MG returned to Bonneville in 1998 with great hopes of eclipsing the speed records set in 1959 by MG record-breaker EX181, which had achieved 254.91 mph with American Phil Hill at the wheel. Mechanical woes kept the car and driver Andy Green from turning a wheel in anger. Sadly, it was not to be.

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Anyone alive during MG's good era will be ancient by now. I only know it as a way of selling tarted up Rovers.

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you can see this car as well as the 1959 one at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon

it looks surprisingly rough and old-fashioned for a machine built in 1998!

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Why they ever changed the color scheme is beyond me...

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I'm sure they did get the fastest production estate / wagon at the time with a ZT.

But yeah, 255+ in a modified MGF? That would have been wild.

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Oh, there but for the grace of a critical oil seal between the engine and bespoke gearbox goes MG's record-breaking attempts!

The engine used was a twin supercharged Rover V8 putting out more than 900 BHP.

I have no doubt they would have achieved 255 mph+.

Ugh.

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I love the crazy XPower colours! If only they'd had survived as a company...

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This is actually a Ferrari green, but don't tell anybody. The Ferraristi among us can be unbearable enough as it is.

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Is it? It looks a bit too pearly for that. But I suppose it could be a Dino colour?

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I'm not sure if it's a Dino color or not, but it's definitely a Ferrari color as per MG Rover.

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Looks like a MG made for the old cartoon The Jetsons.