Project Kimber, a consortium headed by David James in conjunction with automotive consultancy de Montford of Solihull, says it is working on a fully-funded business plan to build sports cars in the UK or eastern Europe.

The consortium says it is working to acquire elements of the MG Rover and Powertrain in administration ‘which are unique and neither involve any MG Rover or Powertrain products nor the use of the Longbridge production site’.

Project Kimber submitted two unsuccessful bids, totalling £40m, to buy parts of the collapsed carmaker.

Project Kimber member and controller of de Montfort of Solihull, Barrie Wills said: "We are now in detailed discussions with representatives of two alternative production sites in separate regions of UK, and of one within an Eastern European member state of the European Union.

"Each of the three sites offers attractive, albeit different benefits. The representatives are keen to assist our plan to assemble specialist sports cars and contract build niche vehicles for third party car manufacturers in the style of Valmet of Finland and Magna Steyr of Austria, recognising that - whilst there is overcapacity in volume car manufacture across the European Union, there is a severe shortage of niche vehicle production capacity and management skills."

Wills said his management team, comprising former Lotus, Land Rover, Jaguar, McLaren Mercedes and Rolls-Royce managers remains intact.

At the same time, Wills stressed that having stepped back from the Longbridge opportunity following the deal between PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nanjing Auto, he remains available should the joint administrators or other interested parties decide that contact with him and his team could be of mutual benefit.