Wednesday 4th June 2003

SCOOP! MG SV in the Flesh

This is no show car - MG SV laps Mallory Park!

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[ZS180]

Being a big MG fan...........the new SV looks fantastic!!! I hope it proves a big success for MG-Rover.

[mikeylad]

i hope it will too.

i'm sure it won't, but i hope it will...

[dontlift]

I really hope this takes off for MG - but HOW MUCH

[ohidunno]

£65k puts this car firmly into Porsche 996 territory. Nice idea, but not one that I can imagine would be profitable.
A loss leader for the marque perhaps?

[Podie]

"...albeit at a snail's pace... [snip]...Extremely tinted windows..."

Hmm... maybe there's a connection here!?!

[lyons]

kinda butch.....makes the M3 look a bit gay!!

[viperman]

WOW! i love MG and theyve really delivered with the SV, just a few things tho, Yellow REALLY dosent suit the SV, it looks awful, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY! Wheres the spoiler gone! The one at the motorshow looked fantastic, nice 'X-Power grey' with that spoiler, so i take it the one in this article, the yellow one is completley bog stnadard and the one at the motorshow was top spec.

[Dan]

45K maybe... 65K, sorry won't cut it.

I love the MG underdog image, but at this price it's too much.

[andyvdg]

Autobox

There's a rumour going around that the ZT260 will only be available with an automatic gearbox. Well if that's the case I'll be swiping my switch card for an M3 or M5.

[igg]

Can' help but thing this looks too Max Power for anyone with £65K to spend. I want MG to do well with it, but really, what shade of rose coloured tint have they got on their sunglasses when they look at their creation?
Agree Yellow doesn't show it in best light - but would any colour make it that much better?

Who is their target market? I'm 40 yrs old, company director, so you'd have thought they would be after someone like me who wants to support the MG brand and has the cash, but even at £30K I'd have to think twice before wanting to be seen out in something so 'bolted on' looking.

At £65K level I'd have a Maser/XKR/996/Noble - well, just about anything else actually!(OK - said my piece, off back to work now!)

Igg

[roop]

Don't like it. The whole concept is there, even if the pricing is iffy, but the bit that completely ruins it for me is those arches and skirts. It looks similar in execution to the ABT kit you can get for the Audi TT, bloody awful You can also see the US influence in the arches from the Mustang (the latter which IMHO, carries them off far better albeit not to my taste)

It's as if the guys designing the body worked to a smaller scale than those doing the floorpan and had to tack on arches and skirts to cover the wheels.

If they widened the whole body by 8 inches they could do away with the whole arch-skirt tomfoolery and it'd be OK.

Edited for typo

>> Edited by roop on Wednesday 4th June 10:50

[v8thunder]

I much prefer the toned-down version they were touting about - that huge wing vent looks big enough to walk through! OTT, but probably a damn good drive.

[RoadRunner]

[RoadRunner]

[dejoux]

I like it other than the now common mg front. havnt heard many complaints about it but personally the TF front isnt as nice as the F front and its been carried through to everything else.

As for 65k i cant comment as a 996 is about the equivalent of 90k here with our pacific peso.

Dont think it needs a wing but could do without the black air vents.

Far better than the max powerish FWD saloons theyre currently flogging off anyway. *reminisices* I remember when MG made sports cars not econoboxes

[williamp]

I saw this a few weeks ago at brands Hatch....

Its was the 17/18th may, and they used it in the MG display and also as a pace car to the MG race.

(looks snug...)
Been there, seen that and (thankfully) heard it!! Sounds great.

(smug mode off..)

[Gibo993]

I think it looks Shite

[Dodge]

The grey, bewinged show car was at MotorDrive Live - I was speaking to the MG chap and he said they'd had 60 orders in the 6 months since the NEC show.

He bandied about 600 bhp for £65K though, which sounded, well, more acceptable, anyway..

[johnny senna]

It's ugly and tacky. I'd like that yank V8 engine though, I must admit.

[spnracing]

williamp said: I saw this a few weeks ago at brands Hatch....

Its was the 17/18th may

Yes - there was a silver one at the Brands Hatch Classic meeting that weekend, it was parked next to my Golf in the holding area before Group One qualifying.

I thought it looked quite cool - not too Max Power, actually quite purposeful.

Either way - MG certainly aren't 'trying to keep the car under wraps' - there were 20,000 people at Brands Hatch watching it do the parade laps.