MG Cyberster 2023 review – is it a true sports car?

Twelve years is a long time for a car brand known for soft-top roadsters to go without any such model at the head of their line-up, yet that’s how long it’s been since MG put the ageing TF out to pasture. The long wait for a replacement has only served to heap sizeable expectations on its electric successor, the visually arresting Cyberster, although a direct successor to the MGF and TF it most certainly is not.

It may have two doors and a folding soft top but that’s pretty much where the comparisons end. MG’s new halo model has seemingly taken the weight of that expectation and bench-pressed it for the past decade, producing a notably larger, heavier, and eminently more powerful car.

> New 2023 MG4 XPower arrives as 429bhp electric hot hatch

Indeed, the Cyberster is now so heavy it would balance the scales with an MGB and TF combined, at around 1920kg. That gives it a 300–500kg weight premium over its modern rivals. Those now come in the form of the Porsche 718 Boxster and BMW Z4, the Cyberster’s transformation meaning the Mazda MX-5 is no longer even a blip on the radar in terms of price, weight and performance.

Even in single-motor rear-wheel-drive form, like the car we drove on Hainan’s east coast, the Cyberster puts out 250kW, which equates to a Z4-matching 335bhp, and is good for a 0-62mph time of around 4.6sec. In practice, it feels as fast as that figure suggests, albeit with a noticeable delay once the accelerator has been floored, suggesting that time could actually be a smidge faster with a less restrained ‘throttle’ map. In dual-motor form, the Cyberster reaches the same speed in just 3.2sec, with its additional front-mounted motor taking total power to 400kW, or 536bhp. 

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The Cyberster’s ability to shift that heft isn’t restricted to straight lines, however. Chassis tuning has been overseen by Marco Fainello, the vehicle dynamics engineer behind the Ferrari FXX and involved in all of Michael Schumacher’s five Ferrari titles – the Cyberster displays remarkable poise and agility when hustled.

On public roads, it has a deftness of movement befitting a car half its weight. The steering is light but gives reassuring levels of feedback. Such is the confidence and feeling of accessibility the Cyberster gives its driver under heavy acceleration or when settled into damp turns at speed, you can’t help but feel it wouldn’t be embarrassed on a track, for a number of laps at least. 

Despite the heavy kerbweight, confidence is similarly high under braking. MG claims the four-piston Brembos bring the Cyberster to a halt from 62mph in just 33 metres. A KERS-style paddle on the left side of the steering wheel adjusts additional regenerative braking between three modes, which are less pronounced than in some other EVs; they don’t bring the car to a complete halt, Tesla-style, for example.

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Sporting aspirations aside, the Cyberster is pliant enough on rough roads and quiet enough on the move to make it a pleasant cruiser or daily driver. Roof up, road noise is very well insulated, and even with the roof down and side windows up, conversation is not a challenge. Indeed the only blot on the refinement copybook is MG’s built-in digital soundtrack in lieu of engine noise, which you’ll almost certainly want to switch off.

UK customers used to changeable conditions may be comforted to hear that the roof remained watertight even in monsoon-like downpours. It performs its complete open-to-closed operation in 10sec, while the car is driving at up to 32mph, if you do get caught in a freak shower.

It’s an interior you’d want to keep dry, too. Upholstered in microfibre and red Nappa leather throughout, it’s uncharacteristically premium for an MG, featuring large Y-shaped seats with hefty lateral support but lacking in base cushion tilt adjustment that would add much-needed depth to the flat seating position.

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The extravagant interior design is punctuated by no fewer than four screens, all of which face the driver rather than passenger. This would seem overkill even in a seven-seater family car, let alone a two-seat roadster, and in truth a larger single screen might have been a better solution to offer all the functions each of the three touchscreens boast. But it’s enjoyable to see MG’s designers exercising a little creative licence.

Attention-seeking it may be, but on the basis of this first drive, the Cyberster delivers where it matters with an agile and engaging, yet forgiving ride, with the added thrill of lightning acceleration. When it arrives in UK dealers next year it’s expected to be priced within a few thousand pounds of the BMW Z4 and with a good two years to itself before another electric rival – likely the battery-powered Porsche Boxster – turns up. On this evidence, it has all the ingredients needed to be a sales success (even if it might not hit the heights of F and TF sales during the roadster boom of the ’90s and noughties). 

The MG roadster is well and truly back, just not quite as we know it.

MG Cyberster specs

By Mark Rainford