WARP SPEED

MG's Cyberster is hilariously quick in a straight line, good looking and electric. What's not to like? A few things, as it turns out

- By Pablo Chaterji Photographs JSW MG Motor India

Confession time. I don't really enjoy driving cars around racetracks any more; I'd much rather drive them in real-world conditions, on the nicest possible roads on offer. Given a choice between some laps around a track and a road trip from, say, Goa to Gokarna, I'd pick the latter almost every time. Principally, driving on public roads is a more accurate marker of what that particular car will be like to live with, and driving down a scenic highway beats going round and round a racetrack. Importantly, all that G-force starts to make me queasy; at the MG Cyberster drive at the BIC, halfway through the autocross and slalom courses that had been set up in the parking lot, my stomach had had enough, and I threw in the towel before the possibility of throwing in something far more unpleasant arose.

A little about the Cyberster, then. MG's electric, scissor-doored roadster, priced at ₹ 74.99 lakh (ex-showroom), has a 77-kWh battery, and a dual-motor AWD setup, putting out 503 bhp and 74 kgm, both extremely impressive numbers. MG says a 0-100-kph sprint takes 3.2 seconds, and a claimed 580-km range is on offer, which will likely be closer to 400 km with enthusiastic driving. It's one of two cars sold through MG's Select dealerships, and it's a pretty bold effort to revive MG's storied sportscar legacy, while also firing a few shots at cars like the BMW Z4, and even the Kia EV6. My time with it was very short - three laps on the BIC and a round and a half of the autocross/slalom/figure-of-8 course in the parking lot — but it was enough to form initial impressions of this rather tasty-looking EV.