Since buying our ZR five years ago, the one thing that always annoyed me was the clutch that seemed far too brutal. It was always a pain setting off from a stand still, because it was difficult to take off smoothly. We just lived with it.
Two weeks ago we took the car to an MG owner's rally at Swavesey. The rain we drove through to get there was torrential and worryingly while overtaking a truck and almost unable to see in its bow wave, I noticed that it began to match my speed. I put my foot down and nothing happened; we just kept crawling along at 55mph. I managed to pull ahead by changing down and flooring it, but pulled over into a layby to check systems. Nothing seemed to be wrong, so we carried on. The car drove like a snail towing a house brick. As the day wore on, top speed improved to 70mph, but I couldn't throw off the house brick and it was deduced that the MAF sensor had packed up due to the engine sucking up water and soaking the air filter.
I fitted a new sensor and a new air filter and made some amazing discoveries. It wasn't the clutch that was too brutal. it was the MAF sensor that wasn't calibrated to give a smooth take off. The car now performs better than it ever did. Acceleration is better at all speeds and the car has become even more fun to drive.
We will be keeping the car for some years to come I think. Its just completed 60,000 miles.
Woodstock