‘’We can’t make a car that is the best at everything, but we can make a car that is the best at what we choose it to be’’. So said my old boss at BMW, many years ago. So long ago in fact, that I am probably paraphrasing – and this was the era of significant profitability for BMW (prior to the pain that would come later as the ‘English patient’, or Rover Group, deteriorated….). Like most things my boss said, it made good sense then and has stuck with me ever since. At most tricky points in my career, I have asked myself (or my team) ‘what would Alwin say?’. Some answers are often mentioned by me to friends in the know, such as ‘Never be afraid of camber’ or ‘Never be afraid of trying more tyre pressure’. My favourite though, is ‘They know nothing!’ (although I won’t reveal who ‘They’ are until I’m older…..).
So, we need to make a car that is good – ideally the best – at some things. How about stance (style sells as we know), and sports car dynamics? Simple. Cue the big wheels and tyres. Instant transformation of a rather mundane (bland) and dated hatch/saloon car. Much more aggressively sporting, bags of grip and clearly better handling – all of which was assessed and approved before said tyres rotated on a test drive.
- So, we need to make sure these tyres fit. Refer to the Rover Group standard. No, they don’t. Must try harder, as ‘No’ is the wrong answer. I’d supported the evolution of the tyre clearance standard. Historically, a tyre ‘envelope’ was created by articulating said tyre through the full range of suspension and steering articulation, ensuring that nothing (but nothing) interfered with the tyre. To make sure, a clearance allowance was added. Oh, and the tyre was the maximum dimensions that any tyre supplier would ever make the tyre to (even though they were often much smaller). Job done, even though most cars looked under-tyred and had gaping wheel arch gaps. Just a minute, this reminds me of most so-called cars (SUV lookey-likey, what make is it…) on the road today. But I digress.
Then Audi came along and made an impossibly good job of fitting wheels with rubber bands really tightly into crisp wheel arches. Time for a rethink. (Another digression – some/most Audis at this time had a rather unyielding ride, which could have been a consequence…..?). So, we all tried harder. Common sense prevailed and certain scenarios minimised the volume of the envelope. This allowed bigger tyres and/or smaller wheel arch gaps. Happy days.
So, fitting the bigger tyre to our elderly mundanity (referred to earlier) should be easy? Er, not quite. Over the years, we had already grown the tyre family beyond the original and now we needed a yet bigger tyre. The standard is fixed (isn’t it?). Well, not if you make a compromise. Take said ancient donor; add restrictors to the steering rack and rear suspension, mix up with a dose of spring and damper rates to make you wince and a solution emerges.
Welcome to the MG ZS 180 (lesser derivatives available). The best handling front wheel drive car (so said Tiff Nedell on ‘Top Gear’). And a stance that looked like a race car (which it was in the British Touring Car Championship). Compromised? Well, don’t ever try to drive around a muti-storey car park unless you’ve practised your 3 (5, 7?) point turns. Standards are fixed, until they need to be compromised. Be the best at some things.