magicdudey

Mine has only 1 and a bit hours to go. Now this is a real Zed MK11 version.
It will either go in the next hour or will be part ex against my new one.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/54-REG-2004-MG...QQcmdZViewItem

Let the action commence!!!!!!

logiclee

I also had one for three days (Couple of years back) when my work mule (Rover 75) was in for work.

The ZS180 is a great raw drive, one TV program likened it to the way a Classic Scoob drove and I tend to agree. The V6 sounded great and loves to REV and the handling is good although the ride feels old school firm.

Yep the interior looks dated but it's still a good package and at todays prices a great buy.

Cheers
Lee

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Dont overlook the ZT either, very well made car, my dad and uncle have identical looking ones, my dads is a 190 and my uncles a 260 V8.

madfiddler

I've had my ZS180 for just over a year now. By today's standards I paid over the top for it since MGRover hadn't gone under (£8000 with 14k miles, mines a hatch rather than saloon). Now, although I'd like to think I am, I'm not a 'real' driver, my previous cars were a Metro, Fiesta Sports, and a Rover 216Gsi. However, I'm totally impressed by the car. The handling is so much better than my other cars, the way it feels flat when you boot it around a corner. The soundtrack is nice, but you don't get that until around 5k+. From about 2.8k the acceleration is great, and smooth.

Niggles are the fact it ices up on the inside, the turning circle is bad, economy is naff for the performance (no better than a Scooby really, but not as quick), and the guards in the wheel arches tend to scrape (my nearside is at the moment).

Apart from that, I'm really happy with the car. Since buying I've needed a replacement timing belt which was squeeking too much, and the scrape. Apart from that, it's great. Doesn't look too hot inside, but that doesn't really bother me.

One happy MG owner here, for sure.

PHILL-WALES

i owned one of these before i bought the scooby and to be honest i thought road handling was crap ,i sold it after a year because i hated it.

hades

If yours was handling crap, there was something wrong with it. In many ways the handling is better than a standard UK scoob, and cornering grip is in the same ballpark (noting the scoob grips very well but only handles moderately well). Whilst they don't have 4wd traction, they'll cope with 4-5k launches in the damp with pretty minimal wheelspin which is pretty impressive for a fwd car. Sure the interior's dated, but have you ever looked inside a classic scoob?

My brother bought one about a year ago (another 9k ish with virtually no miles etc). Whilst it wouldn't quite keep up with my (280+bhp, mildly tweaked) scoob down a B road thrash it would not be easy to leave, and is certainly more than a match for many hot hatches,

Ralph Wiggum

a 182 will own one in a straight line and the twistys,
the equipment levels blow it away imo and it just feels nicer and more expensive

i was in my mates, with a maxogen itg airbox and a piper exhaust catback and the car didnt feel fast really,

and in this day and age 180bhp from a 2.5 v6 is laughable , yes they do feel solid grip wise, wouldnt say they handled THAT good, but grip yes , probably something to do with having a big unpowered v6 over the front wheels lol

the thing really hate is the looks, looks terrible in saloon guise, with that big spoiler as it cant match its show with go lol,

sorry to be blinkered but its a rover 45 at the end of the day and that wasnt a good starting base not now not ever!

mg driver

thats funny, whilst on one of my track days i was out a few times with a clio 182 with sport pack and i lapped consistently quicker with only a full zorst and induction kit.He was trying very hard as well ,in fact to hard as he ended up crashing into the tyre wall ,,it was a match through the corners but that little 4 pot couldnt keep up when on the power.

Must say though that little 182 really impressed me and im in no way putting em down.

Anyone who says the zs doesnt handle either has no experience or is thick as a plank,,my zs would easily outhandle my old scooby any day of the week.


Wait for it ....................."yeah but what if it was wet"

sti-04!!

