On a frantic weekend of new car launches at the 2023 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, the MG Cyberster made its world dynamic debut on the Hill. It was our first opportunity to see this exciting new convertible in motion, and we have to say our first impressions are a little mixed.
Video: MG Cyberster makes world debut at the 2023 Festival of Speed
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It’s electric of course, so the first challenge is to acclimatise to seeing a car like this floating serenely and silently past the Flint Wall and up towards the finish line. Once you’ve got over that, however, you can’t help but feel a sense of relief that we will still have small, convertible sportscars when the age of combustion engines is over.
This first attempt from the revived MG brand certainly looks the part. Its chiselled front end highlights sporty intentions of the Cyberster, and the numbers we’ve seen so far suggest it will also deliver a step up in performance over the current Mazda MX-5, a car this new EV will inevitably be compared to.
With a reported 313PS (230kW) sent to the rear wheels, there’s plenty of reason to suspect this will be an exciting car to drive. We can’t wait to get behind the wheel ourselves and find out just how this thing handles.
There’s quite a lot riding on the success of the MG Cyberster. Fingers crossed the added weight of the batteries doesn’t hinder what should be an athletic and exciting driving experience, because we need to know that small, fun, and lively sportscars can still exist in tomorrow’s world.
The 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed is underway! You can watch every moment of the action by watching our livestream.
Photography by Toby Whales.