[MG mad]

I like the idea of a VVC ZS, have been thinking about building one but have a few too many projects at the moment. Probably with a turbo bolted on, a cage bolted in to go racing in our MG series in Auckland.

Originally Posted by Skillen

I worked out power to weight ratios of 160ZR and the 180ZS and they the ZR was down by 1bhp per tonne, so think the zs160 would be down by 20?
Dunno if its enough to notice though.
The torque to weight will be down though
Nice conversion though. And won't be many around either!
And the XPG is nice!

Indeed, ZR160 (137.1 hp/tonne) and ZS180 (137.7 ) very similar power to weight, but the big difference is in torque to weight, where the 180 easily wins (186.8 N.m/tonne, compared to 152.0 for the ZR160). Both have similar gearing and identical tyre sizes (from the factory), the biggest difference is that the ZR requires a 4.2:1 FD to end up with a similar 0-60 time as a ZS180, which does so with a 3.94:1 FD. The ZS's in-gear acceleration is quite a bit better.

These would drop to about 128.2 hp/tonne and 142.0 N.m/tonne for a ZS160. All this suggests to me that you may get close to the 180's power to weight with a few bolt on mods to the VVC ZS, but you won't get close to the torque to weight without some serious modifications.

However, it is a great way of getting 80% of the performance benefit of a 180 out of a 120, without the former's thirst. It is a shame MGR didn't do one from the factory, a ZS 160 to go with a ZS190 would've been a much more complete range, just needed the 2.9 KV6 that was underdevelopment to complete the lineup.