ZS is a top car

mg driver

while the itg and piper are good mods on a zs they need other things to get the best out of them ,,those 2 things on their own will give the zs less than 10 bhp imo,so the car will still only be 185 bhp at best.
There has never been a bad review of the zs handling ,infact quite the opposit they have all been very positive,it may look like a 45 with a bodykit but so what ,a scooby looks like a basic 2.0gl with a bodykit,,the important thing is whats under the skin and here the zs is nothing like a r45,the chassis is something like 75 % stiffer for starters.

hades

Agree, but probably not even 185 - IIRC (?), motobuild reckon they normally see just under 170bhp on the rollers from a standard engine. However, throw in their suitable cam change that gives something like 25bhp more coupled with hefty torque gains through much of the range, with induction and exhaust, it'll do the job.

As for 180 being "laughable" out of a 2.5; sure it's nothing much compared to a VTEC or similar caning nuts of it type engine, it's built to give torque through the range, and still compares reasonably on bhp/litre to your average repmobile 2L etc. However, put e.g. a Civic Type R against a ZS say in top gear from 2500rpm (i.e. fairly normal driving), guess what will happen?

PHILL-WALES

i bought my mg zs 180 brand new and anybody on here who says that mg zs grips better than a scooby needs to go see there doctor tomorrow i think. i n the wet if u take a corner quicklt slides as if u on ice. like somebody said its a rover so i shall say no more there crap.

Ralph Wiggum

no specific output of the engine is lazy, sorry might be a good engine if like 3000 is spunked on it

and your argument for normal driving, ok ill get a skoda fabia vrs and do the same test, and win ! if i wanted a car to drive normal i'd drive a normal car,

when i buy a fast car i want a fast car, i happily sacrifice a bit of top gear drivability for a car that was alot faster when going for it,

180SX

This Phil sounds like one of those chavs out of goldie looking chain,him and Ralph make a good double act as dumb & dumber

The ZS180, More fun than being naked with a large chested young woman whose appetite for naughtiness knows no bounds

mn_angrybeats

LOL what a load of bull

mg driver

I dont recall anyone saying it gripped better,,i said it handles better,,,but through a corner in dry conditions mine will come out of a corner faster than my scooby would .
In the wet it will grip just as good as anything else scooby included when off the power ,,4wd doesnt help you slow down or turn in ,,its only an advantage when your on the gas exiting the bend.
What tyres have you got on and what tread depth and pressures ,because this makes a massive difference and can make a good car feel bad.

mg driver

sorry i didnt get that quite right but the the suspension is a whopping 70% stiffer than on the r45,thanks to new dampers ,springs ,anti roll bars ,etc,checkout autocar jan 2001.


the example of driving and comparing with the fabia and ctr , both these cars are compromised in standard form ,the ctr for no torque and the fabia for no bhp,,the zs 180 is somewhere in the middle with good torque and bhp,,its all down to personal taste and what kind of power delivery you want,the zs will outhandle a fabia easily and its also beat the ctr for lap times when tested in a group test at castle combe despite having less power and weighing fractionally more.

MGJohn

Good Grief! There's someone who knows all about motors.

Shame about your failure to see... dodgy minces?

mg driver

mine has the motobuild cams(piper 270 ) and manifolds from hayward and scott etc and its brilliant to drive.
The standard output of 175 bhp is the same as the vauxhall and ford 2.5 units so its not record breaking but its ok.
Zs are constantly surprising people at pod with what they can do and next year will see 13 second runs for the 1/4 from still nasp zs's,,alright its nothing compared to modified scoobs etc but to anyone that understands,a run in the 13's in a nasp front driver is pretty darn good.Weve already got very low 14's at over 99 mph.
On track the story is the same,,almost every track day i have done ive had people come up to me and ask about the car because its going so well and has always been one of the quickest cars round the lap,then when you tell them its on standard suspension ,tyres ,brakes they pretty impressed,i even had a gang come over one time who all wanted to see under the bonnet because they thought i had a v8 hiding under there .
At castle combe me and my zs track friend did repeated 1.26 laps ,it was my first time on track and the only mods i had were a full exhaust and induction,,im sure folks on here who have done castle combe will know that that time is pretty good,the track prepped pugs were pretty shocked i can tell you.

