Adventures in a £100 MG ZT-T 160.

Mid January I was offered to visit a friend of mine who has recently moved to Trawsfynydd in north Wales.
A journey which (on average) should take around five and half hours from sunny Hampshire.

Of my assorted collection of cars three are currently on the road. My '97 MG F, '02 TF160 and lastly my ZT-T160.
For the sake of comfort (and not going deaf) the ZT-T was the obvious choice. 

The car itself is somewhat of an oddity. The 1.8 turbocharged K-Series was not the most popular engine to appear in the R40 chassis, even less common to appear in the estate "Touring" model. This car surfaced locally nearby the DMGRS southern HQ. Purchased by the seller for it's body panels as he owned a 75 in the same shade of red. Upon it's delivery he discovered the cars condition had been greatly mis-represented. 

It was in poor condition, with scrapes and body damage covering it's surface. To add to the fun, it barely ran. In the 150k miles it had travelled in it's life the brake pads had been changed five times, but it was still on the original brake discs. So not only was it rough and had severe running issues, it also had questionable service history to add to its "sales" points. He was so disheartened he put a post on a local Facebook page offering the car to anyone mad enough to want to own it.

Naturally I had to have it. 

In exchange for a whopping £100, I made it 0.8 miles down the road before I was stranded. This was back in December of 2024, and with time and effort the car has come around. Regularly being used as a test platform for various re-manufactured items here at DMGRS. Despite it's faults and previous neglect it has (with time) proven itself to be a truly reliable car. Covering a further 12k miles and never leaving me in trouble since that initial poor start. It is a regular sight in the background at any show we attend.

While it has some substantial journeys this trip to Wales would be the longest it had undertaken by two and half hours. And it was absolutely fantastic. 
I set off for Wales on the Sunday and beat the average journey time by a substantial amount, taking only four hours and fifty seven minutes. Even with the car fully loaded with hiking gear and a large armchair in the boot it averaged 41mpg! Who needs a diesel?

It then ferried myself and our small group through assorted parts of North Wales, adventuring through the mountains and exploring an abandoned slate mine. After a week of travel it was finally time to head back home. Confidence was at an all time high. The car had been flawless. 

I filled up at the local petrol station in Trawsfynydd, a single petrol pump operated by the local service station whom were much enthused to see a ZT-T out and about!
Then I set off on the grand trip home. Timing looking worse off, hovering around 6 hours due to traffic on the M5. 

The first half of the way home through the mountains, and out of Wales was pleasant despite the sleet and mist! 

However on the approach to Kidderminster a car ahead in traffic departed with something from it's underside causing several cars to swerve or get caught up the debris. Said debris caused damage to several of the cooling hoses on the ZT-T and took out a fellow motorists tyre. 

The car was losing coolant quickly, thankfully I had some electrical tape and bottled water in the boot to limp it to a nearby petrol station. The "repair" with the tape slowed the problem, but was never going to cure it. Recovery options were limited, only able to take me as far as Cirencester. Still over 2 hours from home. 

I bought every bottle of water in the service station and set off on a journey marked by Hotels, pubs and late night petrol stations to refill the water bottles. Running with the heater on full blast I could tell when the coolant was beginning to get low as the matrix would start to lose heat. 

I could do around 20 minutes of driving before having to stop and refill the system.

My journey to Wales may have taken record time, but the journey back totalled 12 hours and 43 minutes. And yet the car did get me home. Despite being ran low on coolant more times than I can count, it has survived the journey with no signs of head gasket trouble. Evidence that if done properly your K-Series should be safe for the future, even if you try to cook it multiple times!

The car is temporarily off the road to give it a proper birthday for it's valiant efforts to get me home in one piece. And I'm sure it'll be out on the road again soon. Some of the other cars in the DMGRS fleet may garner the enthusiast attention, but maybe next time you see us all at a show or come to visit the shop you'll give a nod to the old ZT-T.

-Max