The Only MG ZT XPower 200 In the World

It is formerly the company car of Kevin Howe, the CEO of MG Rover.  I found it on Facebook, in a scrapyard in the Midlands, after being off the road for 10 years. I did a deal on it as the MG hadn't had a COD done yet. It is the first XPower Grey ZT, the first XPower badged car to leave the factory, the prototype for the monogram interior and the only XPower 200 that MG Rover ever made.

It is sometimes very hard to believe that the MG ZT celebrates its quarter-century this year. When Rover introduced the 75 in 1998, they were already considering an octagon-badged version. The 75 Sport concept car appeared at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show, and the following year, Rover unveiled the ZT. Looking at Chris’s MG today, it is easy to appreciate Longbridge’s efforts to differentiate it from the 75: deep spoilers, a lower ride height, 18-inch wheels, and that wire-mesh grille.

Your friendly local dealer could also highlight the ZT’s uprated springs and chassis attachments via aluminium instead of rubber mounts. The initial engine choices were the KV6 2.5-litre unit, available in two power levels.

The sales copy referred to the ZT as “joyously sporting”. The Telegraph thought the ZT did not feel like “a Rover 75 which has discovered designer labels a bit late in life. Where the 75 is proudly avuncular, the ZT is urbane and cool”. 

2001 further saw the introduction of the MG XPower Division, with the brief to be “outrageous fun”, which encapsulates the appeal of Chris’s car. Any MG enthusiast will tell you that there is no such car as an “ordinary” car with the octagon logo, but this ZT is extraordinary by any standards.

The MG began as a standard 2.5-litre V6 XPower 190, before it was dispatched to the press office to, as Chris puts it, “have every extra that Rover had thrown at it”. This included a television screen in the headlining and a 10-DVD changer in the boot, not to mention the prototype monogrammed interior.

Next, the ZT was sent to the XPower division, where it gained “a special engine computer map for Kevin Howe, which raised the power output to just over 200bhp”. The conversion into an MG fit for a CEO took a mere 15 days, and it was registered in early 2002. Three years later, the 75/ZT story came to a sad end with Longbridge’s demise, while the XPower 200 was taken off the road in 2016 - “the engine developed a massive oil leak”. However, in 2025, Chris happened to peruse Facebook:

I had just finished work on my Rover 3500 SD1, and I also own a 1972 Volvo 144 that has been in my family since new. I saw this post about the MG, and, as an ex-Rover apprentice, I was very interested.

The XPower 200 was then languishing in a Walsall scrapyard - “I got in touch with the owner, convinced him that I was a serious buyer, and did a deal the following week”. Now Chris’s challenges really commenced as not only had the engine been removed, but the transmission and brake lines had been cut.

That was not all, as the MG also needed re-wiring, the headlining had been removed and “someone had bought the only ‘XPower 200’ boot badge. Luckily, I was able to make a replica”. Chris’s pictures illustrate the scope of the necessary work.

Finally, the XPower 200 returned to the road at the end of February this year. Chris has replaced the bonnet and added a detachable double rear spoiler, but the MG’s bodywork is otherwise standard. As for its road manners: “It is wonderful, so comfortable, and it drives like a modern car. The way that the MG is geared, it will pull away at motorway speeds in fifth”.

The public reaction is varied, from those who recognise Chris’s MG's rarity, to those who regard it as another ZT. But this is the world’s only XPower 200 – and it really does provide “outrageous fun”.

With thanks to Chris Horton for his time

With thanks to Chris Horton for the permission to use the images in this blog.