Does the MG 4 XPower have anything in common with the MG XPower SV-R?

Oh yes, the MG XPower SV. Totally forgotten…

How can you? This is Britain’s muscle car! An MG flagship, set to take on TVR and usher the entire marque into a glorious, prosperous new era, in a cloud of V8 noise and fury. Built in Modena and, er, finished in Longbridge, it was designed to give the Porsche 911 a run for its money. That… well, didn’t quite work out.

And what is that orange thing next to him?

That’s the MG 4 XPower – it new age flagship (at least, until the upcoming two-door sports car Cyberster puts wheels on the ground here) that has restored the old name. As you know, MG is now owned by Chinese state-run mega-corporation SAIC. That, to be honest, it’s not doing that bad at all, with friendly priced SUVs for the whole family as its main products.

What exactly happened to that oldtimer?

Do you have a minute? His birth was certainly not an easy one. The car started life as the De Tomaso Biguá concept and was first shown at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show. It then transformed into the production-ready De Tomaso Mangusta, before being sold in small numbers as the Qvale Mangusta, after Bruce Qvale’s feud had gotten with Alejandro de Tomaso. Eventually MG came along, which bought Qvale. It then asked Peter Stevens to completely redesign the car. Stevens, who also designed the McLaren F1, came up with the carbon fiber shapes you see on this page.

Is it as brutal to drive as it looks?

You’d think so, especially since this is the XPower SV-R, the top-spec version whose modular Ford V8 engine has been bored out to 5.0 litres and tuned by Roush to make (conservatively) around 390bhp. In reality, it’s quite happy to gawk around at low speeds, with its light steering, soft suspension and delightful V8 burble. Yes, there’s a few creaks in the cabin here and there, but at heart this is a big, friendly GT.

Can the new one even come close in terms of speed?

Oh, that’s much, much faster. Where MG quoted a 0-to-96 time of 4.9 seconds for the XPower SV-R, the modern MG 4 XPower does just 3.7 seconds. That’s thanks to two electric motors sending 435bhp to all four wheels. But then again, the whole thing lacks any sense of drama, both in the drab interior and the point-and-shoot driving experience.

How much should these guys cost?

Well, this particular SV-R is a bit of a special one. Only 42 5.0-litres were ever built and this is the only one in green with a brown interior. Current owner John bought it for £25,000 and you probably wouldn’t be able to persuade him to part with it even with a blank cheque. The MG 4 XPower sounds like ridiculous value for money at £42,285, but honestly, we’d rather go for the slower, cheaper version and put the money towards a ‘future SV ownership’ fund.

Thanks to Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green Airport, and John Newey for lending his MG XPower SV-R