Mike Taylor reunites designer Peter Stevens and production engineer Ian Moreton with the wildly aggressive V8-engined XPower SV, 15 years on.
The MG SV story can be said to have begun in May 2000, when Phoenix Venture Holdings – led by Nick Stephenson, John Towers, Peter Beale and John Edwards – acquired MG and Rover from BMW for a nominal £10 and began searching for partners to broaden the manufacturing base and model range. An opportunity came from an unlikely quarter when Bruce Qvale contacted Stephenson about forming a European concessionary for a V8 sports car.
Then called the Mangusta, it had started life as the De Tomaso Biguá, and Qvale’s proposal was to productionise it, suggesting that the car would make an ideal range-topper for MG. Despite having been styled by Marcello Gandini, the lines were questionable but its commercial attraction was obvious: it came with a dowry, having passed US homologation regs, while Qvale had also set up a manufacturing facility, the Qvale Automotive Group in Modena.
Smelling an opportunity, in 2000 MG Rover’s Consultant design director Peter Stevens was given the task of meeting Qvale for discussions. Chief executive Kevin Howe reputedly quipped that they should simply add MG badges to stimulate showroom traffic, but Stevens wasn’t keen. “People would have recognised it instantly,” he recalls, “it looked like a squashed toad.”
By the following year Qvale was struggling, so MG Rover pounced and bought the assets, a prototype and the manufacturing process to support it. Stevens then got to work using the homologated tub, suspension and drivetrain. Called the X80 and looking like a grown-up MG TF, the result was unveiled at the Frankfurt Show in September 2001, just three months after the purchase of the Qvale operation. Despite exuding a brutal edgy appearance, however, it clearly needed more work and so it was decided to involve the Aria Group in California.
Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
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Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring