Development
The model was rapidly created from the Rover 45 after BMW sold off Rover in 2000. Development of the model was greatly accelerated by the fact that Rover had already created 400-series prototypes of the car using V6 engines and sporting suspension setups. In fact, MG-Rover developed MG versions of all three Rover cars on sale at the time. The Rover 25 became the MG ZR, the 45 the ZS and the 75 the ZT.
The Rover 45 donor car did not have a reputation for being a driver's car but in fact it was the most suitable car in the Rover range for transformation into an MG, its Honda heritage providing double-wishbone front suspension and fully independent multi-link rear suspension.
As a Rover, the 45 was optimised for comfort rather than handling — however, as an MG the opposite was the case. The ZS 180, offering 175 bhp (130 kW; 177 PS) from a 2.5 L V6 engine and acceleration to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds, received favourable reviews in the press, with particular praise for its steering, handling and suspension.
Read more about this topic: MG ZS
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“John B. Watson, the most influential child-rearing expert [of the 1920s], warned that doting mothers could retard the development of children,... Demonstrations of affection were therefore limited. “If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning.””
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“Such condition of suspended judgment indeed, in its more genial development and under felicitous culture, is but the expectation, the receptivity, of the faithful scholar, determined not to foreclose what is still a question—the “philosophic temper,” in short, for which a survival of query will be still the salt of truth, even in the most absolutely ascertained knowledge.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)