CYBER ATTACK

With exotic looks, 496bhp and 0-62mph in 3.2sec, the all-electric MG Cyberster GT has the on-paper firepower to take the fight to the ICE opposition. But does all of this result in a new age for the sports car?

- YOUSUF ASHRAF

IF YOU BUY AN MG CYBERSTER, prepare for every journey to take a little longer than usual. Not because the Cyberster is slow (it's anything but), but because people will stop you to talk about it. Everywhere. All the time.

Parked up in a layby during our test, bikers ride past at walking pace to drink in the new electric roadster, and drivers squeeze their cars in behind it for a good look around and a chat. 'Is it a Lamborghini?' asks one, presumably because the MG's scissor doors are hanging in the air. Another wonders whether it costs £150,000, and his brain struggles to compute that you could almost buy three Cybersters for that amount. As a halo product to create a buzz around MG, it absolutely nails the brief- but what about as a sports GT?

This is a really important car for a number of reasons. For one, it marks MG's return to building roadsters, picking up a lineage that stretches back to the original Midgets of the 1930s, followed by the MGA, MGB and most recently the MGF and TF. It's also one of the first two-seater electric sports cars that sensible money can buy, hinting at the kind of thrills and sensations we can expect when the likes of Porsche and Lotus join the party later on.

The Cyberster has been a long time coming, too. MG first teased the prospect of a new electric roadster with a show car back in 2017, that car steadily evolving into the Cyberster concept shown at Shanghai in 2021. From that, a production version was green-lit by MG bosses, riding on the same architecture as the MG4 hatchback and clothed in toned-down, road-ready bodywork. The final car went on sale earlier this year, costing from £54,995 for the rear-drive Trophy or £59,995 for the dual-motor GT - within a few grand of a BMW Z4 M40i.