The MG XPower SV (Sport Veloce) is a sports car

Sports car

A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 which was produced by MG Rover. Manufactured in Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and finished at Longbridge

Longbridge plant

The Longbridge plant is an industrial complex situated in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is currently owned by SAIC Group and is a manufacturing and research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary....

, UK, it was based on the platform of the Qvale Mangusta

Qvale Mangusta

The Qvale Mangusta is a sports car produced in limited numbers in Italy by the automaker Qvale between 2000 and 2002. During development and early production, it was badged as the De Tomaso Biguá in Europe, in North America it was badged De Tomaso Mangusta after the De Tomaso car built between 1967...

, formerly the De Tomaso Biguà.

History

After acquiring Qvale

Qvale

Qvale was an independent Italian car manufacturer founded in 2000 by the American Kjell Qvale's son, Bruce Qvale. Qvale's sole product was the Mangusta, originally the De Tomaso Biguà. Kjell Qvale founded British Motors in 1947 in San Francisco, California and is very well known in the automotive...

 Automotive Srl of Italy, MG Rover allocated the project code X80 and set up a subsidiary company, MG X80 Ltd., to produce a new model based on the Qvale Mangusta. One attraction was the potential sales in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, as the Mangusta had already been homologated for the American market.

The MG X80 was originally revealed as a concept car

Concept car

A concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car made to showcase new styling and or new technology. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced....

 in 2001. However, the styling was considered too sedate. When the production model, now renamed MG XPower SV, was eventually launched the following year, designer Peter Stevens had made the car's styling more aggressive. The conversion from a clay model to a production car, including all requirements, was done in just 300 days by the Swedish company Caran. One goal was to get a street price of under £100,000. The car's baseline model eventually cost £65,000 with the uprated XPower SV-R model costing £83,000.

The production process was complex, partly caused by the use of carbon fibre to make the body panels. The basic body parts were made in the UK by SP Systems and then shipped to Belco Avia near Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 for assembly into body panels. These were then assembled into a complete body shell and fitted onto the box frame chassis and running gear and shipped to the MG Rover Longbridge factory to be trimmed and finished.
Several of the cars' exterior and interior parts were borrowed from current and past Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

 models. The headlights, for example, were taken from a Punto Mk.2

Fiat Punto

The Fiat Punto is a supermini produced by the Italian manufacturer, Fiat, since 1993.-1st generation :Internally codenamed Project 176, the Punto was announced in September 1993 and launched in late 1993 as a replacement for the ageing Fiat Uno. The Fiat Punto was voted European Car of the Year...

 and the rear lights borrowed from a Fiat Coupe

Fiat Coupé

The Fiat Coupé was a coupé produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat between 1993 and 2000. The car was introduced at Brussels Motor Show in 1993....

.

According the data at the MG XPower SV Club, approximately 82 cars were produced excluding the 4 'XP' pre-production prototypes. This included a few pre-production and show cars which were later dismantled, before production was stopped due to lack of sales. Most were sold to private owners, with the final ones being sold to customers in early 2008.

XPower WR

In 2007, William Riley, who claims to be a descendant of the Riley motor dynasty, although this has been disputed, bought XPower SV-related assets from the administrators of MG Rover, PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....

. Riley formed MG Sports and Racing Europe

MG Sports and Racing Europe

MG Sports and Racing Europe Limited was a British automotive company based in Eardiston, Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. The company was founded by William Riley, who acquired assets of the MG Sport and Racing subsidiary of MG Rover Group after its demise, with the intention of restarting...

 Ltd to continue production of the model. In April 2008, MG Sports and Racing Europe, based in Eardiston

Eardiston

Eardiston is a village in Worcestershire, England.The village of Eardiston lies in the valley of the river Teme between Great Witley and Tenbury Wells....

, near Tenbury Wells

Tenbury Wells

Tenbury Wells is a market town and civil parish in the north-western extremity of the Malvern Hills District administrative area of Worcestershire, England. The 2001 census reported a population of 3,316.-Geography:...

 in Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, announced the relaunch of the XPower SV under the name MG XPower WR. Priced at between £75,000 and £90,000, the new model had a supercharged engine rated at 540 bhp, and seven cars were said to have already been sold.

Riley's use of the "MG" trademark resulted in a legal dispute with Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation, which had also acquired assets of the defunct MG Rover Group. This case was won by Nanjing in February 2010.

In December 2009, it was reported in the press that no new cars had been manufactured by MG Sports and Racing Europe since its founding, and that employment tribunal

Employment tribunal

Employment Tribunals are tribunal non-departmental public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and employment...

 proceedings had been initiated by two employees for non-payment of wages. Riley was also arrested by police in 2009 on suspicion of theft of an XPower WR car previously sold to a Canadian businessman who had been working on behalf of the company.

Performance

The base MG XPower SV was powered by a 320 bhp at 6000 rpm 4.6 L Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 Modular

Ford Modular engine

The Ford Modular engine is Ford Motor Company's overhead camshaft V8 and V10 engine family, which has been produced in 4.6L, 5.0L , 5.4L, and 6.8L variations. Contrary to popular belief, the Modular engine did not get its name from its design or sharing of certain parts among the engine family...

V8 with a torque of 302 lbft at 4750 rpm but was expensive due to the complex carbon fibre body. Both manual and automatic transmissions were available. The manual car had a top speed of 165 mph (265 km/h) and a 0-60 mi/h time of 5.3 seconds. Club Sport options, for customers who wished to use their SVs on the track, were planned but never produced. They included a 5·0 L 1000 bhp version, thanks to factory-approved nitrous oxide injection kits, though the basic version had 410 hp with speed limited to 195 mph (314 km/h).

The 2004 XPower SV-R featured a more highly tuned 5.0 L 32-valve V8 with 385 bhp and is believed to have a top speed of around 175 mph (281.5 km/h) and a 0-60 mi/h time of 4.9 seconds.

The SV-S version used the 4.6 litre engine but was fitted with a supercharger to match the 385 bhp of the 5.0 litre versions. Only three were made. One SV-R was fitted with a supercharger to become the SV-RS, however this used an SV 4.6 litre engine.