The MG ZT was more than a Rover 75 in sports shoes. Much, much more. It was a performance saloon par excellence and today makes for a superb classic sporting bargain

- Craig Cheetham

No sooner had the Phoenix Fourhanded over that famous tenner to BMW and bought Rover than the old MG saloon brochures were being pulled out of filing cabinets and dusted off.

Not since the MG Metro, Maestro and Montego had ceased production in 1990 had there been an MG saloon car, though the idea was certainly part of Rover Group’s plan to rejuvenate its model range prior to BMW taking over the reins of the company in 1994.

Under the leadership of anglophile BMW boss Bernd Pischetsrieder, Rover would instead be steered upmarket, as a manufacturer of classy and comfortable saloon cars but not overtly sporting ones, with performance-orientated tin-tops instead reserved for the German brand. It was dictated within the company that Rover should not, in any circumstances, compete with BMW, despite the fact that the British brand had some of the finest chassis engineers in the world and had proven its ability to engineer front-wheel-drive suspension set-ups that were among the best in Europe.

But when BMW left the building, the cleaners were still sweeping up the streamers from the engineering department’s party poppers when the MG Z-Car range became a reality. Using a similar concept to the MG Metro, Maestro and Montego of 10 years earlier, but this time without red seatbelts, the resurgent MG Rover would come to market with three great value performance cars based on the 25, 45 and 75 saloons.