GTP Cool Wall: 2003 MG SV-R. Voting Closed

  • Thread starter Joey D
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MG SV-R

  • Total voters
    80
  • Poll closed .
Joey D

Joey D

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.: 2003 MG SV-R suggested by X-Power :.

2004-mg-xpower-sv-r_460x0w.jpg


Specs:
Brakes F/R: ABS, vented disc/vented disc
Tires F-R: N/A
Type: V8
Displacement cu in (cc): 305 (5000)
Power bhp (kW) at RPM: 400(294) / 6000
Torque lb-ft (Nm) at RPM: 376 (510) / 4750
Redline at RPM: N/A
Length × Width × Height in: 174.7 × 80.9 × 51.5
Weight lb (kg): N/A
Acceleration 0-62 mph s: <5
Top Speed mph (km/h): 175 (282)
Fuel Economy EPA city/highway mpg (l/100 km): N/A​
 
Last edited:
Seriously Uncool. Nothing says seriously uncool like a car that comes off like it's trying way to hard. Big wheel arches, low splitters and goofy side vents just make it look like it's trying to be more than it is. I feel like it's trying to have lunacy of a TVR but failing at it in the process. It's also a V8 and I am not a fan of V8 cars, especially with ones with huge displacements like this 5.0L.

Also don't the Chinese have something to do with this?
 
Joey D
Also don't the Chinese have something to do with this?
Click to expand...
No. It's based on the Qvale Mangusta, which itself was based on a De Tomaso.

Remember MG&#8217;s flagship? It had a fairly convoluted gestation, starting life as a De Tomaso Bigua at the 1996 Geneva motor show, then becoming the stillborn Qvale Mangusta before MG stepped in during 2001. Even then the SV-R didn&#8217;t appear until the end of 2004, by which time it was no longer an accessible £45,000 TVR rival, but a full-on carbon-bodied supercar costing £85,000.

A few did find their way to owners (we even ran one on the Fast Fleet for a while), but when MG Rover bit the dust in 2005 everyone assumed the SV-R was dead. And so it would have been were it not for the determination of Will Riley (of Riley cars fame).

He stepped in and bought the leftover chassis from MG Rover&#8217;s administrators, Pricewaterhouse- Coopers, and for the last few years has been redeveloping them with new composite bodies and setting up for production in a new facility, trading as MG Sport and Racing Europe Ltd.

Leaving aside questions over his claim to be able to use the MG badge &#8211; hotly disputed by Chinese firm NAC, which is about to bring back the MG TF (there&#8217;s an on-going court case, see below right) &#8211; Riley is making some grand claims: not least the fact that he&#8217;s developing an electric version.
Click to expand...
http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/223644/mg_svr.html

I could pretty much quote Famine's post from the Mini Cooper thread...

Famine
Horrible, nasty, awful car, by far outclassed in every department by most road cars today yet still rated for their handling (somehow). I'd never, ever, ever, ever buy one in a billion years.

Cool.
Click to expand...
...and put it here.

Except I'd change the cool to Sub-Zero.
 
Cool.

It's a Rover that people actually want, and that's quite some achievement. Sounds lovely at full chat with the Mustang V8 - and even better with the supercharger attached to it. And you could order it from the factory with a thousand horsepower quite a while before the Veyron appeared.

Edit: And yes, it's still a Rover, which means it's an awful, awfully-built, awful-handling chunk of dross.
 
Subzero. As Famine pointed out, its a Rover people actually WANT. Plus, any sport coupe with a SBF 5.0 gets a subzero from me automatically.
 
Sub-Zero

I'd say the car is pretty wicked, and I hear they were a handful to drive. I love every bit of it.
 
Quite frankly, seriously uncool. From what I've read about it, really wasn't any better than the Qvale it was based on, which means it really wasn't any better than the 1996 Mustang Cobra it essentially was. It also has all of the problems that being a Rover based on a DeTemaso based on parts stolen off a Mustang would have, and doesn't really manage to impress performance-wise either. And while I like it far more than the Qvale and love its ugly brutishness from the front, it just looks silly from pretty much every other angle.

Though that bit on Top Gear where Clarkson smashed his head on the roll cage (followed by the slow-mo breakdown of the even) was hilarious.
 
no idea, really. It's kind of a thrown-together automobile...but it almost works.

Just cool, I think. Hey, Rover tried.
 
Well I don't know a lot about MG but this one got a V8 and it gets from 0 to 100 km/H under 5 seconds. So for me yeah it's cool.
 
