The MG brand has had its ups and downs over the years, but 2001 was an undisputed highlight in what was otherwise a pretty shaky time for MG Rover as a whole.
In 2000 the brand had been sold by brief owners BMW to the ‘Phoenix Four’ for the symbolic sum of £10, and the consortium immediately began stemming the company’s losses. There were some strong products in the range too, with the MGF still around and the Rover 75 still fresh, and generally well-received by the press.
But money to develop all-new models was hard to come by. Rover’s core range of the supermini-plus 25 and the 45 family hatch was by this time already a little long in the tooth (each introduced in 1999, but based on the 1995 200 and 400), and while the 75 was selling well it couldn’t sustain the brand on its own.
The 25 and 45 were effective updates of the older cars though and the 75 was a fantastic platform in its own right. There was potential here for something greater, and with the MG brand looking a little thin with just the MGF on offer, the Rover range was ripe for sprucing up. In a spectacularly short space of time and on very little money indeed, the results arrived all together in July 2001 with the MG ZR, ZS, and ZT, based on the 24, 45, and 75.
Remarkably, the MG brand’s rejuvenation didn’t stop there: the MGF range was itself bolstered by a new Trophy 160 with stiffer suspension and a hotted-up K-series, the X80 concept was unveiled – which would go on to become the XPower SV sports car – and the brand also announced it would field entries in rallying (with the ZR), British touring cars (with the ZS) and Le Mans with the MG-Lola EX257, which debuted at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. There may never have been a busier time in MG’s history, and it was accomplished on a shoestring.
The ZR became a smash-hit with younger buyers and the ZS was highly-rated for its handling, but the ZT did something more or less unthinkable for the Rover brand just a few years earlier: it was a sports saloon that could genuinely take on BMW, on the road if not in the sales charts.
Not everyone was sold on the ZT’s styling updates. It’s aged well, but stripping the Rover 75 of its chrome, slapping on some vivid paintwork and fitting more aggressive wheels was seen by some as a bit “grandad in trainers”. No matter, because there was solid engineering behind the ZT, and the 75 was already the most sophisticated car in the entire MG Rover lineup. The ZT took to its new trainers very well, with agility that Autocar said made the ZT “feel like a much smaller car” than the 75, while quicker, re-valved steering also provided more feedback.
Top of the engine tree was a tuned version of Rover’s 2.5-litre V6, making 190bhp. You could get a 3-Series with more, but not for the ZT’s competitive £20,495 price, which would only get you a plodding 118bhp 318i SE from BMW at the time. For a fairly mild four-pot the BMW drove well, but eight out of ten cats could tell you the ZT was the sport saloon of the pair, even if it still drove its front wheels alone.
At least, that was until MG Rover went a bit loopy. With the company’s business case rapidly falling apart in the early 2000s, there was little scope for designing all-new engines to carry a now rapidly ageing product line further into the decade, but there was enough to cobble together cheaply-acquired engines from other manufacturers into something that could plug a finger in the leak.
The finger in this case was Ford’s modular 4.6-litre V8, as found in the Mustang at the time. As AROnline writes, MG Rover turned to Prodrive to help with the engineering, which involved converting the resolutely transverse, front-wheel drive 75 platform into a longitudinal V8 one, with a 256bhp variant of the V8 sitting in the nose. The Prodrive link eventually fell apart so MG Rover took things back in-house, and the ZT V8 (and its Rover V8 counterpart – dropping the 75 name) arrived in late 2003.
It’s these V8s that are the dead-cert future classics of the ZT range, if they’re not already, but the ZT as a whole deserves to be considered, and it already has a strong following who love the way these cars look, feel, and drive – and the notable period in MG’s history they represent. They make incredibly usable modern classics, with a ride and handling balance that suits UK roads and a distinctive look that’s arguably at its best in full “grandad in trainers” spec, with the 18-inch multi-spoke “Straights” alloy wheels and in a bright colour like Trophy Yellow or Ignition Blue.
The 2001 MG range, and the talented ZT in particular, might not have saved MG Rover entirely, but they probably helped stave off its demise for just a little longer, and their accessibility and fun factor will be considered a highlight of early 21st century British cars for many years to come.
Did you own an MG ZR, ZS or ZT or do you still? We’d love to hear your stories, whether it’s a fond memory, a cautionary tale about reliability, or a V8 you’re never selling. Let us know in the comments below.
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