It all depends on how you drive it............The v6 is more than enough to keep up, and anyway, round the bends you can lose most cars, as I havent found a better handling car, this side of a supercar....

You might have a knackered VIS motor, or 2.

As someone who regularly tracks my zed, I can tell you they are not that slow. Very rare that I get over taken in it. I've also done various back to back tests against friends new hatches and also "fast cars" and it's never let me down. My friends got the new clio rs and has had new manifolds and remap etc, 218bhp on the dyno and i still managed to get a car lengths on it. If yours is slow I can guarantee you've got issues with yours. The book figures for the zs are not quite right too as everyone I know who has done a 0-60 test has done it under 7. Not that slow a car if its running right and driven right

Strangely enough, it was an insignia (diesel) pulling away from me on a slip road while my 180 was in its "sweet spot" that swayed me to get rid. That was in 2010.
Couldnt bear the thought of a mobile sales rep's mile muncher being quicker than my 25mpg "sporty" car. So had a silly moment and got a mini (BMW) which lasted all of 6 months then came back to ZS ownership but this time with a diesel. I absolutely love that car and still have it now three years later, longest Ive ever kept a car and it is going nowhere any time soon.
Bang per buck it really is impossible to beat a tuned ZS TD. What else can you get with 160bhp and 250+ ft/lbs torque for just over a grand all in?

Im sure the 180 would have been quicker from a standing start but for real world driving, overtaking and the like you cant beat a well tuned diesel.

One thing I would say with driving other cars and them feeling faster than the 180 is that they probably are faster in most situations. Similar BHP figures but twice the torque so stands to reason.

The diesel wont sound as good though and if I wanted a track car it would be the 180

Horses for courses

Il let mg zs steve try it out n the weekend see if he thinks the vis motors are ok or not,just seemed a bit of a struggle with that insignia but twin turbo im not surprised,what sort of rev range should the power range build up on the 180s? is it just over 3k should feel quite a difference? cheers

sounds like you need a T-series conversion ;)

i should have a spare set soon :o

It should be a very noticeable tug at 3-4 revs. The difference between a knackered vis and a working one is quite a difference, bought another zs last year which had a knackered system and i couldn't believe the difference. Also the zs will be transformed with a few mods and come to life. be worth doing a back to back on two zs with a non working and a working. youd be quite shocked.

Think really that's the issue here.

When I came down and RRd "Red" it gave 146bhp - yours was 185+ IIRC. That's a huge difference in power let alone torque. I then replaced my vis motors and am sure it was stronger although didn't test it again.

My current car has been tested and working motors gave a RR of 184 and she just feels quick.

Bear in mind aswell that these guys in their Insignias etc are just booting it everywhere on a company fuel card and they are worth 10 times what our ZSs retail for. We have decent performance cars that outperform most if they are working properly

I'll stick the SG2 on first and check for codes. As you have my old loom fitted it will have the old splices for the vis indicator still present, so will take 10 minutes to connect it up to see whats happening. Ive got spare VIS also if needed. If you have got a duff VIS and we can sort that out, coupled with the SS exhaust and sports cat it will feel like a different car.

I've driven the latest 320d touring a bit, and the 520d touring as well, and while they're pretty good for 2.0 diesel they're not as quick as the ZS. The A4 1.9td we have at work is considerably slower than all of the above.

All have about the same (or more) power than the ZS 180 and a lot more torque, but the ZS is lighter and the torque curve and power delivery is always going to be better than an oil burning farm implement.