Y495XOM

MG ZT 160+ 2001

Owner: James Batchelor

After being glued to the TV watching Tiff Needell slide a red ZT around Pembrey circuit on that week’s Top Gear, I knew I had to have a Solar Red ZT one day. That was in 2001 and I was 12 years old.

That day came in 2019. I had been looking for a 2001 MG ZT on and off for a while, though I had never taken the plunge. But one day a friend tagged me in an Instagram post of just such a car. It was a ZT 160+ (2.5 V6) for sale at a dealer called South West Lotus Centre in Lifton, Devon – specialists in the British sports car marque. Flicking through the photos revealed it was in immaculate condition, had low mileage, had obviously been well cared for, and was not just a 2001 car but a very early Y-reg vehicle.

It just so happened my other half and I were going on holiday the week after to Devon, and without telling her of my plans beforehand, we “accidentally dropped in” to “just have a look at the car” to “satisfy my curiosity”. Of course, I bought it, and a few weeks later after the car had been meticulously serviced, MOT’d and had the costly belts and water pump done by the dealer, it was mine and in my garage in Hampshire.

Y495 XOM is an early ZT and was registered in the Birmingham area. It was built on July 16, 2001, and was the 406th ZT to roll off the Longbridge lines. Perhaps surprisingly because of where it was registered, it wasn’t a press or marketing car – presumably it bought by someone keen to be behind the wheel of one of the new Zed saloons when they were announced at the Geneva Motor Show in February 2001.

It was kept for a few years before popping up at Rodgers of Plymouth where, in 2005, the second owner part-exchanged their Rover 75 1.8 Club SE and spent £4,000 to get the keys to this ZT. It still wears its Rodgers-branded number plates, tax disc holder and original dealer sticker in the back window, and must represent one of the earliest and most original customer ZTs in the UK.