’Going this fast in an MG is like bungee jumping using old shoelaces’

This latest creation from the Chinese carmaker leaves me feeling like the cartoon character Wile E Coyote. I can picture myself taking off at great speed and the panels, doors and windows all flying off to leave me hugging an ACME rocket.

Stephen Corby

4 min read

12 hours ago

The Weekend Australian Magazine

This not very substantial feeling machine blasts to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds – faster than a Porsche 911.

“Tuner culture” is a bit silly, frankly, and even more so if you say it out loud rather than read it, because then it sounds like it might describe some coastal American state where they celebrate tuna fishing by wearing giant fish heads, just like the way Wisconsinites wear “Cheese Heads”, but stinkier.

In the real world, “tuners” are the kinds of people – generally young people who think the word “aesthetic” means you have breathing issues and carry a puffer – who take perfectly good cars and ugly them up with gauche gold wheels, lowered suspension, giant exhaust pipes and deafening doof-doof sound systems. They may also engage in the actual “tuning” of their engines by wicking them up well beyond what the makers intended, presumably in the hope that they will explode in a loud and colourful conflagration.

Bizarrely, over the years, many car companies, particularly Japanese ones, have sought to appeal to these crazy kids by building cars like the Subaru WRX, Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline and Honda S2000. One thing these vehicles have in common is that they are ridiculously, rancidly loud, which makes the idea of trying to sell an electric vehicle to tuner types seem as absurd as selling clothes to dogs.

But this has not stopped the people at MG, who recently lent me an EV with possibly the stupidest number plate I’ve ever seen (“NOTGAS”, which might make at least some sense if I was American, but just made me wonder whatever happened to the sickly scent of LPG on our roads) and some very tuner-baiting bits. This mega MG4 boasts new racy alloys in bronze gold, a lowered spring kit so it can be annoying over driveways, and a menacing body kit with a front lip, side skirts and, of course, a rear spoiler (such an accurate term, I’ve always thought).

The MG4 XPower ‘Notgas’ is shamelessly appealing to “tuner culture”.

The interior of the MG feels spartan to the point of sparse, the plastics cheap to the point of temporary.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, no one can buy this XPower, yet, because it is merely a “proof of concept”, built to gauge demand for locally gussied-up models from the Chinese brand. MG’s Head of EV and Accessories, Matt Kavanagh, says he’s seeking market feedback from media, dealers and customers. “I hope this is the start of big things to come with MG and tuning in Australia – it’s the first step really, the rest is up to the market,” he enthused.

The NOTGAS is based on the imprudently fast MG4 XPower, which costs $59,990, and it’s estimated the look-faster additions would add about $5,000 – if they can find someone who wants them. It has a dual-motor system that makes 300kW and 600Nm and fires this not very substantial feeling machine to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds. That’s faster than a Porsche 911.

Sure, road-racery types will love the speed, but I don’t think they would ever come around to the silent engine, and frankly I’m hoping they won’t, because I think there’s a reasonable argument for not selling this car to anyone.

This mega MG4 boasts new racy alloys in bronze gold.

MG’s ‘dial’ which leave Corby ‘frothing in fury’.

What’s alarming is how the driving experience feels like a furious storm in a styrofoam tea cup. Some people seem to think the MG is a fine car, but I’d dispute that on several levels, most importantly this one: I simply can’t trust a company that delivers a car that doesn’t start half the time to keep me safe when driving at XPower speeds. Every MG4 I’ve ever driven has the same problem. You unlock it and it’s “on”, but you then need to push on the brake and spin a dial to engage Drive or Reverse, except that, all too often, it doesn’t work, so you sit there stamping the brake, fiddling with the dial and frothing in fury. You would not, could not, buy this car for that reason alone. Would it annoy you? Only every single day.

Sure, it can out-accelerate cars thrice the price, but the feeling of going this fast in something like a Porsche and then doing it in an MG is like going on a ride at Disneyland – where you know the fear is an illusion and you are entirely safe – and then bungee jumping using old shoelaces tied together.

The interior of the MG feels spartan to the point of sparse, the plastics cheap to the point of temporary, and some of the fussy exterior bits are just nasty. Combining that baseness with so much wildly violent acceleration brings to mind the cartoon character Wile E Coyote. I could picture myself taking off at great speed and the panels, doors and windows all flying off to leave me hugging an ACME rocket.

I’m not convinced that tuner EVs will ever be a thing.

Yes, it is a bit like the early versions of the Subaru WRX, another affordable performance machine that caused much pearl-clutching over the idea that its speediness and ability to outrun cop cars might attract the wrong kind of young hoodlums. But even the very first WRX felt better built, and more inherently engineering focused, than this MG.

Fortunately, I’m not convinced that tuner EVs will ever be a thing, because in essence they’re a lot like a silent rock concert. Tuners, like rock music fans, will just hang on to their favourite oldies.