IS THERE AN MG ROADSTER IN YOUR FUTURE? by John Crawford

A while back, to keep the MG traditionalists quiet, MG revealed a concept car shaped like a two-seat roadster, promising a return to wind-in-the-face motoring in a car with an octagonal badge.

Just about everyone said: “Yeah, yeah, pull the  other leg, it rings a bell.” However, after looking at a filing notice from China, it appears MG just may be about to produce a production version of the concept car, named the ‘CYBERSTER’. What a stupid name.

 

Sometimes, legal filings with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information on planned products are more BS than Blueprints for the future. However, there are people with no other avenue of entertainment in their lives who joyfully trawl through mountains of legal filings to come up with something new. Really? They need to get a life.

 

However, on this occasion let’s congratulate whomever managed to leak photos and details of MG’s planned surprise.

 

I last drove the British-built MG-F in 1998, and I really enjoyed the car, more so than owners who had to deal with multiple warranty issues.

The Stephen Harper-designed roadster continued in production until 2005 – that leaves a long gap between roadsters!

Here then is a, supposedly, ‘production-ready’ MG roadster, and some details of the propulsion system, and ‘whoa’ no steering wheel – just a ‘yoke’ as seen in aircraft and F1 cars.

 

Dimensions first: 4535mm long, 1913mm wide, 1329mm tall – on a wheelbase of 2690mm.

It will have a choice of a red or black cloth roof, two seats and a kerb weight of around 1900kg. For relevance, the MG’s wheelbase is 215mm longer than a Porsche Boxster, and it weighs 700kg more than a Mazda MX-5.

It's an EV - of course! Power will come from a single-motor-rear-drive, with 213kW of power, but there’ll be an optional dual-motor-AWD version with front axle output being 150kW, and rear axle output of 250kW. Which probably means real sports-car performance, but naturally pricing is unknown.

 

However, quotes from MG’s UK and Australian marketing managers say it will be here in 2024 and keenly-priced.

 

Can you hold your breath that long?

 

JOHN CRAWFORD