It’s been nearly twenty years since MG produced a sports car (in the UK, at least), but the Chinese brand has taken to the drawn-out 21st-century unveiling process like an aromatic duck to water. We’ve had the wild concept, the less wild concept, a pre-production car – and, now, just ahead of the production model’s global debut at Goodwood later this week, a more detailed preview of what the actual interior will look like. 

And the news is pretty good. To be fair, we’d already spied the final cabin from a distance when MG revealed the Cyberster in Shanghai – but this is the first time, courtesy of the firm’s Chinese social media channel, it has indulged us with close-up shots. They reveal that (to everyone’s relief, surely) the silly yoke has gone, replaced with a conventional steering wheel. Ahead of that, you get the obligatory vast, curved screen, which advances into the centre console. 

There is an additional display in the centre stack, flanked by gear selector switches and some fairly chunky controls for the cloth roof and those striking scissor doors. Fans of beverages will note a brace of cupholders; fans of driving briskly will no doubt have spotted the red button marked ‘Super’. Obviously, at this stage, no one knows quite what that signifies (MG is still keeping the final technical details fairly close to its chest) but we can be reasonably certain that it means something transformationally sporty in the setup. 

It would also be appropriately titled if the long-rumoured suggestion of up to 545hp in the dual-motor version comes true. Regardless, the Cyberster’s cabin, much like the rest of the car, makes a decent first impression. There’s a hint of F-Type about its layout courtesy of the prominent grab handle, but clearly it has cut its own idiosyncratic path to implied sportiness (good-looking seats, too) which is precisely what you want. Now we just need to see the finished car in the flesh. Thankfully, there’s not long to wait now.