There are better cars but for the money imnot so sure ,,£4-£5k will buy you a good zs 180 that will already match any hot hatch ,,spend a few k on modding and its a serious machine that is especialy fun at track days or pod or even at the lights when folks look over and see an "old rover" and then ya dust em proper .

I dont know wether anyones noticed but i think the zs is quite good i have had a long list of cars though ,,many performance models too and zs is a better all round dynamic package than all of them.

magicdudey

I had 2 MG ZS Mark 1 and 11.
I did have mega fun ion them both, however I lost a lot of money on them being liquidised. As a business I had to chip it in and statrt agin........GREAT for me as I now have my first ever Scoob and I am loving it big time. It is the best car I have ever driven.
One tyhing though. Make sure you are covered in a RAC/AA extended warrenty, these things have a nasty habit of the master slave unit/clutch going at circa 30,000 miles....Mine went big time in my mark 1 ZS. Am pleased I will not be experiencing this again in a MG!
I got £6250 in the end and it was a MEGA well loked after machine. It went for peanuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hades

Just out of curiosity, did you find the manifolds madea big difference too? Any idea about the sort of power / torque you're putting out?

Agree re: the standard output, having once previously owned a 2.5 Vauxhall with 170bhp, with the extra torque and good spread of power it'll be closer to peak power more of the time - I'd always take a 170bhp 2.5 V6 over a 170bhp 2L straight 4.

I agree that they're "quite good" . Sure they don't have a great image or interior, and they're based on a fairly old chassis. In case anyone hadn't noticed, the same applies to Subarus (classics especially). Doesn't stop them being good cars either!

hades

Only slight flaw with that argument being that the CTR isn't "a lot faster when going for it"; in fact the 180 beats both CTR and VRS round a track.

mg driver

the manifolds are terrible on a standard 180 (extremely poor and very restrictive)and replacing them with a full system too and induction gives high 198 ish at fly and 160 at the wheels up from 175 atf and 142 atw.These mods bring the power in earlier and also increase torque a lot ,giving the same torque at the wheels a standard zs180 has at the fly .

Im trying to get a day at the rollers now with a group of mg's so i should know soon enough what mines making but a realistic figure will be between 215-220 atf .

Rokerlad

The ZS 180 is a surprisingly quick car, but they do look like a mid - 80's family car with Halfords 'RipSpeed' bits added. Would you really want to be seen in one ? I thought not.

c_w

Have you ever seen a standard classic impreza without the "bodykit"?

mg driver

now i dont do daft things like messing with type r's but standard uk spec cars are fair game ,one of these days ill get my get my butt kicked but i wasted a bugeye on the motorway recently in my old rover with halfords bolt on bits and an old classic shape on a duel carriageway,he was sitting right up my harris trying to shove me out the way almost after flying up behind me like a **** end ,so i cogged it down and booted it ,he tried bless him but till i lifted he was going backwards pretty quickly

might have to get a 172 or a pug to go with my old rover ,i hear they are scooby killers too .

rabbos

I think its hardly conclusive if someone is sitting on your **** as to their need to race you. They are more likely cruising, just close to your bumper. A lot of people do this out of habit or have really crap vision and so can't see the brake lights come on unless they are really close...

mg driver

oh come off it ,i was there and i saw him waiting off the island ,he saw me and gave chase up the duel carriageway then sat so close i could see the colour of his eyes,i could also see the embaresment as he sped past after i slowed down

rabbos

fair enough guv. had a bit of a play with yellow one back in the good ol days of the 172cup. He couldn't get away from me - even started weaving all over the shop hence it seemed as though the handling not quite as sorted as the cup. Or perhaps that was a 'bad' one?

TopBanana

Hey - my WRX RA hasn't even got a spoiler and I think it looks the business