The MG SV Xpower is a
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
that was produced by British automobile manufacturer
MG Rover
MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Cons ...
. Manufactured in
Modena, Italy and finished at
Longbridge, United Kingdom, it was based on the platform of the
Qvale Mangusta, formerly the De Tomaso Biguà, itself using parts from the
Ford Mustang.
History
After acquiring Italian automobile manufacturer
Qvale,
MG Rover
MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Cons ...
allocated the project code X80, and set up the subsidiary company, MG X80 Ltd., to produce a new model based on the Qvale Mangusta. One attraction was the potential sales in the United States, as the Mangusta had already been homologated, for the market in the United States.
The MG X80 was originally unveiled as the
concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
, in June 2001. However, the styling was considered too sedate.
When the production model, now renamed MG ''XPower SV'', was eventually launched the following year,
Peter Stevens, previously the exterior designer of the
McLaren F1
The McLaren F1 is a sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Cars, and powered by the BMW S70/2 V12 engine. The original concept was conceived by Gordon Murray. Murray was able to convince Ron Dennis to ...
, had made the car's styling more aggressive.
The conversion from a clay model to a production car, including all requirements, was done in just three hundred days, by the Swedish company, Caran. The goal was to get a retail price of under £100,000. The car's base model eventually cost £65,000, with the uprated model XPower SVR, costing £83,000.
The production process was complex, partly caused by the use of
carbon fibre
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
, to make the body panels. The basic body parts were made in the United Kingdom by ''SP Systems'', and then shipped to Belco Avia, near
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
, for assembly into body panels.
These were then assembled into a complete body shell, and fitted onto the box frame chassis and running gear, and shipped to the factory of MG Rover, in Longbridge, to be trimmed and finished.
Several of the cars’ exterior and interior parts, were sourced from current and past models of
Fiat.
The headlights, for example, were taken from the
second generation Punto, and the rear lights from the
Fiat Coupé
The Fiat Coupé, internally designated as the type 175, is a two-door, four-seat coupé manufactured and marketed by Fiat between 1993 and 2000 across a single generation. The Coupé was introduced at the Bologna Motor Show in December 1993 and ...
. Exterior door handles from a MG TF, Mirrors, Window switches and interior door handles from the Rover 75. In total, the production process required each vehicle to visit six different companies.
According to the data at the MG XPower SV Club, approximately 82 cars were produced, excluding the four 'XP' pre production prototypes.
This included the few pre production and show cars, which were later dismantled before production was stopped, due to lack of sales. Most were sold to private owners, with the final ones being sold to customers, at the beginning of 2008.
[ Three vehicles, that had been produced, but not assembled, were acquired by classic car dealer ''Eclectic Cars Limited'' in March 2013, and later completed.] Another partially completed chassis is in storage with a private owner in the UK.
Most were sold in Europe and Asia, with only one model sold in America, the supercharged model, the XP.
The decision to develop a niche sports car, rather than work on replacements for its core family cars, has been described as symptomatic of the strategic mistakes, that ultimately led to MG Rover's untimely demise. By the time that the company entered administration in April 2005, only nine XPower SVs had been sold. Rowan Atkinson purchased an XPower SV in February 2005.
Variants
The base MG XPower SV is powered by a 4.6 L Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
Modular
Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...
V8 which is rated at at 6,000 rpm and of torque at 4,750 rpm. The SV's advanced carbon fibre body helped it achieve a top speed of and a 0 to time of 5.3 seconds.[
''Club Sport'' options, for customers who wished to use their SV on the track, were planned but never produced.
The XPower SV R, released the following year, features a Roush tuned, “cammer” 5.0 L 32 valve Modular V8. MG claimed the SV-R's engine was rated at , however some sources claim this figure is actually closer to .
The top speed was estimated to be around , and its 0 to time to be close to 4.9 seconds.][
Unlike the base model SV, the SVR was offered with a choice of either manual or automatic transmissions.
]
Performance
Performance data, for the range of the MG XPower SV:
XPower WR
In July 2008, William Riley, who claims to be a descendant of the dynasty of Riley Motor
RileyInformation extracted from ''Notice issued in compliance with the Regulations of the Committee of The Stock Exchange, London'' (with regard to the issue of 150,000 Preference Shares of £1 each on 17 January 1934).
:The Company was incorpo ...
, although this has been disputed, bought XPower SV related assets from the administrators of MG Rover
MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Cons ...
, PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...
. Riley formed MG Sports and Racing Europe Ltd to continue production of the model. MG Sports and Racing Europe, based in Eardiston, near Tenbury Wells
Tenbury Wells (locally Tenbury) is a market town and civil parish in the northwestern extremity of the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. Its northern border adjoins Shropshire, and at the 2011 census it had a population of 3,777 ...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
, announced the relaunch of the XPower SV in April 2008, under the name MG XPower WR.
Priced at between £75,000 and £90,000, the new model had the supercharged engine rated at , and seven cars were said to have already been sold. Riley's use of the "MG" trademark resulted in a legal dispute with , which had also acquired assets of the defunct MG Rover Group. This case was won by Nanjing in February 2010.
It was reported in the press in December 2009, that ''no'' new cars had been manufactured by MG Sports and Racing Europe since its founding, and that employment tribunal
Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, red ...
proceedings had been initiated by two employees, for non payment of wages. Riley was also arrested by police in December 2009, on suspicion of theft of an XPower WR car, previously sold to one Canadian businessman, who had been working on behalf of the company.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mg Xpower Sv
XPower SV
Coupés
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Sports cars
Cars introduced in 2003