A car that made me happy: Danny Kushmaro with the closest thing to a teenage dream

And then we got stuck in the middle of the desert again.

It happened almost thirty years ago. My friend Rotem fulfilled a dream and spent almost all his money on a two-seater, mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive roadster in bright red—the MGF—and it was dazzling. It was so beautiful, and he was so in love, that he even gave it a nickname, “Vivi,” after its VVC engine, which produced 145 horsepower—a crazy number at the time.

But that love story turned into a nightmare. As beautiful as it was, it caused trouble, and the desire to drive south and show off along the long desert road to Eilat became an exhausting ordeal lasting hours. Every few kilometers, we had to stop, open the hood to cool down Vivi, who was boiling over. A trip that started at noon ended somewhere around midnight.

That was my first MG experience, completely different from the red lady sitting here now. Which doesn’t even have an engine. I mean, one that drinks gasoline.

Meet the MG Cyberster—a play on the word “Roadster,” probably the only electric roadster currently in serial production and, in fact, one of the first in history if you ignore the rare and expensive Tesla Roadster that went out of production.

First of all—before anything else—you can’t stop looking at it. This is not a car for shy people who hide away. This is one that demands attention wherever it goes. Cameras better be ready.

The design—and it shows—comes from a workshop in London, England, and with the small sticker celebrating the brand’s 100th anniversary, it truly takes exciting inspiration from classic cars: A long hood, a short raised tail, all in bright red with various air intakes that don’t actually feed any engine, shiny calipers on 20-inch wheels, an electrically opening roof, and to really go overboard, gullwing doors that open with a remote control. Well, maybe the Chinese had a hand in that.

Inside awaits an impressive and high-quality cabin focused mainly on the driver—a console designed for the driver, with four angled screens in the driver’s line of sight. Everything is compact and within reach while sitting on comfortable seats—though without significant side support—and behind them, enough space for a small bag. The rear-only trunk fits only a small suitcase, but let’s hit the road!

And this is what acceleration lovers will do first: Find a good, clean straight, set the drive mode to Sport, press the red “Boost” button on the steering wheel, gas and brake together until all systems are charged—and then launch. Let’s go, chaos.

510 horsepower and 74 kg·m in the all-wheel-drive version (there’s also a cheaper rear-wheel-drive version with 340 hp) are enormous power, launching this little car so fiercely that it fulfills every possible cliché: Bending asphalt, jumping in time, tightening your stomach, moving your brain inside your skull—it’s all true, and it’s a pleasure that surprises every time, making you want to do it again and again.

Out of curiosity, I checked—the little Chinese car sprints to 100 km/h in just over three seconds, two seconds faster than the car of my teenage dreams, the Ferrari Testarossa with its 12 cylinders and insane price tag at least ten times higher. And it still achieves a real range of around 400 km between charges.

But life isn’t just zero to one hundred—remember when they lied to us—there’s more: The gullwing doors, once you get used to them, work perfectly, even if it takes another second and a half to exit the car. The roof opens and closes impressively at speeds up to 50 km/h, so you can close it even in traffic, while driving. It turns out it performed well in the wind tunnel: With the roof open, it maintains relative quiet in the cabin, and the suspension handles Israel’s bumpy roads well—certainly for a car of this type.

Pressing the pedal triggers a pleasant, aggressive “engine sound” coming, of course, from the premium sound system. The steering wheel pedals can alternate between regenerative braking and custom, sport, or comfort driving modes, and overall, the steering feels excellent—heavy just enough and highly connected.

Things get a bit tricky when you push the car to its limits—sharp, fast corners reveal understeer, and the batteries highlight its relative weight, almost 2 tons in this version. In extreme acceleration reaching high speeds, the steering feels less connected to the tires. This is a car with immense power, and with great power comes great responsibility; anyone buying it must practice to understand its limits—and their own.

But these seem like minor complaints. This is more a GT than a pure sports car, less track-focused and more lifestyle-oriented, yet it revives a rare kind of open-top experience slowly disappearing from our automotive lives.

The Porsche 718 Boxster and BMW Z4 are now much more expensive, the Mazda Miata has aged and no longer meets European standards, and Audi TT and Mercedes SLK stopped production because cars sold in relatively small numbers simply don’t yield enough profit for manufacturers. Today’s buyers want something else—lots of interior space, a high SUV seating position with air conditioning to block the outside air and environment. And they don’t really want to drive.

But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with humanity. On the contrary.

Because I love roadsters.

When you fold back the roof on a cool evening, on an open road far from the city, and the scents of fields and nature enter your nostrils, the wind blowing through your hair, accelerations bringing bursts of laughter, the right music in the speakers, and someone you love beside you—these moments form a kind of happiness that few cars, if any, can provide.

And this little Chinese Cyberster fulfills the most important task of a roadster: It can make you a little happier, bring a smile to your face.

MG was a British manufacturer in a glorious era when the London-based empire led the global car and motorcycle industry (and controlled a quarter of the planet).

It all began 101 years ago, in 1924, when the Morris Garages workshops in Oxford started promoting their own versions of Morris cars, which were always two-seater open models, peaking in success during the 1960s with the T-series, and later the MGA, and primarily the MGB.

Most British manufacturers collapsed since the 1990s and passed into foreign hands. Bentley is now owned by Volkswagen, Rolls-Royce (and Mini) by BMW, Lotus by the Chinese Geely, and Land Rover and Jaguar by India’s Tata.

MG also faced numerous changes in ownership: Leyland, Rover, Austin, Rover-Austin, even briefly BMW, until they gave up and sold the loss-making MG-Rover group for the symbolic and embarrassing sum of ten pounds.

In 2005, the company went bankrupt independently, and Shanghai Automotive SAIC acquired the rights to the MG name and some models. SAIC, state-owned with over 200,000 employees, collaborates with many foreign manufacturers for cars made in China for the Chinese market, and also owns Maxus vans and electric trucks, sold in Israel as well, including the eTerron9, which was tested here on Israeli roads.

+ Design, quality, performance, driving experience

– Road behavior