MG ZS +120

[anonymous-user]

New car time and this one is my second favourite already.
It is an 02 ZS with a modified engine (work carried out by my uncle and dad as it was my uncle's car - selling due to SWMBO)






Engine mods as follows -
Hellier Performance ported and polished cylinder head 29mm inlet valves
Pair of RK1811 Kent cams
K & N induction kit
3/4 cat back stainless steel exhaust
52mm throttle body
Trophy 160 aluminium manifold

Sounds very fierce when you put your foot down but most of the time it is nice and subtle which is what I like the best.
Prefer driving this over my Subaru, this is second to the Mini out of the cars I have had. Really enjoy it.

[anonymous-user]

MG owners

[Goodsteed]

tidy motor. What power is it putting out now?

[BorkFactor]

Thats really nice, I find myself warming to the ZS / ZT a lot.

How does it compare to a standard one with the mods?

And speaking of MG owners, where did MGJohn go? He should be all over this!

[anonymous-user]

BorkFactor said:

Thats really nice, I find myself warming to the ZS / ZT a lot.

How does it compare to a standard one with the mods?

And speaking of MG owners, where did MGJohn go? He should be all over this!

Only ever driven this modded ZS though I have driven an MGF 1.8 quite a lot and this has a lot more pull.

Goodsteed said:

tidy motor. What power is it putting out now?

Not sure...maybe someone more mechanically minded could give me an estimate?...
Such a sweet pull once you get over 4000rpm though thanks to the cams

[moribund]

Very nice! The garage I take my MG to has a ZS 120 courtesy car. It's battered, tatty and filthy and yet is also the sweetest steering, best balanced fwd car I've driven. They knew what they were doing when they tuned this chassis!

[anonymous-user]

moribund said:

Very nice! The garage I take my MG to has a ZS 120 courtesy car. It's battered, tatty and filthy and yet is also the sweetest steering, best balanced fwd car I've driven. They knew what they were doing when they tuned this chassis!

On the handling..I watched a Tiff review of these and he said the same about it being balanced. My only criticism is that it is rather light to steer, not MGF light but still light.

[GazzaMogzy]

Looking good! I'm liking the mods, very tempted to do it to mine, just thought it wouldn't run tidy on the stock ECU?

[anonymous-user]

GazzaMogzy said:

Looking good! I'm liking the mods, very tempted to do it to mine, just thought it wouldn't run tidy on the stock ECU?

I did* wonder this before but it is pretty smooth. Usual lumpy tick over from the cams but because the mods aren't 'extreme' the ECU copes fine. Have looked at getting a new one but there is no rush as I've only just bought the car.

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 29th January 13:44

[Daston]

Looks very tidy, I too was suprised how well the ZS handles it does like to be chucked about.

[RikST]

I do miss my MG ZS 120 a lot...

Still one of the best cars I've ever owned and looked pretty good as was fully dressed as a 180! Shane the engine munched its way through headgaskets, even the uprated MLS ones due to a sunken liner on final inspection which ultimately led me to sell...

I'd still have another in a heartbeat, albeit a proper v6 180..!

[anonymous-user]

RikST said:

I do miss my MG ZS 120 a lot...

Still one of the best cars I've ever owned and looked pretty good as was fully dressed as a 180! Shane the engine munched its way through headgaskets, even the uprated MLS ones due to a sunken liner on final inspection which ultimately led me to sell...

I'd still have another in a heartbeat, albeit a proper v6 180..!

Touch wood*** my uncle has never had problems with this one so hopefully if I look after it it'll carry on. I never drive it hard when the engine is cold or anything like that so fingers crossed!
One thing I notice is the complete lack of body roll, one corner near mine at 40mph fairly sharp...in the Alfa I felt like my right knee was touching the floor and in this it just goes round rather flat. Has a very impressive wheel response as well.

[pthelazyjourno]

GazzaMogzy said:

Looking good! I'm liking the mods, very tempted to do it to mine, just thought it wouldn't run tidy on the stock ECU?

Standard ECU tends to be fine up to 150, 160bhp.

Depending on how aggressive the cams are I'd have thought this would be somewhere around the 140bhp, 145bhp mark - stock 4-1 manifold is pretty crap so probably a slight bottleneck.

Mods are pretty similar in concept (albeit different cams, different valves and a different tuner porting/polishing the head) to my Elise.

Edited by pthelazyjourno on Thursday 30th January 13:28

[anonymous-user]

pthelazyjourno said:

Mods are pretty similar in concept (albeit different cams, different valves and a different tuner porting/polishing the head) to my Elise.

Edited by pthelazyjourno on Thursday 30th January 13:28

These parts were bought from a man who was going to put them on his Elise.

[pthelazyjourno]

GravelMachineGun said:

These parts were bought from a man who was going to put them on his Elise.

A helluva lot of engines from ZRs and ZSs end up in Elises!

Shame really, I like these cars, they deserve better than to end up as donors.

[anonymous-user]

pthelazyjourno said:

Shame really, I like these cars, they deserve better than to end up as donors.

Definitely, especially considering their BTCC pedigree you'd think more people would like to drive them. They are few in numbers on the roads these days.

[350zStee]

Nice car. I loved my ZS120 years back.

I still have a ZS180 in my drive that hasn't turned a wheel in years. I might go and fire it up soon.