered a 26k miler, its like a new car for seven grand. I am not in the market for a car having not long since changed but seven grand sounds like a lot of cash for a seven year old Rover, but not a lot for a low mileage, rare, V8, engined car that is like new, plus it doesnt attract the higher VED rate.

I cant see the prices dropping like they have for the front wheel drive models, is it one to buy and stash away somewhere ?

I expect the Rover haters to come along and say its worth £200 (for scrap, hur hur hur) but I really think these are something special and dont really want to miss the opportunity.

I think they will be worth something in years to come. I'm not sure they'll be worth a fortune though, just more solid residual wise. But as always it'll be the tidy, standard low mileage examples that will demand the most money.

Rarity is certainly on it's side, but looking back at past Rovers, be it P6's, SD1 Vitesses or the MG turbo nutters (much akin to the ZT260 in their day, only 500 Maestro Turbo's built for instance and the fastest hothatch you could buy at the time).

None have kept their value too well. So you have to ask "why will a saloon or estate ZT260?".

Yes, thats true I guess, none are demanding a lot of money, funny how we kind of ignore/actively dislike/despise our own motoring heritage and go made for someone elses, ok, some were complete woofers, but a Rover Vitesse was a fine thing, with as much racing pedigree as the E30 M3, wonder how much a nice Vitesse goes for now, 5/6 grand ?

[LouD86]

This is something Im quite interested in, and have been looking at. Im looking at ZT-T 260's, comfort, space, and that lovely sounding V8. I know it hasnt got all the power, but I remember driving launch models, and my ex demo, and it was fantastic fun, drop it into top gear, and smoothly accelerate from 15mph, beautiful!

I think if I can find a nice, tidy, ZT-T 260 for 4k, ill have one!

[billzeebub]

I think this is a sure fire winner. I have only ever heard people say good things about these taken in isolation. The clincher should be that the troubles MG Rover were going through at inception, combined with a hefty price tag and iffy depreciation meant they didn't sell all that well. This means a guaranteed future classic in my opinion

[LuS1fer]

The Rover SD1s were always badly-built BL.

The 75/MG inherited the "BMW-developed" mantle which I think keeps prices more healthy. However, any car from a defunct manufacturer with potential parts issues is always going to appeal only to a select number of buyers. I'm actually surprised they have kept their price as well as they have.

[J4CKO]

Yeah, again we focus a lot on headline power figures, and it is important, these arent slow but they arent going to trouble an E39 M5 as standard, my Saab had pretty much the same amount of power but two more different ways to getting 250/260 bhp I cannot imagine, not really much sense of occasion with the Saab, effective but the soundtrack was akin to a Dyson, where the 260, especially this one as it has straight through rear pipes makes a very nice noise, power delivery totally different, liek you say, stick it in top at 15 mph, to be honest the fuel economy wasnt actually as far apart as you may think, 21/22 plays 18/19 knocking about, so not a great change if you are used to that but you may die of shock if coming from a diesel Polo. Its worth a few mpg for the noise alone.

[billzeebub]

LuS1fer said:

The Rover SD1s were always badly-built BL.

The 75/MG inherited the "BMW-developed" mantle which I think keeps prices more healthy. However, any car from a defunct manufacturer with potential parts issues is always going to appeal only to a select number of buyers. I'm actually surprised they have kept their price as well as they have.

Yeah, the V8s haven't done too bad depreciation wise. Perversely this is probably because of the perception people had that they would fall of a cliff, so they stayed out of them when new.

[J4CKO]

LuS1fer said:

The Rover SD1s were always badly-built BL.

The 75/MG inherited the "BMW-developed" mantle which I think keeps prices more healthy. However, any car from a defunct manufacturer with potential parts issues is always going to appeal only to a select number of buyers. I'm actually surprised they have kept their price as well as they have.

The 75/ZT is indeed light years ahead in terms of quality, to be fair to BL, most cars were badly built rotboxes back then.

I dont see it being a parts problem, plenty in common with the ordinary ZT, the engine is from a Mustang and Ford were still going last time I looked, Treme make the gearbox, Dana make the diff, Bilsten suspension, AP brakes. Panels can be an issue but there are still loads of cheap ZT's if you need panels, only concern would be any V8 specific bits made by MGR but not sure that there were that many and I cant see anything that cant be re-engineered should the need arise. My 944 hasnt been made since 91 and I dont have any worries about spares, I know Porsche are still about but I doubt they have a 944 bits production line.

[300bhp/ton]

LuS1fer said:

I

The Mustang engine will take up to about 550hp without issue in SOHC 3v form, not sure about 2v.

The Mustang guys tend to run up to 420 or so rwhp on stock internals (but with other mods). But that's probably DynoJet inertia dyno HP's. So a bigger number slightly than an eddy current dyno which will offer up similar numbers to SAE Net ratings.

[Rollcage]

exhaust noise

Reason enough!