Classifieds' Car Of The Day: Mustang V8-Powered MG ZT 260

Today we're lusting after a car that looks pretty ordinary, but is actually quite obscure: this MG ZT 260. At the turn of the new century, MG Rover was pretty strapped for cash. It had just been sold by BMW, and desperately needed a new range of cars for the MG brand. Its answer was to take the range of old-manish Rovers, give them a sporty makeover and some fruitier engines, and slap the MG badge on the bonnet. One such car was the ZT.

Based on the Rover 75, the top-of-the-range ZT was initially a 190bhp 2.5-litre V6 version, until MG Rover went nuts and decided to dump a 4.6-litre Ford Mustang engine under the bonnet. The car was actually converted to rear-wheel drive for this special model, with much of the work undertaken by Prodrive.

Probably the weirdest thing though, is that after putting the car through this radical re-engineering process, the outside was left pretty much unchanged, save for a quad-exit exhaust. As you may have guessed from the name the V8 put out a relatively modest 260bhp, but this was only intended to be the entry-level V8 ZT; a 400bhp version was planned before financial turmoil shut down MG Rover production.

The good news is this quirky idea of a sports saloon is good to drive, quite tuneable, and not that expensive. The 2006 model we've found comes in at £6790 and has a low 52,000 miles on the clock. Tempted? We are...