Highlights Incredibly rare 320bhp, 4.6-litre V8 Manual gearbox Especially low mileage In excellent condition both inside and out Fresh MOT Factory-fitted Scorpion Track exhaust Overview There's left field and then there's the MG XPower SV, a lairy, V8-powered sports car that looked mean, went like a scalded cat and took everyone by surprise back in the early 2000s.

MG Rover had already hinted at a return to performance-oriented machines with the release of the ZR, ZS and ZT models – based on the Rover 25, 45 and 75 respectively – but nobody could have predicted the level of excitement that the XPower SV would garner.

Imagined as a flagship sports car replacement for the MG-F, the SV debuted in 2003 and was a reworking of the lesser spotted Qvale Mangusta (basically the charred remains of De Tomaso), the assets of which the Phoenix Consortium (who owned the MG Rover Group) had purchased in order to develop a new performance model.

With the underpinnings secured MG handed the crayons ...