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MG XPower SV

The MG XPower SV was launched amid much ballyhoo during the 2002 Birmingham motor show – and proved once and for all that MG Rover very much harboured the ambition to change the MG marque’s image from one of the producer of saloon based roadsters and tuned up Rovers, to that of an ‘extreme’ manufacturer of bespoke supercars.

The SV was a very interesting car, which was placed into a unique niche within the supercar market by MG Rover. It was more raw than a Ferrari, more aggressive than a TVR, and certainly more exclusive than a Porsche.

Whether this niche was too small, or even existent, is open to conjecture, but its eventual sales performance indicated buyers didn’t fall for its charms. At the time of its launch, things had seemed so different. MG Rover announced it came away from the 2002 Birmingham motor show with 27 confirmed orders, and that, it said, proved there was a number of buyers who bought in to the XPower SV. Today, it’s a bona fide classic.


Reviews, blogs and news stories

Development story

The cars : MG XPower SV development story

11 September 2020 Keith Adams 11

MG Rover wanted to form alliances with other industry players, but no one could have predicted a tie-up with failed Italian supercar builder, Qvale Modena SpA. However, in 2001, that’s […]

Car Reviews

Tested : MG XPower SV

24 July 2011 Keith Adams 1

LAMBASTED as an irrelevant folly, the MG XPower SV has always divided opinions – why? Because MG Rover should have spent its finite financial resources elsewhere… Others would say that […]

Concepts and prototypes

Concepts and prototypes : Aria XPower SV

24 July 2011 Keith Adams 0

These pictures published on the Aria Group website depict a new sporting MG, which would have been based upon the Qvale Mangusta platform… The Aria Group’s concepts for MG’s new […]

Car of the Month

Car of the Month : August 2006

1 August 2006 Keith Adams 0

MG Rover wanted to build a showcase flagship for the MG range – and when it managed to pick up the Qvale operation in 2001 for a mere £10m, its […]

Archive

Archive : MG launches new sports car

22 October 2002 Keith Adams 0

MG Rover Group has launched a high performance sports car that it hopes will rival the likes of Porsche, Maserati and Jaguar. The MG XPower SV is “an extremely powerful […]

Archive

Archive : New sports car for Longbridge

30 September 2001 Keith Adams 0

A new luxury sports car is to be built in Birmingham instead of Italy. MG Rover confirmed on Sunday that it will build up to 2,000 MG X80s a year […]

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Under the skin, there was plenty to crow about the Rover Metro of 1990 – the K-Series engine and interconnected Hydragas suspension were a technical marvel in this class. However, […]

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