[1][2] The engine was originally designed and produced by Zanzottera Technologies of Italy, but the design was sold, along with the rest of the company's two-stroke ultralight aircraft engine line, to Compact Radial Engines of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
[2] Compact Radial Engines was then in turn acquired by Fiate Aviation Co., Ltd. of Hefei, Anhui, China in August 2017.
[3] The MZ 301 was developed first as a fuel injected 90 hp (67 kW) lightweight competitor to the more expensive liquid-cooled four stroke 80 hp (60 kW) Rotax 912.
Later a carbureted version of the MZ 301 was developed with three Bing 54 carburetors and producing 85 hp (63 kW).
The MZ 301 features electric starting and the RZ2 gearbox with optional reduction ratios of 2.18, 2.55, 2.88, 3.11 or 3.66 to 1.