My MG ZS 1.8 VVC Conversion.

[Rikki55]

Awesome!

[skyblueads]

Lovely, lovely car. Welcome to the forum. Ace colour. I'd be very proud to have that on my driveway!

[Skillen]

Originally Posted by petet16

I'm thinking that the lighter vvc would offset the extra bhp of a v6.

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!

[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.

[Mathew_ZS]

Originally Posted by skyblueads

Lovely, lovely car. Welcome to the forum. Ace colour. I'd be very proud to have that on my driveway!

Thanks mate, tis a cracking motor.

Might be going shortly though if all goes well.

[talkingcars]

Originally Posted by petet16

I like it, quicker than a 180 would you say?

I'd be suprised unless it's tuned, once rolling my ZS180 is close to my T16 maestro and considerably quicker than Mrs TC's ZR160 VVC on a straight drag.

[ZS120Driver]

Hi, I also just joined this site and have just finished (yesterday) fitting the vvc head to my ZS, also I live in Birmingham. Small world hey :P Really clean looking motor you got there, nice neat conversion too, all done yourself? Looks like you've had it on a rolling road by the pics, would you mind posting the graphs? Mine's blue with a few white stripes, must admit they do look rather fetching in XPG though!!