Cool because of the specs, but not sub-zero due to the exterior, which looks like a pimped-out Dodge.
 
Seriously uncool.

Hiddeously ugly, build quaility of a coke can and no where near as fast as claimed according to the motoring press.
 
If I had one of those, I'd be disappointed in any 8 year old boy who didn't come up to me and kick my shins.

Wrong. On every level. It might sound good, but the noise would be drowned out by your conscience saying "you're an idiot who has a terrible car" over and over again. I can't believe MG were playing with this car when they should have been building a new midsize saloon.

I hate it. And I'd hate myself if I had it. I'd rather drive a Perodua Nippa.

Seriously uncool.
 
I voted cool. Sure it's trying too hard, it looks ridiculous and you'd only buy one if you were a little bit on the mad side, but it doesn't take itself at all seriously and while most people think you're an idiot, most car people will know exactly what it is.
 
Moglet
I voted cool. Sure it's trying too hard, it looks ridiculous and you'd only buy one if you were a little bit on the mad side, but it doesn't take itself at all seriously and while most people think you're an idiot, most car people will know exactly what it is.
Click to expand...

My abiding memory of the car was seeing it at the British Motor Show at the NEC probably seven years ago ish. You could barely get to the front of the barrier to see it. The black Ferrari Enzo that was also there? Probably a maximum of two people looking at it at any one time.

When a badly built Rover can attract more attention than Ferrari's finest, that makes it cool.

ericdemoryGT
Sub Zero! 81%
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How on Earth do you come up with these percentages? Is having four options to choose from not enough?...
 
homeforsummer
My abiding memory of the car was seeing it at the British Motor Show at the NEC probably seven years ago ish. You could barely get to the front of the barrier to see it. The black Ferrari Enzo that was also there? Probably a maximum of two people looking at it at any one time.

When a badly built Rover can attract more attention than Ferrari's finest, that makes it cool.
Click to expand...

:lol: They still gather the crowds at Rover shows too, I went to one a few years back with my old Metro and one of the guys who lives in the next town along from me has one, and decided to bring it along. It was sat next to a 6R4 replica shell with a 2.0l turbo engine in the back and it still got the most attention.

Although that could have been because the Rover nerds shunned the 6R4 shelled car as the engine was a Vauxhall lump. Oh dear, beardy men....
 
All right...

First, I don't like the design... It's just too hideous!!! The performance is not really good...

Not really interested in this car... So I voted it uncool... This is just my opinion...
 
Uncool. I remember when I saw it for the first time. And then I promptly forgot about it. Is this a production car?
 
Did MG steal a Monaro, slap on a big ol' fiberglass bodykit and call it their own sports car? That's what it looks like.

Uncool.
 
Philly
Uncool. Is this a production car?
Click to expand...

It was a production car, yes. Apparently 64 were produced.

Irons
Did MG steal a Monaro, slap on a big ol' fiberglass bodykit and call it their own sports car? That's what it looks like.
Click to expand...

No, they bought a bunch of De Tomaso/Qvale Mangusta chassis and slapped their own body on top, with a little help from Peter Stevens (of McLaren F1 fame).

Styling wise, the back end is a more successful view:

File:MGXPowerSV-rear.jpg
 
Honestly,I never heard of this car. (missed this one somewhere down the line)
V-8 power,good amount of ponies under the hood,looks wise,it could stand to lose those shark looking fins on the side of the car,I do like the wide body stance it takes though.

I give it a cool.
 
Is a rebadged and bodge-jobbed Mangusta Q'vale... which might have been at least cool... but:

Looks like dog.

Is built on a chassis design that was nearly ten years old at the time of production... so it was that mangy old dog limping around behind the shed just ready to be put to sleep.

Wasn't a particularly good dog. Dodgy build quality and reliability.

-

And you can't outrun ugly. It's not a challenging or thought provoking kind of ugly, either. Rather, it's the kind of ugly where you imagine the designers took a vacation and allowed a bunch of 13 year olds pick up odds and ends ordered out of the back of Max Power. Which those same 13 year olds then slapped onto the clay model, then adjusted until they fit. Or didn't. It didn't really matter. After which they sat around playing Need For Speed Underground for more inspiration. (They didn't find any, they outdid themselves on the first try) When the designers came back from Amsterdam, or wherever car designers who allow teenagers to do their work vacation when they need a quick fix, they took one look at it, smiled in a dreamy, disconnected way, and signed off on the design.

Seriously, seriously uncool.
 

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